Final generation performance cars are gaining a hold over collectors long after leaving the showroom floor, and it’s rarely about outright speed. What is the factor that keeps pulling enthusiasts back to a particular make or model, long after it’s left the showrooms and been surpassed by faster and more advanced machinery?
It’s never speed alone; the enormous struggle makers of electric hypercars have had to drum up interest among even the most prolific automotive collectors has shown that. Instead it’s something deeper, a sense of connection with a car, the theatre of a particular drivetrain, and in many cases, the sense that you’re driving the last of its kind: a car that may never be improved upon.
Below we’ve selected five cars that meet this definition. Each of them were highly rated in their time, but almost casually so, not realising that we were experiencing something that their successors might never replicate. From orchestral naturally-aspirated engines to cars that have never been bettered for driver feedback, the cars below were truly the last of their kind.
Why is the Ferrari 458 Speciale the ultimate naturally aspirated Ferrari V8?
[Image credit: Ferrari]
You can never quite predict where Ferrari is going to go next. There’s every chance that one day it will bring back a naturally-aspirated V8 to its lineup – it has, after all, just launched the electric car it one day said it would never build, created a new manual transmission (of a sort), and still offers an atmospheric V12. But for the time being, the Ferrari 458 Speciale represents the peak of Ferrari’s dabbling in screaming flat-plane crank, naturally-aspirated V8s – and holds undeniable appeal because of it.
The mid-engined V8 lineage stretches back to the 308 GTB of 1975, while the chapter closed again with the F8 Tributo, when it was superseded by 2021’s V6-powered 296 GTB. These nine generations of sports and supercars came to define Ferrari’s road cars, as while it always offered front-engined GTs and ultra-exclusive hypercars alongside, the mid-mounted V8s were the big-sellers, at least until the more affordable California and its progeny came along.
From 2015’s 488, though, the bloodline adopted turbocharging. They were still remarkable cars, and astonishingly quick, but it left the 458 feeling like a technological sweet spot. These cars are beautiful, have amazingly biddable handling, and are blessed with lightning-fast dual-clutch gearboxes unlike their F430 predecessors, yet also rev to 9000rpm. With 562bhp, the 4.5-litre F136 V8 also develops a remarkable 125bhp per litre – or in the Speciale, the ultimate expression of the breed and one of Ferrari’s best-ever driver’s cars, 597bhp for 133bhp/litre. The Speciale isn’t just the last of the naturally-aspirated Ferrari V8s, but perhaps the ultimate V8-powered supercar from any era.
What made the Lamborghini Huracán's V10 the last of its kind?
[Image credit: Lamborghini, Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica and STO]
The transition from the long-running V10 of the Lamborghini Huracán to a turbocharged, V8-powered and hybrid-assisted setup for the Temerario is likely to cause consternation for some time to come. As a performance machine the new car is undoubtedly spectacular, and Lamborghini cannot be accused of not making an effort, given the new V8 revs to 10,000rpm. But those with a late-model Huracán in the garage must be feeling quite satisfied.
Lamborghini had dabbled with V10s as far back as 1995’s Calà concept, but it wasn’t until, under Audi ownership, the Gallardo arrived in 2003 that it became reality. The brand’s new entry-level model featured a 5-litre V10 with 493bhp, suddenly making the Ferrari 360 seem, and sound, a little under-nourished. The 5-litre soon made way for a 5.2, which continued on with 2014’s Huracán (alongside the related, and similarly-motivated Audi R8), surviving until 2024.
It’s difficult not to declare it one of the all-time great supercar engines, particularly so in the Lamborghini, as the Italian firm generally saw fit to equip it with a more vocal exhaust system than their colleagues at Audi. Later STO and Tecnica variants made 631bhp at 8000rpm, and had an intensity unmatched by any rival. But it’s as much about that near-F1 exhaust note as sheer speed, and that is something the new V8 cannot replicate, 10,000rpm or not.
Why was the BMW E60 M5 the last V10-powered M5?
[Image credit: BMW]
If the Huracán’s V10 brings to mind the F1 cars of the 2000s, the E60 BMW M5’s link is more overt. While BMW couldn’t claim that its new 5-litre S85 engine was plucked out the back of the contemporary Williams F1 car, the brand was nevertheless an F1 engine supplier at the M5’s launch in 2004, and leaned heavily on the relationship. You could buy Lamborghinis with V10 power at the time (not to mention Dodge Vipers overseas) but only BMW could lay claim to such a motorsport link – bolstered by BMW having one of its strongest seasons ever as an engine constructor in 2003.
The S85 was a truly remarkable unit too. At 500bhp on the dot it just pipped the Gallardo’s V10 for specific output and truly ignited the super saloon power race – though it seems absurd that today’s M5 makes over 200bhp more, and you can buy electric saloons with more than double that. But the M5’s performance, both on straights and around corners, could trouble Gallardos and F430s, let alone other saloons.
A seven-speed automated manual (badged SMG) now dates the M5 but the once-controversial styling has arguably aged better than the less distinctive M5s that followed, which also switched to less evocative turbocharged V8s. Like the other cars here, there will simply never be another super saloon like it. Few have been so defined by their engines as the E60 M5 – and F1 no longer seems as appealing to draw inspiration from as the days when V10s ruled.
What makes the Mercedes-AMG SLS Black Series the ultimate naturally aspirated AMG?
[Image credit: Mercedes]
The 2000s and early 2010s will surely come to be seen as a golden era for AMG. Fully into its stride after acquisition by Mercedes in the late 1990s, it seemed as if there was an AMG-badged variant of just about every model in the range – all using a variant of the brand’s handbuilt, and amusingly boisterous V8s. But at the very top was a car developed exclusively by Mercedes-AMG: The SLS.
An all-aluminium super-coupe with styling cues (and gull-wing doors) inspired by the classic W198 300SL, the SLS AMG positioned a 563bhp, dry-sump variant of AMG’s 6.2-litre V8 behind the front axle line, and balanced its weight with a seven-speed dual-clutch transaxle at the rear wheels. This alone made it the most powerful naturally-aspirated production engine of its time, but this figure quickly climbed, and in 2013, AMG launched the SLS Black Series.
With motorsport influence, a 70kg drop in weight, and a 622bhp variant of the V8 (with a new 8000rpm rev limit) it was akin to the 911 GT3s of the era in ability and ethos but packed considerably more attitude. It would also prove to be the ultimate expression of that naturally-aspirated V8, as in 2015, cars such as the C63 AMG and the SLS’s spiritual successor, the AMG GT, moved over to the new M178 engine: a 4-litre twin-turbocharged V8. It has proven capable of even more power than the old V8 but for those who prefer capacity to forced induction, there is no substitute for the 6.2.
Why is the Porsche 997 GT3 the last 911 with true steering feedback?
[Image credit: Porsche]
No 911 GT3 has ever missed the mark, but some have certainly hit it with more precision than others. There’s an argument to be made however that one generation in particular will continue to be held aloft for being closer to perfection than others, and that’s the 997 GT3, built between 2006 and 2011.
You can pick your reasons: the last use of the famous, motorsport-derived Mezger flat six, or a more compact (and importantly, compact-feeling) shell compared to the 991 that followed. But if you could select one factor in particular, vital to the GT3’s status as an all-encompassing driving experience, it’s that from the 991 onwards, the 911, and the GT3, switched to electric assistance for its power steering, from the hydraulic assistance used in the 997 and earlier.
To be clear, Porsche’s EPAS remains among the best on the market; drive a modern GT3 in isolation and you might not even realise things could get better. But step into a 997 GT3 and the level of feedback even at everyday speeds is truly astonishing. It instantly puts you in greater connection with how the car is behaving and reacting to your inputs. Perhaps a steering mechanism isn’t as profound a change as some of the other factors we’ve written about above, but as true driver connection becomes increasingly hard to come by in modern vehicles, those that offer a rich seam of feedback, like the 997 GT3, will become increasingly sought-after.
Cars like these were never designed to be museum pieces, and that’s precisely what makes them worth preserving properly. A naturally-aspirated V10 or a set of hydraulic steering racks doesn’t ask to be driven sparingly – quite the opposite – but as each of these final generations becomes harder to replace, the case for genuinely careful, knowledgeable storage between drives only grows stronger. It’s part of why we look after so many of them.
