Supercars That Spoil

Supercars That Spoil
What cars make you feel like a star?

For me, they are speedsters and ultra-luxury vehicles. Nothing compares.

Buyers of ultra-high-end cars have traditionally fallen into one of two camps: performance or luxury. There are the thrill seekers, strapped into million-dollar Bugatti Veyrons, zooming down the autobahn at 200-plus mph. And then there’s the chauffeured set, lounging in the backseats of Rolls-Royce Phantoms while sipping glasses of Cristal, according to MSNBC.

Judging by the latest crop of supercars to hit the market, automakers are betting more big-spenders fall somewhere in between the two extremes. You no longer have to choose between ultra-fast acceleration and hand-stitched comfort. In some new models, you get the best of both worlds.

No car embodies the Goldilocks approach better than Fiat’s Maserati GranTurismo, a supercar that made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show. A sportier update of the four-door Quattroporte, the Pininfarina-designed GranTurismo is more compact and more curvaceous than its predecessor, with a wider grille.

Maserati also wanted to cater to the power-hungry driver by giving it a 4.2-liter V8 engine capable of 405 hp at 7,100 rpm. That produces a top speed of 177 mph and zero-to-62-mph acceleration of 5.2 seconds — not the quickest of the supercar lot, but a first for the luxury nameplate. Drivers aren’t likely to forget they’re inside a $110,000 Maserati, either: The interior is covered with Italian leather, and the trunk has its own set of designer luggage co-branded with Italian luxury design house Salvatore Ferragamo.

In its bid to trump German rivals BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche with an aggressive coupe of its own, Volkswagen’s Audi division in 2007 introduced the R8.

Some carmakers are betting there’s a strong market for the all-out performance supercar. That’s the statement Lamborghini made when it introduced the Reventon at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, the rarest, most expensive, and most powerful car the company has ever produced. Modeled after a stealth fighter jet, the sleek, metallic car has a V12 engine capable of 651 hp. It comes in just below $1.5 million, and only 20 will ever be produced.