{"id":2063229,"date":"2026-07-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2063229"},"modified":"2026-07-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T21:00:00","slug":"opinion-should-ultra-rare-hypercars-even-bother-to-be-road-legal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2063229","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: should ultra-rare hypercars even bother to be road legal?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Keeping a safe distance from the Apollo Evo to avoid its razor-sharp downforce-hungry body slicing my body open like a carbon fibre abattoir, one thought kept pinging around my head while filming TG\u2019s latest First Look video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How can this possibly be road legal?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are huge exposed flashes of tyre, and pedestrian-filleting winglets everywhere you look. The V12 is completely unsilenced and runs very rich, so there\u2019s a puff of black smoke when it\u2019s revved from idle. It\u2019s so extreme, so unfiltered, and\u2026 hang on, where\u2019s the space for a numberplate?<\/p>\n

Yes of course \u2013 the Apollo Evo is totally road-illegal. It\u2019s as suitable for use popping to the shops as a Eurofighter Typhoon or those \u2018crawlers\u2019 NASA uses to drag rockets to the launch pad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Initially, this made me respect it less. Because the really challenging part of building a modern supercar is not to make it fast in a straight line, corner like it\u2019s magically magnetised to tarmac, or even redline repeatedly for Instagram without exploding.<\/p>\n

The tricky bit is satisfying the crash, noise, pedestrian impact and emissions tests. Deeply unsexy, but necessary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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An Aston Martin Valkyrie<\/a> is quite hard work on the road, if we\u2019re honest. But the very fact you can legally apply one to the King\u2019s highway and mix it with the taxis, scooters and Vauxhall Mokkas<\/a> is a measure of intensive attention to detail.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also eye-wateringly expensive, insanely difficult, and possibly pointless.<\/p>\n

I asked the people behind the Apollo if the ten nutters buying an Evo were annoyed they couldn\u2019t drive it on the road. Paraphrasing a bit, their answer was essentially \u2018we doubt that\u2019ll stop them’.<\/p>\n

See, I\u2019ve been looking at this problem from a British perspective. Here in Great Britain, with our speed cameras, yellow box junction cameras, bus lane cameras, car park cameras, red light cameras, dash-cams and now even noise-limit cameras which will bust you for having a rorty exhaust\u2026 you\u2019re eyed more eagle-y in a flash car than in a high-security prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pilot a Pagani Huayra R Evo or Ferrari FXXK down Kensington High Street and you\u2019re going to get reported immediately. Most likely by AI.<\/p>\n

But in other popular supercar markets, people have a slightly more relaxed<\/em> attitude to what exactly is fit for road use. Apollo\u2019s backers point out that the Intensa Emozione V12 track car was also never homologated for streets. Nevertheless, a few found their way onto some infamous road rallies and midnight club cruises.<\/p>\n

Frankly, if you\u2019ve got the money lying about for an ultra-limited edition boutique hypercar, you could swat away any fine the authorities slap on you for hooning without exhaust baffles, indicators or numberplates.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not condoning the idea of the wealthy being above the law. But I am saying it\u2019s the actual reality, like it or not. Real-life Forza Horizon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Thing is, with British engineering specialists Lanzante doing a tidy trade in actually legalising track-only specials, the manufacturers could save themselves a load of aggro.<\/p>\n

Lanzante has managed to certify a Pagani Zonda R, several Porsche 935s, and lately, a Bugatti Bolide. The quality of the conversion is exquisite. After supporting the 24 Hours victory in 1995, the company made a name for itself all over again making McLaren F1 GTRs of Le Mans-racing fame street-appropriate.<\/p>\n

TopGear.com has also heard at least one deposit-holder for the impossibly extreme Red Bull RB17 has been on the phone asking Lanzante to investigate a road conversion for the 1,200bhp Cosworth V10 spaceship. Is Adrian Newey often that<\/em> late to work in his Valkyrie that he needs something speedier?<\/p>\n

Obviously it would be a tragic loss if the likes of Ferrari, McLaren, Pagani and co all decided there was no longer any business case in street cars that make your day when they blast past on the bypass.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s only getting tougher to make compliant hypercars and some customers don\u2019t seem to mind whether they\u2019re strictly allowed on the road \u2013 or to race \u2013 as long as they\u2019re fast, loud, rare and special\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keeping a safe distance from the Apollo Evo to avoid its razor-sharp downforce-hungry body slicing my body open like a carbon fibre abattoir, one thought kept pinging around my head while filming TG\u2019s latest First Look video. How can this possibly be road legal? There are huge exposed flashes of tyre, and pedestrian-filleting winglets everywhere […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2063229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2063229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2063229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2063229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2063229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}