Supercar or Snowmobile?

All horses, no sleighs.
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There are plenty of butch 4×4 trucks—Cruisers, Rovers, Raptors, bruisers—that make excellent snow-traversing machines, but none of them have a V12. So forget the lot. Don’t compromise. Want sensible advice? Put winter tires on a beater Subaru Legacy. Want surprisingly functional, snow-adept supercar fun? Read on.

You love supercars—vicious silhouettes, ludicrous speeds and siren sounds—every day. And if you have the means, you wealthy minx, you’d likely drive one. During the summer, every mountain road in the New York tri-state area is crawling with Tommy Bahama-clad millionaires driving shiny Italian exotica. Sometimes, that means pulling your Hyundai onto the shoulder and allowing a dozen Ferraris, all convertibles, to purr past, the passengers all waving a multi-carat courtesy wave. (Ask me how I know.) That joy and verve and glorious condescension can be available year-round, so long as you stick to the supercars listed below. Because why settle for practicality when you can Scandinavian Flick a Porsche through snowbanks?

Ferrari FF

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Oh, yes I love the Ferrari F12, you say, but might it do better with all-wheel drive? And a hatchback, for shovels and snowshoes and a bushel of ossetra? That’s essentially the Ferrari FF, an all-wheel drive V12 hatchback with enough power to literally outrun a storm. Put roof racks on the thing and do what must be done. (Read: a roadtrip to Vail.)

Lancia Stratos

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Transverse mid-engine? Yes. Short wheelbase? Yes. Italian looks? Yes. Welcome, friend. You’re the new Snow Acrobatics King of the county. The window doesn’t roll down, however, so only passengers will hear your primal whooping. Pity.

Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4

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The Huracán, ostensibly the world’s sexiest Audi, is a wailing super-coupe with tires and transfer-cases that’d much rather you do doughnuts on snow, not tarmac. It’s all the old-school wedge insanity, now with Quattro all-wheel drive. Please, oblige the beast.

Bentley Continental Speed

Sure, the Bentayaga has ride height and terrain settings. But the Continental can do 200 MPH across an ice sheet. Most Bentleys collect like flotsam at a river bend in Monaco or Beverly Hills, but this voluptuous coupe has a similar all-wheel drive system to the Huracán, so it’s plenty adept in poor conditions. Which is why we’re lobbying Conti owners to sail en masse to Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Lamborghini LM002

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If it can handle sand dunes, it can handle the Hudson Valley. Or Matterhorn. The Lamborghini LM002 is automotive nonsense incarnate, its differentials engaged, Countach V12 sending up four rooster tails of snow. Actually, that makes perfect sense.

Porsche 356 Carrera Twin-Cam