Why The World’s First Special Licenses For High-Powered Cars Is A Brilliant Idea

I started my career in automotive journalism roughly 15 years ago as part of a scholarship. The idea was to spend a year at various publications, learning the tricks of the trade. In between stints at websites, print publications, TV studios, and even a manufacturer’s public relations department, I spent several weekends learning how to handle a powerful car. I lost count of the certificates I received from advanced driver academies, and in my mind, it meant I must be well on my way to becoming an F1 driver. And yet here I am with no championship titles to my name.

I realized fairly quickly why so much training was required, and why an elder journalist was always looking over my shoulder as I learned what not to do in a powerful car. And the timing turned out to be perfect because the McLaren MP4-12C hit the scene around the same time as I was finally allowed to attend the launches of more fruity machines. I was confident. After all, my dad always had some sort of sporty machine that could do 0-60 mph in five to six seconds in the garage, so how much quicker could a McLaren possibly be?

Now, if you’ve ever launched a McLaren, you’ll know that they go hard. There’s a huge difference between 0 to 60 mph in five seconds and doing the same in less than three. That was the first time I remember wondering how anyone could just go out and buy one of these things. And that car only had 616 horsepower at its disposal.

Australia Is The First Country To Implement A Special License

On 1 December 2024, Australia became the first country on the planet to restrict the use of high-powered cars. The folks down under have been on a mission to do something about these cars since a pedestrian was killed by a Lamborghini Huracán in 2019. It wasn’t the first time a person was run down by a car, nor will it be the last, but it’s how it happened that matters. The driver of the Huracan was actually under the speed limit but suddenly accelerated in a “harsh” and “deliberate” manner, lost control of the car, and ended up colliding with the pedestrian on the sidewalk.

It’s not so much a war on fast cars as it is a war on drivers that aren’t equipped to handle them. Because people in the government can’t speak human, they’ve come up with a new term; Ultra High Powered Vehicles (UHPV). This, according to the government, is any car with a power to weight ratio of 335 horsepower per US ton. As we stated in our initial report, it means a car like the 2025 Porsche 911 Turbo is just over the limit, while the Corvette Z06 is just under. It’s a pretty odd system, but we’ll get into that later.

For now, we just want to quickly dive into why a special license for UHPVs has arguably become a necessity.

When The Tide Changed

Back in 2010, most of the cars that could scramble your insides during a launch were still limited to high-end buyers, but then three things started happening. First, mass-produced electric vehicles became a thing, and powerful rides from the 2000s became cheap. The German horsepower wars, which are still ongoing, had already reached ridiculous levels in the early-2000s. A 2002 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG’s 5.4-liter supercharged M113 V8 produced 469 hp and 520 lb-ft of torque, and by 2010 you could buy one for less than a new Camry because German luxury cars simply don’t retain value.

The third thing that happened was the introduction of cheap V8 muscle in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The 2011 Ford Mustang GT debuted the then-new Coyote V8, which meant you could get a 412 hp muscle car for less than $30k. The 2011 Camaro cost more or less the same, and it had 426 hp. The 2011 Dodge Challenger R/T only offered a paltry 376 hp, but you could still get into serious trouble with that. We all know about the Mustang’s unfortunate love of crowd hunting.

On the surface, the democratization of speed is a good thing. You wouldn’t be here right now if you didn’t like going fast, but there was a point in time when everything was perfectly in balance. A hot hatch was perfect with 200 hp, while sports cars had between 250 and 300 horses. A performance sedan had between 400 and 450 hp, and supercars like the magical Ferrari 458 produced no more than 600.

Things are absurd right now. The modern equivalent of the Ferrari 458, the 296, produces 819 hp. And then there are super SUVs like the Rivian R1S that produce well over 1,000 horses, while a hot hatch like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N can produce up to 641 hp. We’ve democratized speed to the point where a Tesla Model 3 Performance, which is a few hundred bucks shy of the average new car price in America, can go from 0 to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds.

Some Sort Of Control Is Necessary

Getting a driver’s license in most parts of the world is quite easy. The system we use in the USA is pretty much the standard. You do a written test, and a government official checks whether you can drive and park. Mind you, it’s relatively difficult compared to some Third World countries where you simply have to drive forward for 20 feet, and then reverse back. In some cases, if you pay a big enough bribe, you just have to prove that your arms work.

Once you’re through the process, you have the freedom to buy whatever you want. It didn’t matter that much in the 2000s when starter cars were 100 hp hatchbacks and sedans, but these days the kids want EVs and even the slowest Model 3 will hit 60 mph faster than an E46 M3. Think about that for a second. What would you have done at 16 if you had an E46 M3 to play with? I know for sure that I would not be sitting here writing this. I’d be super dead, which is like normal dead, but with a more spectacular ending.

Why Australia’s System Is Flawed

There are some very good ideas, to be fair. If you own whatever the government calls a supercar or hypercar, you may not turn the following systems off on a public road:

• Stability control
• Traction control
• Autonomous emergency braking

Many will say the above is stupid, but in my experience, you’re just looking for trouble if you switch the traction and stability control off on anything with more than 500 horses on a public road. That’s what the track is for.

I am concerned that Oz is calculating performance using power to weight, however. In my opinion, the most dangerous cars are overpowered and underbraked SUVs, and heavy EVs. The threshold set by Australia is 335 horsepower per 2,240 lbs. That means the 10,000-pound Hummer EV, which can get to 60 mph in three seconds, and is not equipped with ALL the brakes in the world, is perfectly fine. Also, you can do some pretty stupid stuff in a Z06 (also under the limit), and it kind of feels like it should be on there.

This new system will require people to take a new driving test. According to the government, this test will teach you to:

• Safely operate a supercar
• The risks associated with a supercar
• And it will teach you about all the features, such as traction and stability control

In case you’re wondering how serious the government is about this, the first recipient of a fine received it a few hours into the 1st of December for operating a Lamborghini Huracán STO without this new license.

Is There A Better Way?

There’s an old racing adage that says if you want to win, employ a Fin. Getting a driving license in Finland is not easy. The training to get a basic license requires 18 hours of driver training, including on slippery surfaces, 18 hours of theory, a theoretical test, and then a two-part driving test. That only gets you access to the roads, but only for a two-year period where you still need to complete advanced driving courses, and nighttime driving in a simulator.

Basically, at the end of what is effectively a three-year process, you know exactly what’s going to happen if you stomp on the throttle of a 600 hp car with the traction and stability control switched off.

If this sounds like an infringement on your freedom, remember that a driver’s license is not a right, but a privilege.