The best supercars aren’t just fast. They feel, and look, like they’ve been plucked from a fever dream. Albeit a lucid one where the finest engineers in the world attempt to achieve driving perfection.
The term 'supercar' is a somewhat elastic. Over the years it has stretched to fit all manner of exotica. But at their core, supercars need outrageous power and outlandish design. They need to be impactful, full of drama and somewhat brash.
Apart from that, the definition of a supercar can be loose. No single manufacturer particularly follows a set of rules governing what a supercar is, or is not. Combustion-loving car makers still wage war with a cornucopia of options; naturally aspirated V10s, turbo V6s and flat-plane-crank V8s are ever present, while the Lamborghini Revuelto found on this list even adopts a PHEV V12.
To be crowned the best, though, a supercar must do more than just thrill in a straight line. It has to seduce you at walking pace, whisper promises of greatness, and then deliver in full flight.
The McLaren Artura excels in all these areas, which is why it sits top of this list. Its versatility as a mid-engined supercar is special. It’s usable enough that you could actually drive it every day, yet its all-round driver engagement is better than any other car on sale.
Keep reading to discover our definitive list of the finest supercars you can buy in the UK right now.
Best for: Everyday driving
The Artura has a 3.0-litre V6 and flux electric drive motor that combine to generate 690bhp, making it capable of 0-62mph in 3.2sec. Which is impressive.
The Artura is a car that feels enhanced by the process of electrification – but not totally reinvented by it.
But the reason this big Mc features at the top of our list is because if you felt like it, you could do the office commute in it, run errands and take it on trips away. And, because it’s so easy to get into and so lovely just to drive ‘normally’, you would want to. That singular usability also runs parallel with a level of performance, handling precision, control feedback and all-round driver engagement that absolutely nothing else can get close to when it's driven on track.
Honestly, the Artura nuked the field. Having looked, for a while, like a bit of an albatross, it has become one of the new McLaren’s crowning glories. And it’s proof that, now as always in the car business, a little bit of faith can go an awfully long way.
McLaren's plug-in hybrid supercar gets a host of powertrain and chassis revisions to increase its performance and excitement factor
Best for: Straight-line speed
Lamborghini finally confronted the age of electrified supercars with the Revuelto – the latest in a fabled line that includes the Miura, Countach and Diablo.
This is the quickest supercar we’ve ever road tested, and it’s a measure of the Revuelto’s success that mad speed is only the third most laudable thing about it.Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor
While rivals shrink and turbocharge their engines to suit their new purposes, somehow the boffins at Sant’Agata kept a wonderful, free-revving, atmospheric V12 engine as part of the Revuelto’s mechanical recipe. Because, well… would a big Lambo be a big Lambo without one?
The Revuelto features the most innovative, rigid, lightweight carbonfibre spaceframe-cum-monocoque chassis that Lamborghini has designed, using it to help offset the weight of three electric motors and a lithium ion drive battery.
In total, it produces 1001bhp at 9250rpm, enabling the car to hit 62mph from rest in just 2.5sec and run to 217mph.
At 1800kg, it's a heavy supercar, but its handling is enhanced by the technology behind its electric motors. The car simply goes right where you’re pointing it, as it screams away at real pace and stratospheric revs. Overall, the Revuelto is a deeply impressive feat of engineering.
Best for: Sheer driving pleasure
Most Porsche 911 variants are excellent to drive, but the Porsche 911 S/T takes things to a whole new level.
The 911 S/T has a distinct, laid-back precision and verve about it that’s so rewarding when combined with the 911’s rear-ballasted, subtly oversteer-leaning balance. Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor
Developed by Porsche's GT division, the S/T is one of the brand's most scintillating machines so far. It's an utterly magic 911, and quite possibly the greatest ever.
Powered by a 4.0-litre flat six, (a masterpiece, in our view), the S/T unleashes 518bhp in the most slick of fashions. It'll dispatch 0-62mph in 3.7sec.
Thanks to a host of chassis and suspension changes, the 911 S/T is one of the sweetest road-going cars of its era, with accurate and responsive handling that befits even the roughest of UK roads. It's comfortable too, if a bit noisy.
Just 1963 examples of the 911 S/T will be built, the number chosen to mark the 911's debut year. The 911 S/T was launched as part of the 911's 60th birthday in 2023.
It's a remarkably exclusive car and has an initial list price of more than £230,000. That said, you'll probably spend closer to double that if you want one. Used examples command a price of nearly £500,000.
Best for: Distance driving
A few Ferrari fans fretted over the demise of the old F8 Tributo, the last pure-petrol mid-engined car to bear the Prancing Horse badge. Many thought a plug-in hybrid Ferrari would be a soulless shadow of its predecessor.
Benign and adaptable but also wildly quick and expressive, the 296 GTB is spectacular to drive, and the V6 sounds stunning.Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor
They were wrong. The Ferrari 296 GTB is sensationally well executed. At the heart of the car is a new twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 engine mated to a 164bhp electric motor to deliver a staggering combined total of 819bhp - in what's essentially a 'mid-ranking' Ferrari.
Performance is relentlessly, savagely sensational, plus the 298 GTB will also crack a claimed 15.5 miles of electric-only range.
What's more remarkable is that Ferrari has managed to make a car with this much power and performance potential feel so approachable and engaging.
It's a remarkable supercar and shows that increasing levels of electrification don't necessarily mean diminishing driver rewards.
Best for: Off-roading
The Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato is the last and perhaps most entertaining variant of the company’s staple supercar – and that's no mean feat.
Lambo’s junior supercar has always been a congenital entertainer, never more so than in this form. Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor
It's based on a regular four-wheel-drive Huracán coupé but has been raised by 44mm and given 25%-softer springs and an additional 35% suspension travel at the front and 25% more at the rear. The front track is 30mm wider, the rear track is extended by 34mm and the wheelbase is 9mm longer.
The car is clad in rugged plastic exterior trim, which you'll need when you take this stunning supercar off road. It's certainly not the most subtle car in the world, and that naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 – Lamborghini’s last – is as sweet as ever.
On its off-road tyres, the Sterrato has a relaxed, easy and absorbent gait to its ride that’s slightly at odds with the sharpness of the 602bhp engine and quick-shifting seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.
If it wasn't so loud, the Sterrato would definitely be the Huracán of choice as a daily driver. Its ride is immaculate, and it's well isolated, despite its uncarpeted floors and unupholstered door cards.
As for the Sterrato's off-road ability, it feels incredibly natural on loose surfaces. Driving this supercar on dirt and gravel is as easy as driving it on road and, frankly, as intoxicating.
Best for: Braking power
McLaren hit spectacular form when it launched the 720S in 2017. It showed that class-leading results could come from an unrelenting focus on stunning performance made usable.
McLaren claims 30% of the 720S’s overall component count has been replaced or revised for this car.Matt Saunders, Road test editor
Be in no doubt: this was the best and most accomplished supercar on the planet for some considerable time. Not the most exciting, perhaps; not the most outrageous, either. Just the best.
This car spent years in a league of one for its neat cornering balance and taut body control twinned with a fluent, road-appropriate ride; for its superlative ergonomics and visibility; and for its outstanding tactile control feedback and linear responses, rather than class-typical hyped-up steering.
But if the 720S was the supercar of the 2010s perfected, and sweated for every detail, the 750S is… well, it’s broadly the same thing. Wonderful in all the same ways, but existing in the era of the 800-horsepower, electrified plug-in hybrid supercar, something of a particular prospect with a whiff of antiquatedness about it.
When McLaren revised this car last year, it tweaked the exterior styling. Engineering-wise, it quickened the steering rack a little here, stiffened some engine mountings there, fitted new dampers and wheels, and installed a new braking system. But it updated details, rather than making wholesale changes where they weren’t needed.
And the 750S is still great to drive – though perhaps not as technically alluring as its predecessor once was.
Best for: Agility
There was a point not that long ago when many felt Maserati was ready to be read the last rites. The Italian brand had become a shadow of its former self, with the lacklustre Ghibli and Quattroporte saloons propped up by the characterful but ageing GT models.
Yes, the MC20 has flaws. It's expensive relative to rivals and not light enough. But it’s also joyfully light-hearted in dynamic terms, thunderously characterful and versatile enough to use often.Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor
Then, out of nowhere, it launched the sensational MC20, a supercar straight out of the top drawer. Rumoured to have started its development as an Alfa Romeo before Maserati took the reins, it ticks all the mid-engined exotic boxes.
For starters, there's a carbonfibre tub, double-wishbone suspension all round and an all-new twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 engine that musters 621bhp. The car is good for 0-62mph in 2.9sec and will top out at 202mph, even if it can't match the aural theatrics of a Lamborghini V10.
Yet while the performance is on point in this company, it's the way the MC20 deals with the bits between the straights that marks it out as something a bit special.
It weighs the right side of 1500kg for starters, which in combination with the quick steering delivers the sort of agility usually reserved for fleeing gazelles. It combines this cornering dynamism with a ride quality that makes it genuinely easy to live with.
Best for: Track days
We thought the regular Porsche 911 GT3 was excellent, and then came the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
Along with its stellar powertrain, this is simply an epic 911 – one capable of guiding owners down an exhilarating path they're unlikely to have before trodden.Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor
With 518bhp and 343lb ft, the GT3 RS is a stunning technical achievement with blistering pace that includes sprinting from 0-62mph in 3.2sec.
That huge swan-neck wing, which measures 6ft wide, provides three times more downforce than the regular GT3. It's the key to the GT3 RS's ferocious performance, along with new damper and differential controls.
To rein in its pace, the GT3 RS also features exceptional brakes, which allow it to come to a standstill from 70mph in just 38.8m. That almost matches lighter, more aero-focused cars like the Dallara Stradale and the McLaren Senna.
Make no mistake: this is a five-star car for track-day fans, and almost perfect for everyone else.
Best for: Devastating performance
This successor of sorts to the LaFerrari hypercar is the most powerful road car in Ferrari's history – or, at least, it was until the even more powerful XX version came along in 2023, which has now set the quickest lap time for a production car around the firm's Fiorano test track.
Those who want a better, faster, meaner-looking SF90 – and there are plenty of owners who will – should no doubt find plenty here to justify their interest.Matt Saunders, Road test editor
It's also a plug-in hybrid that can travel for up to 15 miles on electricity alone.
The SF90 Stradale is a very different kind of Ferrari, then. It uses a heavily reworked version of the 488 Pista's twin-turbocharged 3.9-litre V8 engine, which is complemented by a trio of electric motors that raise the Ferrari's total power output to a staggering 986bhp, allowing for a 0-62mph time of 2.5sec.
Despite the additional weight that the powertrain brings, the car is still just as grippy and devastatingly quick as you would expect a mid-engined Ferrari to be.
That said, the SF90 Stradale demands respect and concentration when exploring the area between grip and slip.
Best for: Track driving
The uprated Corvette Z06 has ruffled quite a few feathers in the rarefied atmosphere of the supercar class.
The Corvette Z06 feels like it explores every shred of potential that the C8 Corvette’s mid-engined chassis has brought, and then some.Matt Saunders, Road test editor
As you’d expect, there’s more power than the standard Corvette, with a flat-plane-crank 5.5-litre V8 developing a healthy 670bhp and revving to a heady 8500rpm.
It'll get you from 0-60mph in 2.9sec but, just as important, it sounds the business, bellowing and crackling with the aural excitement of true blue-blood Italian.
With a 30%-stiffer suspension set-up than the standard C8, the Z06 dives in to corners with zeal, gripping hard and resisting run-wide understeer.
For road use, its limits are spectacularly high, while the quick steering engenders the car with a real sense of agility. The adaptive dampers combine supreme control with enough compliance to make the Corvette a usable, everyday car too.
Most drivers dream of one day owning a sports car, but supercars are a very different proposition.
They're vastly more expensive, often more require more skill to drive and in some cases are extremely limited in number. Supercars major heavily, and almost exclusively, on performance and driving dynamics.
You might never see certain supercars on the road, given their value and rarity. One of the best supercars on the market today, for instance, is the Porsche 911 S/T, but you will be hard-pressed to get your hands on one.
Our list details which car is best for which characteristic, including ride comfort, straight-line speed, handling and track driving, so you can be sure you're choosing the right one.
Autocar's experienced team of road testers have been reviewing cars for decades, including the world's fastest, most exciting supercars.
This list is the culmination of many years of in-depth road testing and high-performance driving, where the best supercars have been pushed to the limit in several departments, including handling, ride comfort and performance, as well as additional insight on costs.
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