The best supercars of the last century

Bentley’s formidable 4½ Litre arrived in 1927 to give Bugatti and Lorraine-Dietrich a run for their money in the Le Mans 24 Hours, and it didn’t take long for the car to have an impact on the French endurance race. In 1928, the 4½ Litre reigned supreme at Le Mans, although its competitive record elsewhere wasn’t exactly glowing. To give the 4½ Litre some extra bite, Bentley engineer Amherst Villiers produced and fitted his own supercharger to the engine, and thus the Blower was born. Just 55 Blower models were produced, and while they weren’t famed for their reliability or agility, they were incredibly fast for their time. Legendary racer Sir Tim Birkin got behind the wheel of a Blower in the 1930 French Grand Prix and narrowly lost out to a Bugatti Type 35.  

There are rare cars in the world, and then there’s the Bugatti Type 57SC. A variant of the 1934 Type 57S, just two models were built brand new with a supercharger fitted – one in 1936 and the other in 1938. Yet while there were more than two SCs on the road in pre-war Europe, the vast majority of them were due to 57S owners craving additional power and sending their cars back to Bugatti’s factory in Molsheim, France, for supercharger installation. In 2010, the estate of late car collector Dr Peter D Williamson sold the 1936 57SC to the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, for an eye-watering $40m. The 1938 model is believed to be worth even more and is currently owned by Ralph Lauren.

The XK120 was a massive hit for Jaguar when it was unveiled at the 1948 London Motor Show, and the British brand wasted no time in putting it into production to cater for overwhelming demand. In fact, such was the public desire for the XK120, Jaguar was forced to mass-produce its roadsters with steel bodies in 1950 and ditch the original aluminium, hand-built set-up. More than 12,000 XK120s were made over its eight-year lifespan, and it had a hugely successful competition career, not to mention breaking numerous speed records in that time. The most notable was the World Land Speed Record in 1953, when Norman Dewis drove a modified XK120 at 173.159mph on Belgium’s Jabbeke highway.

 The Mercedes 300SL ‘Gullwing’ was the first iteration of the SL-Class and the inaugural production fuel-injection car. It started life as a racing car in 1952 under the name W194, but after New York Mercedes distributor Max Hoffmann suggested that it would prove a popular production car to Daimler-Benz, an iconic racer for the street was born. The two-seat coupé featured distinctive gullwing doors and a luxurious leather interior – it oozed class. Although more than 60 years old, the 300SL’s legacy lives on; its spiritual successor, the SLS AMG supercar, features similar gullwing doors.

In many people’s eyes this is the iconic modern-day supercar. Completely rewriting the rule book when it was launched 50 years ago, the Miura laid down the supercar blueprint with its mid-engined set-up. It was far more than just a layout pioneer, though, as the Miura was the fastest production car in the world upon its release. It set new standards for speed – capable of completing 0-62mph in 6.7 seconds and hitting a whopping 173mph top speed. Not to mention playing starring roles in movies including that fateful opening scene in The Italian Job. Lamborghini enjoyed further Miura success with the 350hp Miura S and Miura SV before production ceased in 1973.

Having learned plenty about turbocharging on the race track, Porsche decided 1975 was the year to unleash its first-ever turbocharged road car: the 911 Turbo. With 260hp from the 3.0-litre turbocharged flat-six, it was hugely fast, capable of reaching 60mph in 5.2 seconds and 155mph flat out. At the time, that was Ferrari and Lamborghini performance, from a car that had the bonus of a front boot and two rear seats. The handling was as thrilling as ever – perhaps a bit too thrilling if you happened to lift off in the middle of a corner – but with its flared arches, and huge ‘whaletail’ rear spoiler, it looked the part and became an instant icon that lasted all the way to 1989. 

The first production car to achieve more than 200mph, the F40 was also the last Ferrari to be personally signed off by Enzo himself. To say it was a hit would be an understatement: production was to be limited to 400 models, but the public demanded more and Ferrari ended up giving in – and producing more than 1,300. Upon launch, the F40 was the fastest, most powerful car Ferrari had ever produced, its 478bhp 2.9-litre twin-turbo V8 blasting the 1,369kg machine from 0-60mph in four seconds and on to a top speed of 201mph. With cable pulls instead of door handles and exterior paint so thin you could see the weave of the carbon fibre, everything about the F40 was stripped back and totally raw – and it all added to the charm. Priced at princely £163,000 back in 1987, concours examples are valued at around the £1m mark today.

Gold leaf as an engine heat shield, a three-seat layout and the ability to reach 200mph in 28 seconds, the F1 is still regarded as the ultimate supercar. The brainchild of genius engineer Gordon Murray, it was staggeringly light at 1,138kg – thanks in no small part to its stunning Peter Stevens-penned carbon fibre body – and with a bespoke BMW-designed 627bhp, 6.1-litre V12, its performance far surpassed all other period supercars. With absolutely no driver aids at all, not even an airbag or anti-lock brakes, it was about as pure as it was possible to be. The F1’s top speed ‘record’ of 243mph – with the rev limiter removed – may have grabbed headlines at the time, but it’s the single-mindedness of the whole design that’s still the most remarkable thing about this all-time great. 

It was always going to take something really pretty special to outgun the McLaren F1, but Bugatti’s ferocious Veyron was the world’s first ever ‘hypercar’ and it left the iconic British sports car in its wake in 2005. Where the F1 was pure, the Veyron was stupendously complex, as exemplified by its 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 engine. It produced an astonishing 1,001bhp and delivered 1,250Nm of torque, so few people were surprised when it completely smashed the world record pace for a production car. The original Veyron rocketed to 253.81mph, before five years later, in 2010, a special Super Sport edition went one better and was clocked at 257.87mph. The Veyron spawned a roofless version as well as countless special editions, and still certainly stands out today as an absolute triumph of engineering might over physics.  

We’ve entered a new era now – the hybrid hypercar – and when LaFerrari arrived in 2013, the prancing horse found the formula for success right away. Following on from the scintillating Enzo, LaFerrari pairs a 6.3-litre V12 engine with a KERS battery pack for a whopping output of 963bhp. Big power – but also big involvement too, with a scintillating engine note and razor sharp responses. With a 217mph maximum speed, Ferrari has stepped away from the battle for ludicrous top speeds – all the better for it we say – and incredibly LaFerrari’s consumption is better than the Enzo’s by 40%, if you care about such frivolity. For those who like their experience even more raw, there’s the more powerful, track-exclusive FXX-K in 2014, while a convertible Aperta model has also recently been revealed. Roll on the next century of supercars.