Money really does buy everything.
When you’ve made it big
in this world, you can obviously buy any car you’d like. And it can’t be
just any car or supercar, for that matter. No, when money is no object
you’re going to want a supercar that no one else has. Consider it
something of a one-off museum quality piece, only it’ll be parked in
your private garage. Will that one-off masterpiece be driven? Perhaps,
but that’s not the point; it’s that it was special ordered. So what are
some of these one-off supercars made for the insanely rich? Here are six
examples.
The GM Ecojet was built in collaboration with Jay Leno
(you may have heard of him). It’s a concept car designed to run on
biodiesel fuel and powered by a gas turbine engine. Actually, that
engine is normally used in helicopters, but it still has 650 hp and 583
lb-ft of torque. It even has two fuel tanks: one for the main fuel, a
biodiesel soy bean oil mix, while the other is for jet fuel.
With a top speed of 268 mph and a price tag of $3.5 million, the 1,000 hp Lotec Mercedes-Benz
C1000 is a lightweight, aero-efficient supercar with plenty of carbon
fiber elements throughout. It can blast from 0-62 mph in 3.2 seconds
thanks to its twin-turbo V8. It was commissioned in the mid-1990s by a
wealthy businessman from the United Arab Emirates. The goal at the time
was to build the fastest production car on Earth.
This is one of our
favorites. Commissioned by Michael Stoschek and his son in 2010, the
idea was to build a modern day Lancia Stratos, only this time it’d be
based on the Ferrari
F430 Scuderia. The body was designed by Pininfarina but the F430’s
mechanicals remained in place, such as its 4.3-liter V8 with 533 hp and
383 lb-ft of torque. Weighing in at just 2,749 lbs, this reborn Stratos
could go from 0-62 mph in 3.3 seconds and had a top speed of nearly 200
mph. The goal was to build 25 examples, but Stoschek couldn’t convince
Ferrari to let him carry out his plan.
It may look similar to the Ferrari 458 Italia
at first, but it’s clearly something a bit different. The Ferrari SP12
EC was commissioned by none other than rock musician Eric Clapton, a
longtime Ferrari fan. Styled by Pininfarina, the inspiration here was
the Ferrari 512 BB. It reportedly shares the 458’s 4.5-liter V8 and
seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, but other details have remained a
secret. The reported price? A whopping $4.7 million.
Back in 2005, former movie
director James Glickenhaus figured out how to make the Ferrari Enzo
even better. He personally loved the old Ferrari P series, a prototype
racing series first built in the late 1960s and early 70s. After teaming
up with Pininfarina, he invested $4 million to create the Ferrari P4/5,
which had its premiere at Pebble Beach
in 2006. And it didn’t stop there; Glickenhaus then built a racing
version, the P4/5 Competizione, which finished 39th in the 2011 Nurburgring 24 Hours.
Yes, underneath that bespoke body work is a McLaren MP4-12C. And yes, the X-1 is, shall we say, unusual. It was commissioned by a McLaren customer who already owned an F1 and a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
but wanted something really unique. With its love it or hate it
styling, the X-1 premiered at Pebble Beach in 2012. It was built by
McLaren Special Operations for an unknown price tag.
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