By Jared Hinderer

With the Geneva auto show having been last week, there is still much talk over three very hyped hyper cars; the Lamborghini Veneno, McLaren P1, and the LaFerrari. While all three have very different styles and attitudes, my love goes for only one.

Let me start with the Veneno. This is one bold car. It looks like the designers at Lamborghini thought back to their days as kids and though “Let’s make something crazy. Something that will surprise people, something they’ve not seen before!” Well, they did just that. The styling of the Veneno is “out there” to say the least. And with 740 horsepower the performance is also out there. While the $4 million price tag seems highly outrageous, I understand their reasoning behind it. Lamborghini wanted an incredibly exclusive flagship to carry their badge into 2013, and they succeeded, having only built four of them; one for their museum and the rest already sold to extremely lucky buyers. However, this is the reason the Veneno ranks at the bottom of my favorite of the three. With a price of $4 million and the tiny number produced, these cars will never leave a garage. Cars are made to be driven and the Veneno never will be, which is sad because it is amazing car.

Next is the new McLaren P1. The P1 slots itself in the middle between the Veneno and LaFerrari in almost every aspect. At $1.2 million it’s cheaper than the Veneno by a long shot, but about $200,000 more than the Ferrari. Same goes for the power output. At 903 horsepower from a hybrid engine system of a 3.7 liter twin-turbo V8 combined with an electric motor it has 163 more horsepower over the 6.5 liter V12 in the Veneno but 47 less than LaFerrari. For this and its kind of dull styling (in comparison to the other two), I also slotted it right in the middle between the two. I’m not saying the P1 is not cool car, it is, but there is just something about the P1 that doesn’t draw me in like the Ferrari does.

Super cars are made to be driven and provide smiles for anyone around one. I don’t think anything does that better than a bright red Ferrari. Maybe it’s cliche, but a Ferrari just draws attention. But this new LaFerrari, despite its silly sounding name, is a serious car that deserves the attention. With a combination of a 6.3 liter V12 and two electric motors putting out 950 horsepower, the LaFerrari is the second fastest out of the three. It’s also the best looking of the three combining some of lunacy of the Lamborghini in the form of the massive ducts on the hood and side, but remaining mildly conservative by returning to a shape similar to famed Ferrari Enzo. This new Ferrari provides the perfect medium among the three new super cars, and that is why it earns my top spot in this comparison. And at a mere $1 million and 499 production models, chances are this car will actually get driven, even if very little, by the lucky buyers.

All in all, each of these cars are amazing, and I’d love to own any of them, but the LaFerrari is just the best combination of styling and performance to me.