Hypercar

It was not too long ago when a certain Stig was racing cars around the Dunsfold Aerodrome in the Bohema on Top Gear. This time, he raced a Praga Bohema around the same track, setting a time of 1:09.8 and breaking the track record.

The McMurtry Spéirling has just redefined what "hypercar" actually means. The little single-seater electric beast dethroned a 21-year-old record held by a Formula 1 car at the Top Gear Test Track ... and not in a very subtle way.

Bugatti wowed the supercar world with its 1,800 hp Tourbillon last June. For those who weren't impressed by its hybrid V16 power plant and Swiss-made watchmaker dash, there's now even more excess on offer in the form of the Équipe Pur Sang package.

In the grand narrative of automotive history, Koenigsegg's Light Speed Tourbillon Transmission isn't just a new chapter; it's an entirely new volume of mechanical sorcery, making it the only production transmission to enable all-wheel drive with one electric motor.

Remember the 1,287-horsepower electric Yangwang U9? In a recently released video, the BYD hypercar is seen driving autonomously and jumping over a variety of obstacles, including road spikes and water-filled potholes.

A tiny New Zealand company run by a 71-year-old billionaire is hard at work bringing his seemingly impossible dream to life: developing a publicly available track car that could go faster than an F1 racecar. And it's awfully close to its goal.

This all-powerful British four-wheel-drive machine is the company's first series production mid-engined supercar, and also its first plug-in hybrid. It tops out at 217 mph, does 0-60 mph in just 2.5 seconds, and it can be yours for just $1 million.

At a test track in Germany, Bugatti has just recorded an open-top speed much quicker than the iconic Veyron managed with a roof on when it stunned the world in 2010. Next stop, says Mate Rimac, is 500 km/h (311 mph) and the outright speed crown.

Ferrari's new F80 hypercar has tongues wagging about whether it'll make for a suitable successor to the 2013 LaFerrari. What's more important, though, is how the Italian marque's latest creation gets from 0-62 mph in just 2.15 seconds.

The YangWang U9 is remarkably affordable for a 1,287-horsepower electric hypercar at around US$236,000. It also rocks a 'DiSus' active suspension system powerful enough to launch the car off the ground, or let it rotate on the spot in a "tank turn."

On August 18, Christian Von Koenigsegg turned up at the Laguna Seca race track with a car and driver, neither of which had ever seen the track in the flesh. The driver wasn't completely unprepared, he'd apparently cranked out a few laps on a Playstation.

McMurtry made its US debut to the crowds at the Laguna Seca circuit in Monterey this week, racing the third annual Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb with Max Chilton back in the pilot seat. The car and driver duo easily set two records in the process.