The trackday hypercar/track-only super car is a strange sideshow to the wider automotive discourse. It’s a sector that has bubbled away under the surface, long-served by trackday staples Caterham and Radical.
In recent years, there has been a shift with bigger and more prestigious manufacturers taking a turn at building track-only showcases for their best and wealthiest clients.
These track-only toys have a different mission statement to the minnow Caterhams and Radicals – this new breed are instead rarely road legal and are designed to be fast and tractable around a circuit, preferably a circuit somewhere sunny.
Ferrari was the brand first to take the plunge, and rightfully so. No other brand has the cache and draw of Ferrari, and if Ferrari could pull it off then why not others?
In 2005 the first true track-only hyper car emerged, the Ferrari FXX. It looked wild, it was zealously fast and it kicked off a series of specials that have given more work to the letter ‘X’ than any other word in the English language.
Ferrari provided a progenitor, and the rest is still ticking along today. We’ve since had track-only hypercars from McLaren, Lamborghini, Porsche, Pagani, Aston Martin, Ford and Maserati. There have been so many in fact, that the track only hypercar is a bit of an industry joke. Cynical cash grabs. But money is money, and wealthy people like cool toys.
From the FXX back in 2005, there was quite a lag time before other brands eventually copped on in the mid-2010s.
In this period of track-only hypercars in the wilderness, quite a few cars came and went. Each of these cars fit the track-only mould, but some other factor, be it poor timing, lack of prestige or market confidence, or just plain forgettability relegated these cars to the scrapyard of history.
It’s a real shame however, as some of these cars were far more unique than even the maddest vehicles being offered today.
This series is a memento to those lost souls of the trackday hypercar and track-only supercar sector.
Kerbside 