James Lucas Condon turned his passion for cars and camera into a platform that now funds some of the rarest cars on the planet. Known online as TheStradMan, he has spent years sharing his passion for hypercars with millions. His latest move shows just how far that success reaches. He commissioned Bugatti to create a one-off W16 Mistral called Fly Bug, the fourth car in a series built around insects from the natural world.
Gordon Murray’s goal was to create a race car for the track that prioritizes driver connection above all else. This culminated in the GMA T.50s Niki Lauda, a beast of a car that recently demonstrated its capabilities at the Bahrain International Circuit by lapping it faster than any other GT3 race car has ever done.
Richard Hammond slid into the driver’s seat of BYD’s Yangwang U9 Xtreme with a good mix of caution and exhilaration. With a top speed of 308 miles per hour, this Chinese hypercar had already broken the manufacturing speed record. Its four electric motors together produced an astounding nearly 3,000 horsepower. He was well-versed in the specification sheet, which included a 1,200-volt battery system, torque vectoring, adaptive suspension capable of lifting the vehicle over obstacles, and much more.
Ferrari’s F355 arrived in 1994 as one of the most devastating mid-engined vehicles ever built, with its 3.5-liter V8 screaming all the way to an 8500-rpm redline and giving a quick, snappy response via a manual transmission as slick as a hot knife through butter. Even now, owners rave about the sound and how the car comes alive around every bend. Evoluto Automobili is taking that solid base and completely overhauling it to bring it into the 21st century.
Karma Automotive finally gets some attention after years of quietly building some under the radar luxury automobiles while the major names grab the news. Now they’re taking the next step with something truly groundbreaking: their planned all-electric supercar, the Kaveya, will be the first passenger vehicle in the United States to be manufactured with solid-state battery technology, and it will be used in production.
A Korean auto collector was inspired to make a one-of-a-kind Ferrari 12Cilindri, combining the Italian company’s speed and style with his homeland’s rich workmanship. Through Ferrari’s bespoke Tailor Made program, the car was crafted on both sides of the world for nearly two years, with a team from Cool Hunting, co-founders Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten, collaborating with Ferrari’s design team and a group of South Korean artists to put their own stamp on every single detail.
Photo credit: Otsuka Maxwell Design
Officina Moto D’Epoca, a San Diego shop also known as OMD or Otsuka Maxwell Design, transformed a 1987 Ferrari 412 into a one-of-a-kind vehicle. An American collector commissioned the project and invested his heart and pocketbook in it; a cool $1.8 million and 5,000+ hours later, the beast was created. Over 500 handcrafted elements were included into the vehicle, combining the classic lines of the Ferrari with the raw power of a contemporary supercar.
Encor Design unveiled its first creation last week, a car that took the Lotus Esprit from the realm of nostalgia and dropped it solidly in the present. Meet the Series I, a restomod that combines the crisp lines of the ’75 original with the power of a late-model V8 – all encased in a carbon-fiber shell so light you’d assume it was being towed by a helium balloon. Fifty years after Giorgetto Giugiaro’s wedge first drew attention at the Paris Motor Show, a small team of ex-Lotus engineers has managed to design a car that honors every curve of its predecessor while also resolving every significant problem.
Marques Brownlee, popularly known as MKBHD, put his hands around the Xiaomi SU7 Max’s leather steering wheel and eased onto the pavement just outside a nondescript office building. In China, this 4-door costs $42000 and has 673 horsepower from dual motors, a 101kwh battery that claims 320 miles of range, and can accelerate like a real supercar.
Toyota has recently revealed details about the GR GT, a two-seater that appears to be straight out of the company’s performance playbook. A front-engine supercar at a time when Toyota’s Gazoo racing squad has spent years fine-tuning cars like the Supra and GR Yaris, the GR GT takes it to the next level. It strikes a balance between being able to drive to the stores and having enough grip and speed to necessitate the presence of a nearby track.