CarThrottle Asks: Best "Entry Level" Supercar?

Ahahaha, oh my. An "entry level" supercar - right, that makes sense.  It used to be there were sports cars that normal people could afford (Mustang, Corvette, Porsche 944, etc), and Supercars that only oil barons and filthy rich Enron executives could afford (F512M, Countach, Cizeta Moroder, EB110.)  As the industry moves along, though, we've actually developed upper and lower echelons of the supercar.  It's funny to think of something costing nearly a quarter-million dollars as being "entry level," but despite all the insanity of the Ferrari 458 Italia, it's not the craziest thing they make.

There didn't used to be a lot of choice here, either - you could pretty much get an F355 or an Esprit, and a few others have crept in here and there, but today almost all exotic manufacturers have a "starter" model.  These cars are more my speed than their over the top brethren anyway, and the selection is so wide now that I figured I'd put the question to our readers: what's your choice among them?  Normally we like to stay somewhat down-to-earth here at CarThrottle, but a little fantasy-garage flight of fancy never hurt anyone.

Most well known in this field is Ferrari; they've been doing this segment continuously since the Dino 206 model that originated in the late sixties, up through the Dino 246, 308 GT4, 308 GTB, 328, 348, F355, 360 Moden, F430, and finally the modern 458 Italia.  The 458 follows the traditional small-Ferrari formula: mid-mounted V8, 2 seats, rear wheel drive - but it's full of totally modern technology and construction techniques, putting it near the top of it's field not only in the whole "Ferrari sound fury and passion" thing, but also real metrics like performance and grip.

Power comes from a direct-injected 4.5L 32v V8 mounted longitudinally behind the seats, driving the rear wheels through a 7-speed Getrag dual-clutch automated manual.  With 562 horsepower (at the 9,000 rpm redline!) and 398lb-ft at 6,000rpm, the 458 Italia is capable of banging off 0-60 runs in the 3-second range, previously considered the territory of things like profession drag cars, or the Silver Surfer.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDekeCbqWJI

It's also gorgeous in a strange way, looking half Italian and half Alien, like a hungry insect with Pininfarina badges.  It's my choice, but it's not an easy one.  Price?  $240,000, before options (which add up quick) and of course the traditional Ferrari-dealer "because it's a Ferrari, duh!" mark-up.

New on the map for this year, and significant for a lot of reasons, is the British-made McLaren MP4-12C.  McLaren's first full road car (The SLR doesn't count, don't kid yourself) since the inimitable F1 from way back in 1993, the MP4-12C may have the worst name ever, but it's absolutely bleeding-edge high tech.

The chassis is a carbon-fibre shell, the body is carbon fibre, and the whole thing is incredibly light: the McLaren guys claim the weight of the entire car at 2,866lbs.  Sadly, it's not an arrow-formation three-seater like the original road-going McLaren, but it has a suprisingly clean, unadorned and driver-focused interior.

Power comes from a McLaren/Ricardo designed V8, that has ties to the 1998 Nissan LeMans race car motor.  Call the M838T, this flat-plane crank V8 displaces only 3.8L, but thanks to twin turbochargers and direct injection, cranks out some impressive numbers: 592bhp and 443lb-ft of torque, 80% of peak torque available by 2,000 rpm, and an 8,500rpm redline.  Like the Ferrari, it also uses a 7-speed dual-clutch automated manual (made by Graziano) driving the rear wheels through a fancy torque-apportioning differential.  A sub-three-second 0-60 time with launch control, a 0-200km/h time of under 9 seconds, and a top speed of over 200mph all sound pretty believable in a nearly 600bhp car that weighs less than 1.5 tons.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6__Hro5NvY

Unlike the Ferrari, the styling is just sort of "there" - you can't call it ugly, because there's nothing at all ugly about it, but there's nothing exciting or particularly interesting about it - it's like a more angular Noble M600.  it's typical Gordon Murray - more about function than form.  A little bit of drama (and a better name!) wouldn't go amiss, but a car this packed with technology and this light is always going to find wealthy buyers.  Speaking of wealthy, you'd better be - although it's hardly a comparison to the original F1's $1m+ price tag, the MP4-12C demands £168,500 in the UK, and $229,000 in the US, before options and the also inevitable dealer markup.

You can't forget the Lamborghini Gallardo. Although to a certain extent I dislike the Gallardo, it's not for any logical reason - it's just that they've sold so many of them, a lot of the mystique of seeing a Lamborghini, any Lamborghini, is greatly diminished considering I see 3-4 Gallardos a week on the regular.  Still, that's because even 8 years into it's production run, it remains an utterly fantastic car - in fact, so good it spawned a little Audi brother.

The current "normal" Gallardo, the LP560-4, boasts one significant advantage over it's Ferrari and McLaren opponents: full-time AWD.  It uses a mid-mounted 5.2L 40 valve V10 with direct injection, offering 552bhp @ 8,000 rpm and 398lb-ft at 6,000rpm, nearly identical output to the Ferrari 458.   Transmission choices include a traditional 6-speed externally gated shifter (thank god!) and a Graziano single-clutch automated manual (no thanks.)  Unlike the 458 or MP4, you have more choices - there's an AWD Gallardo Spyder, rear-wheel-drive Gallardos (last year's LP550-2 Balboni as well as the new Gallardo Bicolore), a lightweight performance version (the LP570-4 SV, with less weight and 10 extra bhp), etc.

The shape is getting a little old in my eyes, but it's still an origami-folded-paper Lamborghini, by God, and it still looks great.  One of the advantages to the e-Gear automated manual is the launch control programmed in, which allows full use of the Gallardo's horsepower and 4WD for an extremely impressive standing start, like so:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpZPNgjrgfY

The Gallardo has a base MSRP of $237,600, which is practically a bargain for a Lamborghini.  The problem is, it has a prettier, newer, and less expensive brother that's basically the same thing.

The Audi R8 5.2. If the specs sound surprisingly like a Gallardo LP560, you may have been living under a rock the last few years, because that's basically what the R8 V10 is.  It's sort of surprising they made one at all; the R8 was originally only powered by Audi's direct-injected 4.2L V8 from the RS4, with a price tag near $120,000, which gave it a decent amount of differentiation from the Gallardo upon which it was based.

But now you can get even spicier R8's: since it's introduction in 2006, it's gained a detuned Gallardo engine as an option - the same 5.2L direct-injected 40v V10, tuned down to a more "reasonable" 525bhp and 391lb-ft.  You can also get the V8 or the V10 with a folding soft top, which ditches the R8's unique "side blade" for some more conventional body lines.  Then there's the very rare R8 GT, with a bump to full Gallardo-strength 560bhp, along with a 100kg weight reduction, which shortens the 0-60 time from 3.9 to 3.6 seconds.  And now there's a convertible version of that.  Rumor had it there was going to be a twin-turbo V10 R8, using the RS6's engine, but after a prototype caught fire while running on the Nürburgring, Audi binned that idea.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptvTpMBlmoI

The R8 V10 is slightly slower than the newest competition, but anyone complaining about a 3.9 second 0-60 time and a top speed approaching 200mph clearly needs to have their head examined by a professional.  In my eyes, the R8 is a lot better looking car than the more expensive Gallardo upon which it's based, and the interior is certainly nicer looking - as is the price tag.  An R8 with the 420-horsepower V8 rings in at $114,200, and a V10 Coupe with a manual starts at $149,000.  If you tick every option in the book for the R8 in the US, it's still cheaper than the 458, Gallardo, and MP4 - a V10 Spyder with R-Tronic (e-Gear), the "enhanced leather package", carbon fibre everything, satnav, etc rings up around $190k.  With the leftover change, you could buy a pretty nice luxury sedan for when you don't feel like folding yourself into a low-slung sports car, which is it's own argument.

There are a lot of Porsche models to chose from, but I'll just swing off the bat with the most extreme: the mental 911 GT2 RS.  I'm fully aware the GT2 RS is massively overpriced - for God's sakes, it's a $245,000 car with a pancake six-cylinder mounted in the wrong place!  How can a 911 cost more than a Ferrari 458 or McLaren MP4-12C?

620 factory-warrantied horsepower at 6,500rpm, along with 516lb-ft of torque, all out of 3.6L hung out behind the rear axle, that's how.  The GT2 RS is the most powerful road car Porsche has ever made, and it's light to boot: extensive use of carbon fibre and other weight-savings techniques mean the curb weight is 155lbs lower than the 530-horsepower standard GT2, tipping the scales at a relatively feathery 3,075 lbs.  The engine has tons of tricks up it's sleeves: responsive variable-geometry turbochargers, variable cam timing and lift, a dry-sump lubrication system with an oil cooler, a lightened single-mass flywheel, and a faintly believable 23.2psi of boost.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQcwqCt4JE8

So this ass-engined rocketship will blast to sixty in 3.4 seconds and top out at 205mph.  It's probably also capable of scaring the everliving crap out of even a very experienced race driver, what with having 620 horsepower and the engine in the wrong place.  I value my life too much, but I won't blame you if this is your cup of mental tea.

You want Gullwing doors? Well, silly, there's really only one choice: The Mercedes SLS AMG, colloquially named the "SLS Gullwing."  A retro-modern interpretation of the classic 300SL from the 50's, the SLS AMG is the AMG division's first full design, not a hot-rodded version of a standard Benz.

Besides the obvious appeal of being able to do donuts with both the doors up (who can resist?), the SLS AMG does pack quite a bit of tomorrow into it's yesterday styling.  The engine is the bespoke AMG M159 V8, a special version of the AMG V8 in all the other "_63 AMG" cars, fitted with dry-sump oil lubrication.  In SLS trim, it cranks out the best sounding 563 horsepower and 480lb-ft of torque in the world, with a distinctly V8 roar about it.  The transmission is AMG's 7-speed dual-clutch transaxle, with the actual transmission mounted in the back for better weight distribution.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffb6yniOXsk

The SLS is more of a grand-tourer than an out-and-out hardcore sports car, but the great weight distribution and huge brakes mean it's not out of place on a race track, either.  It will still blast to 60 in 3.8 seconds and reaches a maximum speed of 197mph, which should be enough for anyone, and some people prefer the airer cabin of a front-engined supercar.  Plus, oh my god, that sound.  Yours for only $183,000!  Future derivates will include a drop-top (which has normal doors; what's the appeal of that?) and possibly a production version of the SLS e-Cell, which uses four individual electric motors to produce 525bhp and 680lb-ft of torque.

You can't have a Supercar list... without an Aston Martin.  It's sort of hard to pick one; all of them except for the One-77 are around or under a quarter-million dollars, but the nod here goes to the V12 Vantage.  It's a simple recipe:  take the smallest car, and shove in the biggest motor that'll fit.

In Aston Martin's case, that means the small V8 Vantage (which normally has a Jaguar-derived 4.7L V8 under the hood), with the engine from the James Bond-approved DBS shoehorned in place.  It's not the fastest car on this list, taking over 4 seconds to hit sixty, but who cares?  Have you heard an Aston Martin 6.0L high-compression V12 at full song?  It's like hearing God play a trumpet.  Oh lord.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFe6EV15YtE

The 6.0L 48v V12 from the DBS carries over with a healthy 510bhp @ 6,500rpm, and 420lb-ft of torque @ 5,750 rpm.  It's only available with a standard 6-speed manual transmission (no sequential gearchange here), and will pull the 3,704lb V12 Vantage to 60mph in 4.2 seconds, and to a top speed of 190mph.  You have to do some digging to get a price on an Aston Martin, but the V12 Vantage starts around $180,000 - so actually less than the DB9-based Virage.  Again, what a bargain!

And finally, we get to the ZR-1 Corvette, which is America's answer to the supercar club.  There are two different ways of looking at the ZR-1, and it depends entirely on your perspective.

On one side, it's a screaming bargain.  It has considerably more power than anything else in this group; only the GT2 RS approaches it's power output, but doesn't have as much torque, and it's basically 2.5 times the price of the ZR-1.  The GM engineers in charge of the ZR-1 project weren't joking around when they came up with the LS9 engine.  An all-aluminum 6.2L pushrod 2-valve V8, with a high-tech Eaton TVS 4-lobe supercharger breathing 10.5  pounds of boost through air-to-water intercoolers yields a mighty 638bhp and 604 lb-ft of torque, which puts the ZR-1 more in the league of crazy stuff like the Lamborghini Aventador ($375,000) and Ferrari 599 GTO ($whatever you're willing to pay) than "lightweights" like the V12 Vantage, which only barely manages to pip the 505 horsepower, naturally-aspirated 7.0L Z06 for power (while weighing about 600lbs more.)  Just because it's pushrod doesn't mean it's low-tech, either: the LS9 employs racing technology like titanium connecting rods and intake valves, hollow sodium-filled exhaust valves, and dry-sump oil lubrication.

The transmission is a bulletproof Tremec TR6060 that transfers power to the massive (335/25/19 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2) rear tires through a heavy-duty twin disc clutch, and launch control is included - as is a three-mode traction control system (on/track/off) and Magnetorheological active shocks (technology which is licensed to Ferrari, by the way.)  The chassis is aluminum, and a lot of the body panels are constructed of carbon fibre to keep the weight down - 3,352lbs according to GM.

Is it fast?  Oh lord, of course.  0-60 comes up in a traction-limited 3.3 seconds, and the ZR1 will do more than 20omph flat out - along with the quarter mile in 11.2 seconds at 135mph.  Thankfully it's got some of the largest, most powerful brakes ever fitted to a production car: the front are carbon-ceramic 15.5" rotors clamped by 6-piston Brembo calipers (the same ones found on the front of the Ferrari FXX), and the rear brake rotors are the same as those used on the front of the Ferrari Enzo, 15" carbon-ceramic clamped by 4-piston Brembos.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LoEUMNIALo

And with a base MSRP of $110,300, it's drastically cheaper than any of the other cars here.  I mean, for the price of the GT2 RS, you could get a ZR-1, a Z06, and a Corvette Grand Sport convertible and still have change left over.  The other way of looking at it, and some people can surely relate: Really?  $110,000 and change for a Corvette?!?  Don't those still have terrible seats, plastic bodies, leaf springs, and you service them at a Chevy dealer? There's nowhere near as much prestige associated with the Corvette name as, say, an Aston Martin.  But the ZR1 would absolutely eat a V12 Vantage alive on a drag strip or road course, for about $70,000 less of your hard-earned greenbacks.  It just depends on your priorities.

So, assuming that some magical fairy won the lottery for you and filled up your bank account with more zeros than you can comprehend, which of these "starter" supercars would be your choice?  Vote in the poll, and leave a comment below!