The best hypercars of 2024

Ferrari F80

The Ferrari F80 is the company's once-in-a-decade hypercar and an 80^th birthday present to itself that provides a broadband connection to the company's motorsport endeavours – both at Le Mans and in Formula 1 – in a car you can buy and use on the road. They're all sold, and even if they weren't, they cost £3.1 million each. Yikes. 

Pretty the F80 isn't, not conventionally anyway. Ferrari refers to the styling as "Beauty in the truth," truth because the F80's is designed to manipulate the air, not look good. It produces up to 1,000kg of downforce thanks to a huge duct in the bonnet that brings air up over the car's windscreen and over the massive adjustable spoiler at the rear.

The adjustable suspension (with 48V actuators and beautifully organic 3D printed suspension arms) automatically keeps the car at the correct height for maximum aero efficiency, and Ferrari even compromised the interior. It has staggered seats, freeing up space for venturi tunnels in the floor to duct air around the passenger compartment and out through the massive rear diffuser. 

Along with cornering performance, you get serious thrust. Power comes from a 3.0-litre twin e-turbocharged V6 that produces 900PS (622kW) or 1,200PS (883kW) when you factor in the car's three electric motors (one each on the front axle – making the F80 four-wheel drive – and another bolted directly to the engine). It's enough to fire the 1,525kg (dry) Ferrari from 0-62mph in 2.1 seconds, 0-124mph in 5.75 seconds and onto a top speed of 217mph. Factor in the carbon fibre tub 5 per cent lighter than the LaFerrari’s, but with 50 per cent more torsional rigidity, and you have a new hypercar that can lap Ferrari's Fiorino test track 4.4 seconds quicker than the car it replaces. 

McLaren W1

Much like the Ferrari F80, the McLaren W1 isn't all about power and performance (although it has plenty of both). Again, the car's downforce takes centre stage. Like a McLaren Formula 1 car, the W1 uses ground effect to produce 1,000kg of downforce. That comes thanks to a raised carbon fibre tub that lifts the pedal box and squeezes the passenger space, leaving enough space for air to duct in the front of the car, shepherd it around the passenger cell and out the back of the car's massive rear diffuser.

The rear spoiler can extend by 300mm to increase the size of the diffuser, and the car's 'flow director' – that's the thing on the roof that looks a bit like a flat periscope – keeps the air close to the vehicle, sending it down to the top side of the spoiler. The W1 is quicker around a track than the Senna but accelerates faster than a Speedtail. 

The W1 might look like any other McLaren from a distance, but getting up close reveals all kinds of aero trickery. McLaren even made the wing mirrors asymmetrical, and the gullwing doors aren't there for style; they’re used to avoid needing hinges behind the front wheels, an aerodynamicist nightmare, apparently. 

Power comes from what sounds like a familiar source: a twin-turbocharged V8. But it's an all-new, all-aluminium V8 that weighs just 200kg and is boosted by an electric motor, which sends its power directly to the gearbox, for a total system output of 1,274PS (937kW) and 1,340Nm (988lb ft) of torque. The McLaren's performance is impressive enough as it is, getting from 0-62mph in 2.7 seconds and 0-124mph in 5.7, but it's even better when you realise it's traction-limited because it is rear-wheel drive. Stopping is jaw-dropping, getting from 124mph to 0 in 100m thanks to peak downforce of 1,298kg.

Porsche Mission X

The Mission X was touted as a concept, but it's a (not) very well-kept secret that it's set to be Porsche's new all-electric hypercar, aiming to be the fastest road car around the Nürburgring, with a bit of help from fast electric specialists, Rimac. 

Porsche says the Mission X has more downforce than a GT3 RS (860kg), but what is likely to excite everyone – even people who can't afford hypercars – is the Mission X's 900V architecture charging speeds, allowing it to recharge at twice the speed of a Porsche Taycan. Technology you can be sure will trickle down to more humdrum machines, like the Taycan.

Porsche is claiming 1:1 performance, meaning the car has 1PS (0.7kW) for every kg, so expect a total of 1,500PS (1,103kW). Four-wheel drive combined with instantaneous electric thrust means the Mission X is likely to accelerate faster than any other car here.

One possible reason the Mission X isn't yet on sale is, according to some experts, the market's apparent disinterest in electric hypercars, which band about crazy performance figures but lack the driver engagement demanded from buyers. Porsche doesn't usually have a problem selling rare hypercars, and if anyone can make a hyperEV handle great, it's Porsche.   

Pagani Utopia

If you're the type that longs for an old-school hypercar in the shape of the Ferrari F40 or the McLaren F1, then the Utopia could be your, eh, ‘utopia’. Horacio Pagani doesn't want to hear about hybridisation or electrification, both are out the window in a single-minded pursuit of building the purest hypercar going.

As a result, with a mere 852PS (627kW), the Utopia is the least powerful car on this list, but who cares when that ‘paltry’ power figure comes from a gloriously spine-tingling 6.0-litre, twin-turbocharged Mercedes-AMG V12. There's even the option of a manual gearbox.

As usual, the Pagani is as much a moving and driving sculpture as it is a car. On the outside, you get to gawp at the car's carbon fibre and titanium body, which gives it a 1,280kg kerb weight, while lifting the bonnet reveals the engineering art of its mechanicals, from its elegant subframe to its engine and ceramic-coated exhaust. 

Even inside, the Utopia is very special. Quality is beyond what you'll find in any other car here, and you get talking points like the periscope-style air vents that sprout out the dashboard like snail’s eyes and the car's beautifully mechanical exposed gear linkage. Even the analogue dials, which are more like an expensive chronograph watch, are something to delight in. This leaves us with just one question – anyone got a few million to spare?

Lamborghini Revuelto

The Lamborghini Revuelto almost looks like an evolution of the old Aventador, which is no bad thing because the Aventador was stunning, and the Revuelto is even more so when you take in the finer details like its lightning bolt air intake and chopped tail. It doesn't have the otherworldly appearance of some of the other cars on this list, but as it is instantly recognisable as a Lamborghini, maybe that is no bad thing. 

Under the skin, though, this is a far more sophisticated car than the model it replaces. It has three electric motors for starters, one for each front wheel and another for torque filling the engine. It also has an electric range of five miles, and the electric motor deals with going backwards rather than using a reverse gear.

All of this means your outrageously speedy Lamborghini can manoeuvre out of a parking space and silently get out of earshot of the neighbourhood. Wherein, it can transform back into the type of Lamborghini we know and love – a fire-spitting 986PS (725kW) monster that can accelerate from 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and keep on going until it hits 218mph.

Only it's even better than that. Where the Aventador could feel cumbersome and stubbornly set in its ways, the Revuelto drives like a smaller car than it is, giving you the confidence to go maximum attack. It's even, relatively speaking, a bargain – it's £447,000 asking price is mere pocket change in the context of this list. 

Aston Martin Valhalla 

Aston Martin has been making shakes in the world of Formula 1 with the recent signing of an aerodynamicist Yoda, also known as Adrian Newey, and it will soon complete the circle with the Aston Martin Valhalla road car – the closest thing Aston has to an F1 car for the road.

Like Alonso’s ride, the Valhalla is mid-engined, uses hybrid power and has active aerodynamics that deliver up to 600kg of downforce, making it one of the most extreme Aston's ever made. But only some things are carried over from the firm's open-wheeler. Instead of the F1 car's puny V6, you'll find the twin-turbocharged flat-plane crank V8 from the Mercedes AMG-GT Black Series.

This, hooked up to a pair of electric motors, produces a total system output of 1,000PS (735kW), suitable for 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and a top speed of 217mph. But, like in the best tradition of the latest hypercars, it can also drive for up to eight miles at speeds of up to 80mph using electric power. 

The Aston's carbon fibre tub helps it to a dry weight of 1,550kg and the car features pushrod front suspension and dihedral doors. And the price? With the Valkyrie taking up pole position in the AM food chain carrying a £2.5 million ticket, the Valhalla is set to start from a (slightly) more modest £600,000.