When hyper sports cars were still available for six figures
I can still remember the days when (almost) all super sports cars were sold for less than 100,000 francs, and for years afterwards the six figures were considered a kind of sound barrier that only very few exceptional cars could beat.
But then came the 1980s and with them a new breed of sports cars that eclipsed everything that had gone before, including in terms of price. The Porsche 959 already cost DM or CHF 420,000, the Ferrari F40 even more, at least in DM. The Jaguar XJ120, the fastest production sports car at the time, scratched the million mark, more or less depending on the exchange rate.
This was followed in the mid-nineties by the first real cracker, the McLaren F1, which cost around one million USD, the equivalent of around DM 1.4 million (or perhaps EUR 716,000 today).
In the years that followed, cars such as the Porsche Carrera GT or the Ferrari anniversary models F50 and Enzo were priced well into six figures, at least in euros. Pagani's sports cars could also be bought in the mid-six-figure euro range (today, the same models are auctioned for millions).
But finally, in the mid-2000s, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 came onto the market, costing a whopping EUR 1.16 million.
From then on, it seems, there was no stopping it. The McLaren P1 also wanted to be priced at seven figures, Ferrari did not want to be left behind with La Ferrari, and special Bugatti models soon cost many times more. Others no longer had to hold back either, and eventually it became good manners to demand EUR 2 million or more for the next hyper sports car.
And these sums were paid. At the same time as prices were rising, however, everyday practicality and usability in traffic also suffered. Excessive width and extremely confusing bodies, hardly any ground clearance and minimal bank angles as well as other restrictions prevented the cars from actually being driven much. And so most of these hyper sports cars ended up in underground garages and vault-like drying rooms until they came back onto the market with a few hundred kilometers on the clock, but at a price that was even higher than when they were bought. Brave new world!
For those who no longer have all the prices from back then, here is a small excerpt. The DM prices were converted into euro prices at the fixed exchange rate.
| Vehicle | Year | DM price | Price EUR | Price CHF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porsche 959 | 1988 | 420'000 | 215'000 | 420'000 |
| Ferrari F40 | 1988 | 444'000 | 227'000 | 370'000 |
| Jaguar XJ220 | 1993 | 1'033'000 | 528'000 | 945'000 |
| Bugatti EB110 | 1993 | 690'000 | 352'000 | 542'500 |
| McLaren F1 | 1995 | 1'400'000 | 716'000 | |
| Ferrari F50 | 1995 | 756'000 | 385'000 | 53'5000 |
| Ferrari Enzo | 2003 | 645'000 | ||
| Porsche Carrera GT | 2003 | 452'690 | ||
| Pagani Zonda F Roadster | 2005 | 557'960 | 965'000 | |
| Bugatti Veyron 16.4 | 2005 | 1'160'000 | ||
| McLaren P1 | 2013 | 1'100'000 |
