W Motors Lykan HyperSport History

W Motors founder Ralph Debbas unveiled the Lykan HyperSport prototype at the Qatar Motor Show in February 2013, positioning it as the first sports car designed indigenously in the Middle East and among the most expensive production cars ever made at $3.4 million. Mechanically the car relied on proven German and Italian expertise — a 3.7-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six developed by RUF Automobile (740 hp, 708 lb-ft) produced in Germany, with bodywork and final assembly in Italy — but its drama was distinctly its own: titanium LED headlights encrusted with platinum-set diamonds (buyers could substitute rubies, sapphires, or yellow diamonds), gold-stitched leather, and a holographic cockpit display.

Production was deliberately microscopic: just seven units were built, with deliveries beginning in 2014. The Abu Dhabi Police acquired one car in June 2015 for its celebrity patrol fleet. W Motors also produced ten purpose-built stunt replicas (fiberglass rather than carbon fiber) for Universal Pictures' Furious 7 (2015), in which a Lykan HyperSport is driven through the upper floors of three Abu Dhabi skyscrapers — a sequence that made the car instantly recognizable worldwide. Of those ten stunt cars, one was returned to W Motors and the remaining nine were destroyed during filming.

The Lykan HyperSport claimed a top speed of 395 km/h (245 mph) and a 0–100 km/h sprint of 2.8 seconds, figures consistent with its 740-hp output but never independently verified in full production form given the tiny run. A replica sold at auction in 2022 for $175,000, underscoring the car's collector and pop-culture status even outside the seven originals.