Generally, ‘hypercar’ is the term used for a car when the label ‘supercar’ just isn’t super enough to describe the raw performance, crazy design and unicorn-like rarity of the world’s most exotic cars.
There aren’t really any rules about what makes a car a hypercar, but like many things you’ll definitely know one if you see one. But exactly how likely are you to see one?
As it turns out, not very likely at all. Car blog Shortshift crunched the numbers to find out exactly how likely the average Joe is to see one, and the chances have turned out to be shockingly slim.
Currently, there are only few proper hypercars in the world, starting with the ‘holy trinity’ made up of the McLaren P1, the LaFerrari and finally the Porsche 918 Spyder.
As well as that, there’s also three of Koenigsegg’s cars – the One:1, Agera RS and Regera – along with the Pagani Huayra for good measure.
Compared to your average car which can be produced by the millions, there are only roughly 2,004 hypercars in total, with only 100 Huayras made and a tiny seven One:1s in existence.
Shortshift also estimated how many ‘regular’ cars there are in existence, with approximately 1,328,447,840 of the things flying about our roads.
In other words, if you stood on a street corner and watched cars drive by, statistically one out of every 662,898 will be a hypercar. If percentages are more your thing, that’s a 0.00015 per cent chance you’ll see one in the wild.
Taking that into consideration, here’s a list of things more likely to happen to you:
Getting struck by lightning in your life: 1 in 12,000 chance
Getting hit by a car: 1 in 4,292 chance
Having twins: 1 in 67 chance
Trump winning the US election: 32.1% chance (as of the time of writing)
Obviously, if you go out of your way to find one, for example by visiting car shows or one of London’s more upmarket areas your chances vastly increase, but that’s still something to think about.
Next time you’re about on your travels and you spot a swish-looking McLaren, you’d better get your phone out and take a picture. Chances are you won’t get the opportunity again.