World top Ten luxury cars

Buying a car is a simple process. You go to the dealership, pick out the one you want, and the let the haggling over the doormats and the undercoating commence.

The cars on this list, though, are a little different. Take the gorgeous new Ferrari LaFerrari. Even if you do happen to have a spare $1.13 million lying around, don’t bother calling your Ferrari dealer. If Ferrari thinks you deserve one of its 499 masterpieces, it will call and offer the privilege of such a masterpiece to you.

That’s what sets these dream cars apart, and makes this list of the world’s top ten great cars a bit special.

Let’s face it; we may never see one of these cars in the flesh — let alone own one — but that’s true of the Mona Lisa, too. And that doesn’t stop people traveling around the world to see her. These cars are more than just insane pieces of engineering capable of transporting you from 0 to 60 faster than lightning striking a cheetah; indeed, they are cultural treasures.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your checkbooks…

Jump ahead:

10. McLaren P1 $1.1M

From the same manufacturer as the legendary F1, the P1 might just live up the insane legacy of the first 230 mph production car.

Lurking underneath the carbon fiber is a 3.8 liter twin-turbo V8 which when paired with the onboard electric motor is good for 903 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque. The right way to think about this isn’t even as a hybrid, but like a roadgoing Formula 1 car with a Kinetic Energy Recovery System. This will help you get over the fact that you can only get 9 miles on the battery.

Straight ahead speed isn’t quite as lunatic as it was on the F1, with the top speed limited to a measly 217 mph. But it will get you to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds, and make it from 0-182 in 16.5 seconds, twice as fast as Ferrari 458 Italia. It will also grip and brake like the amazing Spiderman on PEDs.

McLaren has gone all out on the quality control, when engineers test the waterproof seals the car is doused in nearly 4, 000 gallons of water.

If you want one, act now because they just went into production and most of the 375 are spoken for.

Related: Best performance cars under $35, 000

9. Hennessey Venom GT $1.1M

The engineers over at Hennessey may need a little less testosterone and a little more Thorazine. That hasn’t stopped them, though, from achieving something that most physicists consider impossible. This little company has produced the fastest ever production car, capable of 271 mph.

They say everything is bigger in Texas and the Lone Star State-based tuning house is happy to that statement correct.

The Venom GT is filled with enough horsepower to stretch across the Lone Star State itself, packing a mind-blowing 1, 500 horsepower mined from a poisonous 7.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine. 0-60 is pegged at two seconds. The riotous acceleration doesn’t end there, though, the Venom claims a top speed of 287 mph.

At just $1.1 million this car is almost a bargain considering it can out strip everything on this list, except maybe: the mighty Koenigsegg One:1.

8. Zenvo ST1 $1.2M

Denmark may only be known for its massive butter consumption and as the setting of Hamlet. But the Zenovo ST1 is definitely ‘to be.’