Who wouldn’t want to drive an exotic car like the ones on these pages? Well, someone who wants to remain inconspicuous. “These cars have an effect on people, and not just the drivers,” says Noah Lehmann-Haupt, speaking of exotic cars in general and the Ferraris and Lamborghinis that his company, Gotham Dream Cars, rents to its customers in New York and Miami. “Pedestrians and other passersby look at you when you get out of one of these cars, and people love that.”

The attention-getting nature of exotics is certainly part of their appeal, says Jon Boardman, the sales manager of O’Gara Coach Co., a luxury car dealership in Beverly Hills, Calif., that recently hosted a supercar showcase featuring a Pagani Zonda, a Koenigsegg CCXR, and a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport. (O’Gara is an authorized dealer for Bugatti as well as Lamborghini.)  “People do buy these cars because they want to be seen,” says Boardman, speaking of the exotics as well as the Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, and Aston Martins that O’Gara sells. “But I think the majority of people buy them because they can. They’re actually reliable cars. Ten or 15 years ago, some of them weren’t the most reliable cars on the road, but now they are. So you can stand out with them when you’re in public, and you can drive them every day without any issues.”
 
In other words, an exotic car, in addition to being very fast and quite flashy, can even be practical.

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport
Base price: $2 million
Performance: 1,001 hp quad-turbo W-16; zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds; top speed of 253 mph
Cachet: This car inspires breathless hyperbole like no other car does. Case in point: Evidently the 2010 Car of the Year title was not an adequate honor to bestow upon the Grand Sport. So instead the editors at our sister publication Robb Report dubbed it the Car of the Decade. But can you think of a car that’s more deserving of that title?
Caveat: Let’s see, well, um, it’s not quite fast enough to hold a Guinness World Record. (See Ultimate Aero, page 16.)

Gumpert Apollo Sport
Base price: $600,000 (estimated)
Performance: 750 hp twin-turbocharged V-8; zero to 60 mph in 3.0 seconds; top speed of 224 mph
Cachet: At the end of last summer, the Apollo Sport earned an A+ in the acid test for performance: It set what the automaker claimed was a new lap record for a street-legal production car on Germany’s Nürburgring-Nordschleife by completing the circuit in 7:11.57. That time was almost four seconds faster than what Gumpert considered to be the previous record.
Caveat: Radical Sportscars’ Radical SR8 ran a 6:55 lap five years ago, and a Radical SR8 LM completed a 6:48 lap a week after the Apollo’s record-setting performance. Evidently Gumpert doesn’t consider those vehicles street-legal production cars. Also, the Nürburgring-tested version of the Apollo Sport is not street legal in the United States. But you can buy—and drive—a standard-version, 700 hp Apollo here, at Evolution MotorSports in Tempe, Ariz.

Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SuperVeloce
Base price: $458,000
Performance: 661 hp V-12; zero to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds; top speed of 213 mph
Cachet: If the introduction of a SuperVeloce edition marks the end of the line for the Murciélago, as it did with the Diablo, then Lamborghini has saved the best for last. The SV has 29 more horsepower than the LP640, and it’s 220 pounds lighter. The extra power and lighter weight account in large part for the car’s phenomenal performance figures.
Caveat: Lamborghini is building only 350 examples of the SuperVeloce, so the car offers exclusivity, but not as much as the China Limited Edition does. Lamborghini is making only 10 of those. The car’s paint scheme features an orange stripe running the length of the flat gray–painted carbon fiber body. The stripe is meant to symbolize an erupting volcano. Don’t drive this car in Iceland.

Shelby SuperCars Ultimate Aero
Base price: $600,000 (estimated)
Performance: 1,287 hp V-8; zero to 60 mph in 2.78 seconds; top speed of 257 in testing, 273 mph in theory
Cachet: In 2007 Guinness World Records certified the Ultimate Aero as the world’s fastest production car when it achieved a top speed of 257 mph. The company claims the latest version of the Ultimate Aero could reach 273 mph.
Caveat: Own this car, and there’s a chance you’ll frequently have to explain that Shelby SuperCars has no connection to Carroll Shelby or any of the cars or car companies associated with him, that it was founded a decade ago by Jerod Shelby, a car enthusiast who formerly headed the design department of a medical device company he cofounded in the early 1990s.

Porsche GT3 RS
Base price: $133,000
Performance: 450 hp flat-six; zero to 60
mph in 3.8 seconds; top speed of 193 mph
Cachet: The RS has 15 more horsepower than the standard GT3 and it’s 50 pounds lighter, thanks to such weight-saving features as a titanium exhaust system and a lithium-ion battery.
Caveat: Porsche claims this car is suitable for everyday use, but c’mon; you don’t have to speak German to understand that RS stands for Rennsport, which in Deutsch means racing. With its brazenly shaped carbon fiber rear wing and audacious Guards Red or White Gold Metallic trim, the GT3 RS announces its true purpose. Besides, where exactly would you put the groceries?

McLaren MP4-12C
Base price: $191,000
Performance: 592 hp twin-turbocharged V-8; zero to 124 mph in less than 10 seconds; top speed faster than 200 mph
Cachet: According to McLaren, which plans to begin selling the MP4-12C early next year, the “12” in the car’s name is its rating on the vehicle performance index through which the company judges its own cars as well as its competitors’. While it’s not clear how high on the scale 12 is, presumably it’s even one better than 11.
Caveat: The MP4-12C is McLaren’s first road car since the $1 million F1 (in 2008, one sold for $4.1 million at auction) and the $455,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. So compared to its predecessors, this is the mass-market McLaren.

Koenigsegg Agera
Base price: $950,000
Performance: 910 hp biturbo V-8; zero to 62 mph in 3.1 seconds; top speed of 245 mph
Cachet: Koenigsegg didn’t invest all of its ingenuity in developing the Agera’s power and performance. It saved some for the car’s interior, where it included a new feature that it calls “ghost light,” an interior lighting system that consists of tiny carbon nanotubes. The lighting is hidden until it is turned on, and then it shines through what had appeared to be solid billet aluminum control buttons and surfaces.
Caveat: The Agera’s extra-large rear diffuser helps produce 661 pounds of downforce when the car reaches 155 mph. That increases drag, which in turn slows down the car. Without all that drag the Agera could really fly. Then again, without the diffuser and at its already outrageous top speed, the car just might fly—right off the road.

Pagani Zonda Roadster F
Base price: $781,000
Performance: 650 hp V-12; zero to 62 mph in 3.6 seconds; top speed of 214 mph
Cachet: Pagani bills this car as the fastest, most exclusive, most powerful, and most expensive roadster in the world. The folks who build the Bugatti Grand Sport can counter at least a couple of those claims (price and power), but during an episode of England’s Top Gear, the Roadster F achieved a faster lap time than the Bugatti on the TV program’s test track.
Caveat: During that same Top Gear show,  the Bugatti beat the Roadster F by nearly 2.5 seconds in a quarter-mile drag race.

Ferrari 599 GTO
Base price: $460,000
Performance: 670 hp V-12; zero to 62 mph in 3.32 seconds; top speed faster than 208 mph
Cachet: Based on the 599 GTO’s lap time at the company’s Fiorano test track near Maranello, Ferrari claims that this vehicle, the homologation model of the 599XX racecar, is the fastest road car that it has ever built.
Caveat: Enzo owners might disagree with that fastest-road-car-ever claim, or with the criterion for making it. The GTO may have posted a better Fiorano time, but the Enzo has a recorded top speed of 226 mph and a zero-to-60-mph time of 3.14 seconds.

Hennessey Venom GT
Base price: $600,000
Performance: 1,000 hp twin-turbocharged V-8; zero to 60 mph in 2.2 seconds; top speed of 262 mph
Cachet: If you like the Lotus Elise, you’ll love the Venom GT. It’s a Lotus that’s been stretched and widened at the factory in Silverstone, England, and then shipped to Sealy, Texas, where Hennessey Performance equips the lightweight coupe with its version of the LS9 V-8 engine that powers the Corvette ZR1. The Hennessey engine produces 750 hp (versus 638 hp for the Corvette’s), 1,000 hp, or 1,200 hp.
Caveat: With the purchase of one of the 10 Venoms that Hennessey plans to build each year, the company offers a one-day training program at a U.K. or U.S. track, with instruction from one of Hennessey’s test drivers. The lessons aren’t required, but considering the car’s capabilities, they’re certainly recommended.

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
Base price: $186,000
Performance: 563 hp V-8; zero to 62 mph in 3.8 seconds; top speed 197 mph (electronically governed) 
Cachet: Those who have driven the car say
the doors, as cool as they are, become just an afterthought once you’ve closed them and begin enjoying the driving experience provided by the first bumper-to-bumper AMG-built car from Mercedes.   
Caveat: Drivers have complained that the basic electronic stability control system is overprotective. Don’t kids lodge similar complaints against their parents when told not to play with sharp objects? But if you’re feeling overly coddled by the basic ESC, you can switch to the Sport mode, a fine compromise between too much control and complete chaos.