I guess I define "super car" quite a bit different than most of the posters here.
I don't think a super car needs to be "exclusive" or "pedigree", I save terms like that for "exotic cars", although maybe I'm waxing adjectives.
If I was to define the term super car (and I think I'm going too) I would say that a super car is a high performance automobile built for the sole purpose of driving pleasure. I think under that definition the M3 qualifies. It certainly performs at about the same level as cars much more expensive, has a very nice interior (at least the newest iteration). What does it matter if the more common man can afford one?
I'd also suggest that anyone who claims that the M3 is a 3 Series with a sports package hasn't driven one. Difference is profound.
That sounds more like the definition of a "sports car", which i aother definition that is hotly debated,
I think if we desribe the M3 as a "High Performace Car" there will probably not be much debate, but you never know, after all this IS Bimmerfest.:rofl:
For what it's worth (probaly not very much) here is the Wikipedia definition of "Supercar"
Supercar is a term generally used for high-end
sports cars, whose performance is superior to that of its contemporaries. It has been defined specifically as "a very expensive, fast or powerful car with a centrally located engine",and stated in more general terms: "it must be very fast, with sporting handling to match", "it should be sleek and eye-catching" and its price should be "one in a rarefied atmosphere of its own",but the correct usage of the term is both subjective and disputed, especially amongst enthusiasts. The use of the term can be dependent on the era; a vehicle that may have been considered a supercar in one decade may not be considered the same in another.[The term supercar may refer to factory-built,
street-legal race cars. Some vehicles referred to as supercars include features required for
race cars such as
roll cages In recent years, the term "supercar" has been defined more specifically as any car that can attain at least 200mph and maintain reasonable control. High price only defines a car as an exotic, not necessarily a supercar.
Origin of the term
The term was first noted by Car & Track in 1917 to describe an Alfa Romeo Monza. An advertisement for the
Ensign Six, a 6.7 L (409 cu in) high-performance car similar to the
Bentley Speed Six, appeared in
The Times for 11 November 1920 with the phrase "If you are interested in a supercar, you cannot afford to ignore the claims of the Ensign6."
The
Oxford English Dictionary also cites the use of the word in an advertisement for an unnamed car in
The Motor dated 3 November 1920, "The Supreme development of the British super-car." and defines the phrase as suggesting 'a car superior to all others'. The phrase did not become popular until much later and is often said to have originated with
British motor journalist
L. J. K. Setright writing about the
Lamborghini Miura in
CAR Magazine in the mid-1960s. The magazine claims to have "coined the phrase" although it was also used in May 1965 by the American magazine
Car Life, in a test of the
Pontiac GTO. By the 1970s the phrase was in regular use, if not precisely defined.