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The Best Tour Companion — Happy Father's Day
Over the last few years, one of the things I’ve enjoyed most on our tours is seeing the number of fathers and sons enjoying the experience together...
June 21, 2026
Today, it's time to see how the wildcards of the supercar market have performed over the last decade.
There’s something oddly fascinating about flicking through old classified adverts, and that’s exactly what we've done for this article, revisiting Supercar Driver magazines from 10 to 12 years ago to dig out classifieds and see how today’s prices compare.
We’ve covered Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, but there are some fascinating results from other brands too, so this time it’s 2015 vs Today — wildcards edition. Without further ado, let’s get started.
The original Audi R8 GT felt properly special when it launched: lightweight, rear-driven feel from a Quattro all-wheel-drive system, a screaming V10 and limited production of just 333 cars worldwide, of which just 33 came to the UK. At the time, £100k still felt like strong money for what was essentially an upgraded R8.
But unlike some of the more exotic machinery on this list, the R8 GT hasn’t gone nuclear in value. In fact, it’s softened. Part of that is mileage, with the original ad being for a 6k-mile car, while the current ad is for a 19k-mile car, but part of it is also market positioning. Buyers increasingly see it as an excellent analogue-era Audi rather than a blue-chip collector car. That said, there’s a growing appreciation for naturally aspirated V10s and limited-run driver-focused cars, so don’t be surprised if the market starts to recognise this analogue rarity.
The BMW M4 GTS was BMW doing something slightly unhinged, in the best possible way. No controversial styling, no four-wheel drive, no alarming weight figure. Water injection, 500hp from a turbocharged straight-six, manually adjustable coilovers, a half cage and a giant rear wing made it feel far more like a road-legal track car than a typical M car. Limited to 700 units worldwide, with around 30 officially coming to the UK, rarity was never the issue.
The issue was price. At over £120k plus options list, and around £165k for a delivery mileage car in 2016, it felt outrageously expensive for an M4, and many buyers simply couldn’t get past the badge. Time hasn’t exactly vindicated the original pricing either, with values now sitting not much higher than half what they once reached. That said, sentiment around special M cars has improved massively, and as BMW moves further into heavier, more digital performance cars, the rawness and sense of occasion of the GTS is starting to feel increasingly special. It may never be an E46 CSL-style icon, but it’s earning more respect than it once had, and maybe now is an appealing time to buy.
The first-generation Ford GT has matured beautifully. Ten years ago, it was already respected, but some buyers still saw it as a slightly crude American supercar. Now, the market appreciates exactly what makes it brilliant: manual gearbox, supercharged V8, analogue driving experience, and one of the best retro-modern designs ever produced. It feels mechanical in a way modern supercars increasingly don’t, and it’s just cool.
Whilst over 4,000 were built worldwide, only around 100 were originally exported to Europe, with just 28 allocated to the UK, making it more of a collector’s item here than in its homeland. Values haven’t gone utterly insane, but strong appreciation and growing global demand suggest the market still believes in the car long term.
A car close to our hearts after we ran one as a tour car, the Mercedes-AMG GT R is so much better than any of us expected. Dubbed the “Beast of the Green Hell”, it took the already muscular AMG GT and dialled everything up: more power, rear-wheel steering, active aero, wider bodywork and proper track intent. With 577bhp from the glorious twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8, it felt like AMG’s answer to the hardcore 911s of the world, and was a completely different car to the regular AMG GTs.
Like many fast modern AMGs, though, depreciation hit hard. The problem wasn’t the car, it was supply and succession. AMG kept evolving the GT lineup with Black Series and Pro variants, which softened demand for earlier GT Rs. Still, judged purely as a driver’s car, it remains hugely appealing: fast, theatrical and wonderfully antisocial. Things have already picked up though after they bottomed out around £90k, and with V8s increasingly under threat, there’s every chance the market becomes more sentimental about cars like this in years to come.
The standard Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG has quietly become a modern classic almost by default.
Gullwing doors help, obviously, but the real appeal is the naturally aspirated 6.2-litre M159 V8. Huge displacement, massive noise and quite the appetite for oversteer mean the SLS is a brute to drive, but in a package that could easily waft you down to the south of France.
The SLS also marked AMG proving it could build a proper halo supercar entirely in-house, and the fact that nothing truly like it ever came before or since means demand has grown massively, and depsite the Roadster being rarer, the Gullwing doors mean the Coupe fetches over double in the current market. This example being left-hand drive is also a little cheaper, with a right-hand-drive example with 20k miles on the market right now at £265k.
People once thought £170k was expensive after they had a brief dip down to around £100k. Those people now probably wish they’d bought two.
The SLS AMG Black Series was as expensive as it was outrageous when it was new. Now, it hasn’t quite matched the climb of its standard brother.
Collectors have fully embraced the formula, though: naturally aspirated AMG flagship, limited production (350 worldwide), aggressive aero, wild driving experience, and arguably one of the greatest V8 engines ever built. One with less than 500 miles sold at RM Sotheby’s Arizona 2025 for $775,000 (£577,000), whilst a 5,000-mile example sold at RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2025 for $676,000 (£503,000).
Whilst values haven’t gone insane, the key shift is perception. A decade ago, people questioned whether a Mercedes could justify Ferrari money, and perhaps it was overpriced. Now, buyers simply accept that this is one of the defining performance cars of its era, and it no longer has any problem justifying half a million pounds.
Few cars have had a bigger reputation turnaround than the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. For years, people criticised the SLR for being too heavy, too soft and too GT-focused compared to the Enzo and Carrera GT. Then everyone suddenly realised it wasn’t actually supposed to take those two on head to head, and represented something manufacturers would never build again: a front-engined, carbon-fibre super-GT with a supercharged V8 developed jointly by Mercedes and McLaren.
Values have climbed enormously as a result. Even standard coupes now comfortably sit in the £300k–£450k range, a 2,400-mile Roadster is up for half a million, while ultra-rare variants like the 722 S Roadster are deep into collector territory — European Prestige currently have a 722 S Roadster (1 of 150) for £850k. Showing how much demand has grown, Tom Hartley sold a silver coupe last week before it was even advertised.
The 12C deserves far more credit than it often gets. This was the car that relaunched McLaren as a serious road-car manufacturer, introducing the carbon MonoCell chassis and twin-turbo V8 architecture that would underpin nearly everything that followed. It may have lacked the visual drama of Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the time, and later McLarens, but dynamically it was hugely impressive, with astonishing ride quality and devastating pace compared to its rivals.
In 2016, values had already softened hugely from its initial list price of nearly £170,000, but have remained fairly steady over the past few years, and there’s a growing appreciation for the 12C as the purest expression of McLaren’s modern philosophy. It’s also something of a bargain in supercar terms: carbon tub, astonishing performance and genuinely special engineering for well under six figures, even for this low mileage car signed by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Reliability concerns and brand depreciation still keep some buyers cautious, but for those willing to take the plunge, the 12C increasingly looks like one of the best buys in the modern supercar market.
After massive initial overs like the example we’re showing from when they first came out, 675LTs took a huge hit in typical McLaren fashion, and for a while they were woefully undervalued. They’re one of the best driver’s cars of the modern era, and I remember seeing cars below £200k, wishing I had enough money to buy one then, as it was obvious the world would one day twig on.
That has now happened. Enthusiasts increasingly recognise the 675LT as one of the very best McLarens: relatively lightweight, hugely engaging and genuinely special to drive. The original example had just 380 miles on the clock when the initial overs happened, and this current example sits at just 600 miles. It hasn’t become speculative collector madness just yet, but more and more examples of the 500 Coupes and 500 Spiders have been snapped up, they’re becoming few and far between on the market, and after the dip, values have taken a recent surge accordingly.
