Just my somewhat tilted discussion about "rare cars":
The title of this thread is "Rare Car Sightings" and I'm not trying to nitpick all the very cool car sightings reported here since I greatly enjoy checking them out on a regular basis and posting some myself. But I was thinking about how "rare" sightings depend on location and perspective. However, in the long run, rare really depends on the total number sold or still in existence.
One thing that made me consider this is that the sporty car I drive is actually more "rare" than many of the exotic but not-so-rare cars reported here. In the U.S. there were about a total of 7000 Toyota Supra turbo models sold from 1993 to 1998 when sales stopped. Of those, about 4000 had the 6 speed transmission like mine, the rest were auto trans. This probably accounts for why I see more Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, etc. than Supras.
For comparison, this is a production note I found about the Aston Martin DB9 comparing it to the Ferrari F430 and 911 Turbo Porsche:
"...As of 2004 production is expected be up to five thousand units a year which is roughly the same as its rivals, in particular the Ferrari F430 and Porsche 911 Turbo..."
I also found this statistic in a discussion about the release of the Ferrari F430, the numbers refer to the 360 model:
"...Since 1999, more than 17,000 Berlinettas, Spiders and Challenge Stradales have rolled off the Maranello assembly line. So the F430, whose first-year worldwide production of 2000 cars is already spoken for, has some big Italian loafers to fill..."
From what I can find, it seems that there have been over 2500 Lamborghini Murciélagos sold so far, and well over 3000 Gallardos.
As for the Bentley GT, most of Bentley's current production is the GT but all I could find was this about total Bentley production: nearly 9000 units in 2006.
Hey, I'm not bashing any of these other cool cars. If anybody wants to trade a "not so rare" Ferrari F430 or Bentlety GT for my "rare" Supra, please PM me real soon
