When supercars seem mild...

There are production supercars, precision engineered with millions of Euros (sometimes Yen, sometimes Greenbacks) thrown into their development. However the wickedly-quick-bordering-on-insane products sometimes arrive via niche players and tuner specials. Forget a cohesive driving experience, these cars are all about...power. Lots of.

Meet the Hennessey Venom GT, a lightweight Lotus-lookalike mega-supercar that was brawn in the USA with its eyes fixed on the Bugatti Veyron. A 6.2-litre twin-turbo V8 produces a claimed 895kW and 1564Nm (!) to shift the carbonfibre-bodied Venom to 60mph in 2.5 seconds. The headline act, however, is 0-200mph in 16 seconds. Adaptive suspension and carbon-ceramic brakes help ensure the Venom doesn’t, err, bite like quick but ill-handling US muscle cars of old.

Of course, there are a couple of German class clowns that widen the grin on regular Mercedes and BMW products. The Brabus Rocket 800 (oh how we love that name) takes a regular CLS 63 5.5-litre V12 and strokes it to 6.2 litres. With a turbo feeding each bank of six cylinders, the four-door luxury-express produces 588kW and 1420Nm, for 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds, 200km/h in 9.8 seconds, and 300km/h in 23.8 seconds. We reckon that this rear-driver might frighten a chauffeur or two.

Fans of performance sedans may be waiting for the imminent launch of the BMW M5, but tuner Alpina has taken the 550i sedan/650i Convertible and, well, well-tuned them up. Outputs move to an M5-rivalling 373kW and 700Nm.

Unfortunately, none of these rocketships are available in Australia, but with overseas stickers ranging from E$529,000 (Brabus) to US$950,000 (Venom GT), you’d need deep pockets (and an even deeper breath) before committing to these road-going monsters.