There are 40% more supercars on UK roads than there were five years ago, according to research by car buying comparison site Motorway.co.uk. Slowing consumer spending and a declining car market - down 9.3% in September vs September 2016 - haven’t stalled the rise of the supercar, as the numbers registered to drive on UK roads has increased by almost 8% (7.7%) in the past year alone.

A new red Ferrari still turns heads, and nothing exemplifies the excesses of the supercar more than a garishly coloured Lamborghini - but just how many supercars are there on UK roads? More than you think. According to Motorway.co.ukresearch analysing the latest DVLA data, there are over 36,000 supercars currently registered in the UK.
 

Pensions Minister Steve Webb joked in 2014 that retirees should be free to spend their pension pots on a Lamborghini if they wanted to. While it’s unlikely many pensioners did spend big on a new Lambo, numbers have risen from less than 800 in 2013 to more than 1,300 on the road in 2017 - an increase of 54%.

And if you thought an electric supercar would never take off, think again. The BMW i8, the world’s first petrol-electric hybrid supercar, has proved a huge success if UK registrations are anything to go by. There are 1,747 currently registered in the UK in 2017; that’s 14.6% more than last year, and over six times (526%) more than in 2014 (its year of release).