Sports & performance

Production of the 8C Competizione was limited to 500 coupes, and Alfa Romeo allocated them by reviewing applications from prospective buyers rather than by order of deposit.

Ariel built its off-road buggy from the same bare tube exoskeleton as the roofless Atom, just pointed at gravel.

The obscure, short-lived Artega GT — only around 153 ever built before the company went bankrupt — was shaped in part by Henrik Fisker, the designer behind the Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

Aston built two CC100s: one owner planned to keep his in a private collection, the other to get it approved for public roads.

Aston Martin closed out the DBS with a China-only Dragon 88 edition: 24-carat gold-plated wing badges, a leather presentation box with a gold-detailed owner’s guide, and a run capped at exactly 88 cars.

325 built across four bodies (99 coupe, 99 Volante, 28 Speedster, 99 Shooting Brake); maybe a quarter in North America, all kept. About 85 on North American roads today (estimate).

For a 295km/h grand tourer, practicality mattered: this Vanquish's boot is more than 60% bigger than the DBS it was based on.

Audi badged the R8 GT with the kind of winglets borrowed straight off its Le Mans prototypes, for 333 road cars.

BMW cut the rear seats and window glass from the GTS, then sold all 135 almost immediately.

BMW brought water injection back to a showroom car for the first time in two decades, just to beat the Nürburgring clock.

This Australian hand-built supercar borrows an unlikely part bin item: its tail-lights are lifted straight from a 2000s Honda Integra DC5.

Bugatti's quality control runs so deep that in 2022 it issued a factory recall for exactly one Chiron — over a single loose frame screw on that specific car.

Bugatti capped the Chiron at 420 km/h because it concluded no tyre then made could survive its real top speed.

Bugatti's 110th-birthday Chiron Sport carries the French tricolour on its mirrors, fuel cap and the underside of its rear wing.

A pre-production Chiron hit 304.773 mph at Ehra-Lessien, then Bugatti sold the production version electronically capped at 273 mph.

Every Divo was sold before it existed, pre-bought by Chiron owners who already had a faster car in the garage.

Bugatti shipped the Grand Sport with a spare umbrella as its emergency roof if the main top was left behind.

Bugatti built five Super Sports with the speed limiter switched off entirely, the only Veyrons sold without one.

The Veyron's top speed of 253 mph was locked behind a separate key, so the car itself decided when you were allowed to see it.

Bugatti cut the roof off its fastest car, then proved the open-top Veyron could still top 254 mph.

Even tire service is exotic: Veyron wheels can only be fitted with their special Michelins in France, and the job alone costs $70,000.

The 620R tops the Seven range with 310 hp from a supercharged 2.0 — enough to hit 60 mph in 2.79 seconds in a car you can still buy as a kit.