Race Cars for the Road Make No Sense

The Mercedes-AMG ONE and Aston Martin Valkyrie are mechanical marvels and terrible cars.

Mercedes
The new Mercedes-AMG ONE. Mercedes

It’s 2013, Porsche, McLaren, and LaFerrari have all released what they think is the most incredible supercar ever made. Each cost millions of dollars. Each was extremely rare. Each had close to a thousand horsepower through a V8 paired with a complex hybrid system. And all of them were incredible. The McLaren P1 was the track day savage; the LaFerrari was the lithe, sleek ultimate Ferrari; and the 918 was the perfectly composed ultimate Porsche, with curved headlights and up-firing exhausts. On the track, each was a masterpiece, but reviewers and owners noted that they are also eminently drivable on ordinary streets, which is where most owners would be driving them anyway.

Or, were they to drive their cars, it would be on the road. Collectors spend more than $1.5 million as an investment, not a commuter vehicle, so you’ll find more P1s with less than ten miles on the odometer than you will find examples with more than 10,000. Given their performance, that’s pretty heart-breaking, but one will occasionally burble past you as you walk through Singapore, Los Angeles, or London, and it’ll make your day.

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