There are people who own a nice car, people who own several nice cars, and then there is Roman Abramovich, who appears to have approached the business of collecting automobiles with the same philosophy one might apply to collecting priceless art: if it is rare, outrageous, technologically absurd or almost impossible to buy, put it in the garage. His collection is filled with machines that make ordinary supercars look like commuter vehicles, from ultra rare Bugattis and track focused Ferraris to the Aston Martin Vulcan, Pagani Zonda R, Valkyrie and the legendary Mercedes CLK GTR. At this level, money gets you through the showroom door. Rarity decides whether you are actually allowed inside.
Bugatti Brings The Sort Of Excess That Makes A Supercar Look Sensible
Bugatti occupies a particularly important place in any collection built around outrageous performance, and Abramovich has reportedly owned some of the marque’s most desirable machines. These are cars engineered with the subtlety of a military operation and the sort of performance figures that make sensible conversations about speed rather pointless. They are not merely expensive automobiles; they are rolling demonstrations of what happens when engineers are told that there is no such thing as too much power, too much engineering or too much money.
Ferrari’s Track Monsters Turn The Garage Into A Racetrack
If Bugatti represents automotive excess, Ferrari represents the slightly more dangerous idea that a road car can be made to feel like it escaped from a racing department. Abramovich’s collection has reportedly included track focused Ferrari machines that sit far beyond the ordinary supercar hierarchy. These are cars designed with lap times in mind rather than supermarket parking spaces, combining extreme aerodynamics, lightweight construction and ferocious performance. They are spectacularly fast, brutally focused and, importantly, exactly the sort of thing that makes you wonder why anyone ever bothered inventing speed limits.
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The Aston Martin Vulcan Is What Happens When Aston Martin Stops Being Sensible
The Aston Martin Vulcan is not a car that politely asks whether you would like to go faster. It assumes you do. Built as an extreme track only machine, the Vulcan combines Aston Martin’s unmistakable design language with a naturally aspirated V12 and an attitude more commonly associated with a racing prototype. Its rarity makes it particularly significant in a collection such as Abramovich’s, because owning one is not simply a matter of having enough money. It requires access to one of the most exclusive corners of modern performance-car culture.
The Pagani Zonda R Is Basically A Racing Car That Forgot To Leave
The Pagani Zonda R occupies an even more lunatic corner of the automotive world. Developed primarily for track use, it takes the already extravagant Zonda formula and strips away almost everything unnecessary before adding vast amounts of carbon fibre, aerodynamic trickery and racing technology. The result is not simply a fast car. It is an engineering exercise that happens to have four wheels. In a collection built around rarity, the Zonda R is precisely the sort of machine that belongs behind glass, although keeping it there would be a rather tragic waste.
The Valkyrie Turns Road Car Engineering Into Science Fiction
The Aston Martin Valkyrie represents another fascinating chapter in the modern hypercar story. Developed with extensive input from Red Bull Racing and renowned Formula 1 engineer Adrian Newey, the Valkyrie was conceived around the idea of bringing racing technology as close to the road as regulations would permit. Its dramatic proportions, lightweight construction and high revving V12 make it less like a conventional supercar and more like something designed for a different century. It is the kind of car that makes you wonder whether the owners actually drive it or simply stand nearby and admire the engineering.
The Mercedes CLK GTR Is Automotive History With Number Plates
Then there is the Mercedes CLK GTR, one of the great homologation specials of the modern era. Created for Mercedes-Benz’s assault on the FIA GT Championship, the road-going version was built because racing regulations demanded that a certain number of production examples exist. This is important because it means the CLK GTR was never designed as an ordinary road car that happened to become valuable. It was essentially a racing machine forced to acquire headlights, indicators and enough manners to be driven outside a circuit. That history makes it one of the most desirable cars in any serious collection. Its value comes not simply from its rarity but from the extraordinary circumstances that created it.
The remarkable thing about Abramovich’s collection is not simply the money involved. Anyone with sufficient wealth can theoretically purchase an expensive car. What becomes increasingly difficult is acquiring cars that are exceptionally rare, historically important or available only to a tiny circle of collectors. That distinction separates a wealthy garage from a serious collection. A Bugatti may represent engineering excess. A Ferrari may represent racing heritage. A Pagani may demonstrate artisanal obsession. A CLK GTR may embody motorsport history. Together, these cars tell a much bigger story about how the automobile evolved from transportation into an object of art, engineering and cultural significance.
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The Garage Becomes A Museum When The Cars Become Almost Impossible To Replace
And that is ultimately what makes a collection like Abramovich’s fascinating. The greatest cars inside it are not simply expensive toys. They are increasingly difficult pieces of automotive history to acquire, replicate or replace. Billions can buy cars. But money alone cannot recreate a production run of a handful of homologation specials, manufacture another Zonda R or turn a modern hypercar into a piece of racing history. That is when a garage stops being a garage and becomes a museum. And Abramovich’s collection, at its most spectacular, looks rather like the sort of museum where the exhibits have 1,000 horsepower and absolutely no interest in behaving themselves.
