With the invention of the automobile came the desire for speed. Vehicles quickly evolved from practical to sporty to satisfy the desires of those that wanted to race. The first sports cars started to appear at the latter end of the 1940’s. Lotus, Ferrari, Jaguar and Porsche all had sporting road car designs. When you bring to mind today’s supercars you think of sleek design, high speed, high power and even higher price tags and the sports vehicles of the 1940’s were the first steps towards today’s technological wonders. Throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s the performance of sports automobiles progressed. 1954 saw the arrival of the Meredes 300 SL Gullwing – the first road car to reach over 150mph. It was capable of a top speed of 165mph and is now considered by many to be one of the all time classic road cars. The Gullwing was first shown at the 1954 New York Motor Show and it enthralled the public imagination. It has distinctive ‘gull wing’ doors and is made from a lightweight aluminium body. The Gullwing had a 3 litre engine and 240bhp, and in its day was the fastest production car available.

1400 Gullwings were built between 1954 and 1957. The design was superceded by the open Roadster version. It was Ford that created what many people believe to be the first supercar. Their GT40 made its debut at the Nurburgring in 1964 but it wasn’t until 1966 that Ford took their place in American racing history by finishing Le Mans in the top three positions, beating Ferrari. The GT40 has now won more top class races than any other road racing automobile in history. The Lamborghini Miura made supercar history because it was the first production vehicle to feature a mid-mounted engine (normally only seen on F1 cars). It looked so different to any road vehicle that had come before. The Miura was unveiled to the world in 1965 at the Turin Auto Show by Ferrucio Lamborghini himself and was named after Spanish fighting bulls due to the aggressive body styling. In terms of pure speed, after the 150mph title was claimed, 200 mph was the next great speed target to beat. The prize for that went to the Ferrari F40 – the last vehicle to be commissioned by Enzo Ferrari (and revealed on Ferrari’s 40th birthday). The F40 was available between 1987 and 1992. Its top speed was 201mph and it managed 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds. The F40 is thought by many to be the greatest supercar of all. The price of an F40 reached more than half a million pounds during the late 1980’s and even now is holding its price well. The world’s fastest production car to date is the SSC Ultimate Aero TT (made by Shelby Supercars) which has a top speed of 257mph. The Guiness World record run clocked the car in at 255.8mph. The 2009 version can reach speeds of 270mph and is reported to accelerate from 0-60mph in 2.7 seconds!

Modern technology has granted the creation of some amazing cars. They have come a long way but are not yet at the peak of design ability so it remains to be seen what the automobiles of the future wow us with.

For a opportunity to get behind the wheel of a Lamborghini today you can do a web search for Lamborghini hire Herfordshire, Lamborghini hire London or another geographical type search to find a super vehicle hire place near you.

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