Opinion: should ultra-rare hypercars even bother to be road legal?

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’s latest First Look video.

How can this possibly be road legal?

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’s a puff of black smoke when it’s revved from idle. It’s so extreme, so unfiltered, and… hang on, where’s the space for a numberplate?

Yes of course – the Apollo Evo is totally road-illegal. It’s as suitable for use popping to the shops as a Eurofighter Typhoon or those ‘crawlers’ NASA uses to drag rockets to the launch pad.

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’s magically magnetised to tarmac, or even redline repeatedly for Instagram without exploding.

The tricky bit is satisfying the crash, noise, pedestrian impact and emissions tests. Deeply unsexy, but necessary.

An Aston Martin Valkyrie is quite hard work on the road, if we’re honest. But the very fact you can legally apply one to the King’s highway and mix it with the taxis, scooters and Vauxhall Mokkas is a measure of intensive attention to detail.

It’s also eye-wateringly expensive, insanely difficult, and possibly pointless.

I asked the people behind the Apollo if the ten nutters buying an Evo were annoyed they couldn’t drive it on the road. Paraphrasing a bit, their answer was essentially ‘we doubt that’ll stop them'.

See, I’ve 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… you’re eyed more eagle-y in a flash car than in a high-security prison.

Pilot a Pagani Huayra R Evo or Ferrari FXXK down Kensington High Street and you’re going to get reported immediately. Most likely by AI.

But in other popular supercar markets, people have a slightly more relaxed attitude to what exactly is fit for road use. Apollo’s 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.

Frankly, if you’ve 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.

I’m not condoning the idea of the wealthy being above the law. But I am saying it’s the actual reality, like it or not. Real-life Forza Horizon.

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.

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.

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 late to work in his Valkyrie that he needs something speedier?

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.

But it’s only getting tougher to make compliant hypercars and some customers don’t seem to mind whether they’re strictly allowed on the road – or to race – as long as they’re fast, loud, rare and special…