40 of the most useless sports cars ever made

A V6 with a four-speed manual transmission took around 11 seconds to reach 60 mph, while the turbo-four needed 11 to 12 seconds. Yugo. The automotive press, as well as potential buyers, were attracted . I include the Chevy Chevette only to note that even the most unloved and unlovely cars have their partisans. A Renault-sourced, 130-hp, 2.8-liter V6 anchor gave the DMC-12 a 0-60 mph time in an underwhelming 9 seconds. Engineering innovations distinguished the Porsche brand from other sports car manufacturers during the years that followed, including many years contributing to motorsport success and enthusiast admiration. if( 'moc.enilnoefiltseb' !== location.hostname.split('').reverse().join('') ) { Mechanically, it was a catastrophe, Aston Martins Dunkirk. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (19501965). So, without further ado, here are some of the worst vehicles ever produced and some cars that actually werent as bad as their reputation would suggest. The exact number varies, but it's very low yet makes up for it in power. In 1973, the GTO created a new motor for Le Mans with 455-cid V8, making 250 hp. A joint Toyota and Subaru project, the GT86 boasts a commitment to driving purity with its beautiful composure, balance, and accuracy. The compact import was actually a Fiat 127 that was lightly modified and built in what was then socialist Yugoslavia. The first sports car produced in postwar America was a major hunk of junk. smallblock in the 1980 Corvette be replaced with a wholly inadequate 305 V8, putting out 180 hp of pure shame. Its not clear if the Horsey Horseless was ever actually built or if it is a chimera of auto history, but it reminds us just what a radical, hard-to-conceptualize thing a horseless carriage was. Currently in its sixth generation, the sports car has a range of powertrain options with top performance. What were they thinking?! By 1974, it had morphed into this, this thing. Sports cars are the real pinnacle of the automotive world. One struggles to think of a worse vehicle at a worse time. It has 18-inch alloy wheels and can move from 0-60 mph in 6.9 seconds. This was their version of a "luxury" car, and though it did have a few advanced features like moisture-activated wipers and independent suspension, it looked like a mutant hybrid of an Audi and Volvoin a bad way. In other words, people became addicted to the pose. Its unique feature was the rear-facing bench seat, which meant passengers could watch in horror as traffic threatened to rear-end this rolling roadblock of a car. Although the level of luxury in the early-60s was much different than todays market, the MG was promoted as an upmarket alternative to the Healey-badged car. Instead, we can probably agree on a shortlist of extremely poor cars, each of which has a strong case of its own to take home the award. Whether they suffer from poor build quality, short engine life, issues with corrosion, or just plain miserable styling , those are the attributes of a car that deserves a bad reputation. Especially with the stylish two-seater Mazda MX-5 that comes with a convertible top for feeling the wind while you drive. He has written articles on a variety of subjects including travel destinations, sleep disorders, electrical equipment, heat exchangers, and construction. Despite its flaws, it was the right car at the right time as far as Ford is concerned. Instead, the F-body compacts were rushed to the market and suffered from a severe case of premature rust thanks to a design flaw. Aside from the fact that some of them started exhibiting rust before they even made it to the dealerships, Chrysler had to recall every single one of 1976 and 1977 models in order to replace rusted out front fenders. But the Camaro is lacking in vital areas such as the premature timing chain wear drivers complained about. There arent too many products with such a strong impact on the general populations impression of the whole family of corresponding alternatives as the Oldsmobile diesel engines. OkayyyyDeprived of wings, the Dymaxion was a three-wheel, ground-bound zeppelin, with a huge levered A-arm carrying the rear wheel, which swiveled like the tail wheel of an airplane. It was, of course, slow, since the tiny engine barely put out 50 horsepower, and interior bits are shoddy and cheap. The Netherlands isn't exactly known for high-quality automobiles, so the Spyker C8 stands out more. Less a car than a 5th-grade science project on seed germination, the Peel Trident was designed and built on the Isle of Man in the 1960s for reasons as yet undetermined, kind of like Stonehenge. The Kaiser Darrin and Corvette sports cars were wrapped in fiberglass bodies, for instance. But even with the high price tag attached to the Z4 30i, it's not without faults. Dubbed the Ford Valdez by the Sierra Club, the Excursion was a passenger vehicle of gob-smacking proportions. With a top speed of 62.1 mph and a 0-50 mph acceleration time of 30.6 seconds (not even to 60 mph, but 50!) Reviews were mixed, and sales were weak, prompting Chevrolet to nearly cancel the program, but they stayed the course, and today they produce some of the best performing sports cars ever made. They would end up producing three different versions of the engine (5.7L and 4.3L V8, and 4.3L V6) vastly improving it near the end of the production run, but the damage had already been done by then. The fact that the FoMoCo brass knowingly decided against fixing the faulty design because it would cost more than potential lawsuits only added insult to injury. The Corvair started life as a stripped-down import fighter but turned out to be expensive to build and didnt immediately catch fire. Its surprising, considering that Chrysler and GM are in the same town, that GM didnt learn from the Plymouth Prowler episode. GM deserves credit for trying, but the V-8-6-4 was the Titanic of engine programs. A linerless aluminum block, in particular, which was capped by a tall, heavy iron cylinder head that expanded at different rates and because of other development mistakes or cost cutting, would cause permanent damage to the engine. It has amazing features such as a 6.2-inch touchscreen display, Cloth upholstery, and rearview monitor. The Flyer represents something well see several times on this list: The drive to make the absolute cheapest, most minimal automobile possible. Problems included piston scuffing due to the use of a linerless aluminum block (which has since been perfected), rushed paint jobs, and selective rustproofing that left significant areas prone to corrosion, among others. As if its role model wasnt dodgy enough, the Cadillac brass actually had the gull to ask $12,181 for what was essentially a dressed up $8,137 Chevy Cavalier. Probably not, as this was AMC's (the company that brought us the Pacer) yawn song of a brand they cooked up with noted crappy car company Renault. The singer's merch van was robbed during his South American tour, One clip in particular was like a "knife in the back". One owner reports that the rear axle fell out. The BRZ gearbox has poor gear changing ability. The Camaro is one of the oldest car in the Chevrolet family having been in existence since 1967. And with a V6 that only put out 147 horsepower, the Imperial is better left forgotten. The carburetors had to be constantly romanced to stay in balance. Ich bin Junk! This is not a case of the advantage of hindsight; this was obviously a crazy idea, even in 1913. While traditional sports cars were open roadsters, closed coups gained popularity during the 1930s. However, the choice of powertrain negated all the excitement and resulted in a less-than-average performance car. The Ford Edsel had so much going against it that its a small wonder that it ever existed at all. This pushed Corvair sales down and in 1969 the plug was pulled on the Corvair. In 1934, he flew his first successful prototype, the Arrowplane, a high-wing monoplane with tricycle wheels. Mondials eventually got much better. Dis is no problem. In later interviews with GM designers who, for decencys sake, will remain unnamed it emerged that the Aztek design had been fiddled with, fussed over, cost-shaved and otherwise compromised until the tough, cool-looking concept had been reduced to a bulky, plastic-clad mess. It soars north of $28,000 and comes standard with a 2.4-liter, four-cylinder Ecotec engine that produces 173 horsepower at 5,800 rpm. Drink Cooler. In 2001, it was the bestselling car in Europe and placed second only to the Peugeot 206 in 2002. They may not be as fast as trains or aircraft but they certainly draw more attention. Bestlifeonline.com is part of the Meredith Health Group, 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Convertible. Half a century has passed since the original debut of this controversial microcar. Part of the British roadster revolution in the late 1950s and 60s, the MG Midget was effectively a badge-engineered version of the Austin-Healey Sprite. Adding to that, owners have found that the slick-shifting transmission has quality issues, and some claim noises occur while steering at low speed. The attention-grabbing Saturn Sky is a two-seat coupe with great sound insulation. What really killed the Edsel was poor planning. The 350Z quickly became a best-selling sports car. It was inevitable that he would be drawn to the material. On the ground, the wings folding against the fuselage like those of a fly (now would be a good time to note that Waterman must have been crazy to get airborne in such a contraption). Being positioned between the rear bumper and rear axle was one thing, but Pintos fuel tanks were further exposed by reduced rear crush space. All of us have got a favorite or two for that unpopular title, but the right answer probably doesnt even exist. Of course the Pinto goes on the Worst list, but not because it was a particularly bad car not particularly but because it had a rather volatile nature. If only the Yugo wasnt treated like dirt. Im just saying. It comes standard with a V-8 engine and 483 horsepower, and a starting price of $200,204. had a weak inline 4-cylinder engine wrapped up in nasty interior plastic sprinkled with poor build quality. The Bi-Autogo was essentially a two-wheeled vehicle, carrying its considerable heft on 37-in. In fact, during the recent floods in Britain, an Amphicar enthusiast served as a water taxi, bringing water and groceries to a group of stranded schoolkids. Soon it became clear Ach Du Lieber! that the Janus was a disaster, coming or going. Uh-oh. The reason for iDrive and similar systems is that designers were running out of room for switches and instruments. RELATED: These Are The Best FWD Cars Ever Made. If you burn with desire to take one of the worst cars of all time for a spin, Berlin, Germany or Budapest, Hungary are your best bet to do so. I was in the audience at the Detroit auto show the day GM unveiled the Pontiac Aztek and I will never forget the gasp that audience made. The standard line is that the Amphicar was both a lousy car and a lousy boat, but it certainly had its merits. Though unworkable, this three-wheeled suppository was the boldest of a series of futuristic, rear-engined cars of the 1930s, including the Tatra, the Highway Aircraft Corporations Fascination car and, everybodys favorite, the Nazis KdF-wagen. This is notably ironic, since the cars creator the smooth-talking Malcolm Bricklin didnt include an ashtray or lighter in the car, to discourage smoking. Another option was with 348 hp. The first batch used the engine from the MK3, a 2.0-liter that produced a mere 115 horsepower, which accelerated the car to 60 mph in a lackluster 10.5 seconds. Not enough power." People, particularly women drivers, discovered that they liked sitting up high. It produced only 63 horespower with twin SU carburetors, which simply wasnt enough to give it any straight-line acceleration. A wooden horse head was attached to the front of the chuffing buggy in order to make it resemble a horse and carriage (Smith recommended the horse head be hollow to contain volatile fuel another great idea). Quality control was an enormous issue, not just inside the plant but from suppliers as well. Yes, it had a quick folding retractable hardtop with seductive styling and top-level performance. The. Moreover, its super low price of $3,990 attracted car buyers who couldnt afford to follow the maintenance schedule, causing unnecessary mechanical breakdowns and pretty much killing off the Yugo. This classic sports car comes with a standard 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The Allegros back window would fall out and the doors would jam shut if jacked up in the wrong place. V8 and measured over 19 ft. long. The suspension and steering are typically designed for precise control over challenging curves at high speeds. The following are twenty-five useless sports cars that failed to make the grade. Another mediocre-to-bad Chrysler product, the Caliber is a front-wheel drive hatchback that is the very opposite of "hot." This beauty looks simple but is 500 pounds heavier than the Mazda MX-5 Miata. By 1971, only the Imperial LeBaron was left and it shared the monstrous slab-sided fuselage styling of corporate siblings like the Chrysler New Yorker and the Dodge Monaco. Thats around $200 more than their market value. Intent on containing costs, Chrysler stuck its standard-issue 3.5-liter V6 under the hood, good for a rather less than spectacular 250 hp. These are not mild problems for the car, because an inaccurate vehicle location could delay emergency responders, increasing the risk of injury. Hadnt they treated it just like a regular gasoline engine during development, that is, and decided to simply retool the Oldsmobiles Rocket 350 into an oil burner. Designer-genius R. Buckminster Fuller was one of the centurys great nutjobs, a walking unorthodoxy who originally conceived of the Dymaxion as a flying automobile, or drivable plane, with jet engines and inflatable wings. It was low on interior space and its engines were anemic. Twenty years later, the cars many design and engineering innovations the aerodynamic singlet-style fuselage, steel-spaceframe construction, near 50-50 front-rear weight distribution and light weight would have been celebrated. It looks like an armadillo Transformer tarted up with two tons of plasticand the long, sloping windshield made piloting this rig an unnerving adventure. Fiberglass was the 50s carbon fiber tough, versatile, lighter than steel and more affordable than aluminum. The end result was the Pontiac Fiero. More like Doofus on the half-shell. The Miata is the best-selling two-seat convertible sports car in automobile history. RELATED: 10 Cars Everyone Hates That Are Actually Great. Although the swoopy styling of the 71 Corvette remained strong, the performance was well below expectations. These are the vehicles we all wish to have at some point in our lives. The Triumph TR7s inclusion here is practically a homage to all its predecessors as well. The 1.1-liter engine pumped out only 55 horsepower and was known for crapping out quickly, sadly the Yugo didn't go so great. And, as vehicles got bigger and heavier, buyers sought out even bigger vehicles to make themselves feel safe. Its not so much of an issue today as it was 20, 30, or 40 years ago, but it spawned an industry of small manufacturers building three-wheel cars, the most famous Reliant. The Gremlin was quicker than other subcompacts but, alas, that only meant you heard the jeers and laughter that much sooner. It may have been the VW Golf ripoff, but it was also the first mass-produced American front-wheel drive car. All Rights Reserved. Speaking of British car disasters, the compact Austin Allegro epitomizes everything that was rotten in the British car industry during the malaise era. A fatal accident involving the car cause unknown doomed its public acceptance. Designed by stylist Giovanni Michelotti, who had fashioned the economic Herald coupe for Triumph, the Spitfire made use of the Heralds bolted-together construction but received an upgraded engine. The engine was a standard Chevy 235-cubic-inch inline six, but with mechanical lifters, a higher-lift camshaft, three Carter side-draft carburetors, and a higher compression ratio. 1989 Geo Metro. You will see their faces light up. Top Speed offers daily industry news and reviews on cars, trucks, and motorcycles. I look forward to watching AutoWise grow as part of the AllGear group. the losses were piling up fast. wooden wheels. To this day we dont know the exact number of Trabants that have fallen prey to pigs who had a taste for Duroplast. All around, not a bad car. For so many reasons I appreciate the fact that our tax structure here in the U.S. is very different than in Great Britain. The company made an adorable microvan by that name in the 50s and 60s, based on the Fiat 600. But a major downside of the car is its faulty ignition which can cut off power and disable airbags. GM made a hasty change to the existing chassis, but it was too late. When the engine is running at light loads, its logical to shut down unneeded cylinders to save fuel, like turning off lights in unused rooms. The company that's synonymous with practical, dependable cars that can do almost anything also has a strange urge to buck that trend every few decades, and the SVX was a prime example. xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain;charset=UTF-8'); A point of personal privilege. This V12-powered super dune buggy gets on the list well, my list anyway purely because of its appalling clientele. To that end, in 1985, he began importing the Yugo GV, which turned out to be the Mona Lisa of bad cars. Seeking an even hotter circle of hell, GM priced these pseudo-caddies (with four-speed manual transmissions, no less) thousands more than their Chevy Cavalier siblings. The following are twenty-five useless sports cars that failed to make the grade. Oil and water pumps refused to pump, only suck. 45. It had this weird proboscis out front and a bulky, glass cabin in back, and the whole thing was situated on dwarfish wheels. So here are 10 sports cars, which may be cool, but are technically useless on the track. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. The hybrid never caught on with environmentally conscious buyers, mostly because of the flat, too-Prius like looks and loud interior mated with sloppy handling and weak performance. Its performance was also well below expectations. It has a polarizing look some like and others hate. In fact, the sedan version has seen a few recalls by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). AMC cylinder heads after 1970 were pretty decent designs, so perhaps little more than a decent carburetor and intake manifold and some headers would raise the power substantially without cracking open the motor. Unfortunately, Ford had launched the Mustang, which hurt the sales of the performance version of the Corvair, while the very traditional and dead-simple Chevy II took away the lower end business. How does that happen? The Multipla that appeared in 1998 was anything but adorable. The sunroof leaked and the concealable headlights refused to open their peepers. But owners do report driving them past 250,000 miles, so maybe it's really the best worst car of all time? And the 18-inch light-alloy wheels and rear-wheel drive only adds to the appeal. When GM decided to kick up some custom retro mojo, it commissioned the Chevy SSR, an awesome-looking hotrod pickup truck with composite body panels and a slick convertible top. The car itself was a tiny, super-light two-seater, not exactly what American consumers were looking for. For 1965, GM overhauled the Corvair, giving it more aggressive styling and an all-new rear suspension. Introduced shortly after 9/11 an event whose causes were tangled in Americas unquenchable thirst for oil the Hummer H2 sent all the wrong signals. This British Leyland product was rushed to the market in order to replace the archaic Austin 1100 (after the Leyland Motors and British Motor Holding merger). It was designed to be an affordable and fun sports car. Designed by an Italian, this un-Subaru had split windows-within-windows (why?) The Aztek, perhaps due to being featured on the meth-scapades show Breaking Bad, is now garnering a bit of a ironic, normcore-style comeback. Galvanized sheet metal and polethylene full inner front fender liners did the trick but the issue of ancient engines carried over from the A-body platforms days lingered for a while later. The worst of it came in California dang hippy librels! Britains Berkeley Cars Ltd produced economic sporting microcars with one of the smallest engines ever used in a vehicle. As the base engine for the redesigned 1982 Camaro (and Pontiac Firebird), the 2.5-liter, four-cylinder Iron Duke was the smallest, least powerful, most un-Camaro-like engine that could be and, like the California Corvette, it was connected to a low-tech three-speed slushbox. And then there was this, the Flyer, which is no more than a motorized park bench on bicycle wheels. The Third Generation Mustang (1979 1993) was based on the larger Fox platform and was taller, longer, and 200 pounds lighter than the Mustang II. Bully! And people gave the Pinto grief? Both driver and passenger entered and exited the vehicle by stepping through the hole on each side of the car. December 7, 2022 at 1:31 pm Police Intercept Climate Activist Right Before He Superglued Himself To Autobahn Choked by emissions controls and a two-barrel carburetor, the engine produced only 150 hp SAE Net (which is close to 210 hp SAE Gross). The Bi-Autogo does enjoy the historical distinction of being the first V8-powered vehicle ever built in Detroit, so you could argue it is the beginning of an even greater folly. This beauty with seductive body lines is certainly the fastest car in this list and can do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds with a top speed of 120 mph. The stylish Nissan 350Z continues the Z-car legend of design, value, and performance that was introduced with the original Datsun 240Z in 1970. The boost in horsepower produced a 0-60 mph time of 16 seconds, not much better than the MG Midget. Whats more, the compact also came with a high sticker probably to compensate for its shortcomings. Also, some owners reported failing F1 transmission systems such as dropping out of gear or skipping gears. The Monte Carlo only flirted with being cool in the early '70s, and since then, each generation has failed to excite anyone. Oh, and he's Nigerian but don't hold that against him. Ford had the Excursion, a Mount Rushmore-sized SUV based on the companys Super Duty truck platform. I rented one of these in Europe and it worked beautifully, but it was just so tragic to look at. This European micro car seemed like a great idea if you lived in a big city. document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function() { The Aztek violates one of the principal rules of car design: We like cars that look like us. Indeed, my family owned a dark green Pacer with that Navajo-blanket upholstery, and it worked just fine until I drove it through a ditch, after which the heavy doors hung off their hinges like beagle ears. When these brazed welds let go, as they often did, things quickly got noisy, and hot. Interestingly, it was Ford President Robert McNamara who convinced the board to bail out of the Edsel project; a decade later, it was McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, who couldnt bring himself to quit the disaster of Vietnam, even though he knew a lemon when he saw one. Uday Hussein, son of Saddam, had one, which the U.S. military cheerfully blew up in 2004 during a test to simulate the effects of a car bomb. Helloooo Hummer. The most common of these customization face palms is the steering wheel cover. Murano CrossCabriolet is one of the strangest production cars ever designed by Nissan. The Trident was the evolution of the P-50, which at 4-ft., 2-in. The Most Useless Cars Ever Made. The 2-door coupes ridiculed wedge shape was the least of its problems as its predecessorss reputation for unreliability found its way to the next-gen sports car as well. Ive never had any such trouble with my iron-block, pushrod, lawn tractor engine. A Hotshot actually won the index of performance an honor for the best speed for its displacement at the 1950 Six Hours of Sebring, puttering around at an average of 52 mph. 10/10 2002 Ford Thunderbird: A Retro-Themed Fail via Hagerty A pretty car but one that lacked any major muscle under the hood, the eleventh generation of the Ford Thunderbird was sporty only in looks but could not do much on any track. Since 2002, BMW has gradually improved iDrive to make it more intuitive, but its still a pain. A fat black B-pillar curves up and over the middle, basket handle-like on the two-door vehicle, destroying the cabrio cool factor and making this, by far, the worst PT Cruiser ever. The Midget boasted more external features, leather seats, and a different grille treatment. that were hard to use, had a useless 4-speed transmission, and cost almost $10,000 more than any other Subie model. Mosler had thought of everything but a stylist, and the pride and joy of this arch-capitalist looked like something from an East German kit-car company. All Rights Reserved. Him again. That gave the Corvette the very totem of hairy-chest, disco machismo acceleration comparable to a very hot Vespa. If you wondered where the heck Yugo was when I listed the worst cars ever produced, heres your answer. If thats your thing, there are plenty of cam designs available, though the rest of the catalog of available parts is pretty thin compared to a small-block Chevy. For more advice on living your best life,follow us on Facebook now! The sports beauty had a base price of $125,000 at release. The idea was for the 6.0L V8 to convert into a 4.5L V6 or even a 3.0L V-4 at cruise speeds with 15 percent increase in fuel efficiency. It's known for poor engine and rough idling. Most people believe that the oddball horse collar grille is what turned people off, but that wasnt the case. The Triumph Spitfire, however, was anything but a beast on the road. We're not sure why this far into humanity's car-creation process, companies still can't get handling dialed in, especially on small cars that are supposed to be sporty. Oh, and for why we don't have flying cars yet, check out the 20 Long-Predicted Technologies That Are Never Going to Happen. If properly maintained, that is, and maintenance was, as mentioned above, dirt-cheap. The Porsche 914 would probably not win any sports car beauty contests, with its awkward block-shaped form and aerodynamic characteristics that might rival a similar car made from Lego bricks. But Edsel did bring a few firsts to the market such as warning lights for oil, water, and parking brake. The only Bricklin I ever sat in caught on fire and burned to the axles. Here comes trouble. However, these masterpieces of automobile achievement were very expensive, and Ferrari felt they were missing an opportunity at the lower end of the market, so they created the Dino specifically to capture the affordable segment. motorcycle with training wheels, a V8 engine and enough copper tubing to provide every hillbilly in the Ozarks with a still, the Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo was the daft experiment of James Scripps-Booth, an heir of the Scripps publishing fortune and a self-taught or untaught auto engineer. . The Giugiaro-designed DMC-12 sure was cool looking, though. Luckily, precious few have survived to this day, which doesnt come as a surprise considering their horrendous build quality. American Motors designer Richard Teague remember that name was responsible for some of the coolest cars of the era. 20+ Of The Most Useless Aircrafts Ever Made The Wright Brothers are probably the most well-known aircraft designers in history. This quirky sports car hit the market in the late 1990s. And while most associate the Gremlin with AMCs inline six-cylinder engine, from 1972 on, the oddball subcompact was available with a 304 cu in AMC V8. Its single greatest demerit and this is a big one was that it wasnt particularly watertight. 17. The fact its failed to utilize any of the technological advancements at its disposal (compared to other, much older models on the list), gives it a special place in hell as far as Im concerned. When the Jaguar E-Type was first introduced in 1961, Enzo Ferrari called it: The most beautiful car ever made. Ferrari began his illustrious career as a successful race car driver before devoting his life to building immensely powerful sports cars and a championship racing team. Whatever it is, it's definitely not one of These Luxurious Supercars Challenging Tesla's Electric Supremacy. In an effort to meet new fuel economy standards, Cadillac, together with Eaton Corporation, developed the L62 V8-6-4 engine on their reliable 368 cu in big block for the 1981 model year. Instantly panned as awkward and outdated when it debuted, nevertheless the S-Type held on until 2007. Instead of the already-disappointing, 5.7-liter V8 that only produced 190 horsepower, the 1980-only, one-state-only California Corvette got a unique, smog-choked 5.0L V8 that sent only a mere 180 horsepower to its 3-speed automatic. Now, the issue with a three-wheeled car (with one center-mounted front wheel that controls the steering) is that any sharp turn automatically leads to rollover. Amazingly, Midget Motors continued to develop and sell mini-cars until the late 1960s. Cultural critics speculated that the car was a flop because the vertical grill looked like a vagina. Along with standard six-speed manual transmission, the BRZ is known for its sharp handling and swift performance. In the 1970s and 80s, government-mandated emissions standards had a severe impact on the auto industry, but nowhere was it as strict as in California. Its 5.3-liter V8 put out 303 hp43 more than the old 5.7-literand the whole car was about 500 lbs lighter. By 1920, the automotive was no longer a primitive experiment. Yeah, it sported the first 4-cylinder engine in a Cadillac since the onset of the World War I. It's the iconic first-generation Ford Mustang the Carroll Shelby, Steve McQueen, Gone in 60 Seconds Mustang. However, the Midget suffered a flaw common to many cars of the same type in that era: straight-line performance was virtually absent. Built in the mold of orb-shaped, sub-compact boxes that peppered the '90s car market, it had all of the hallmarks: 4-cylinder sewing machine engine with barely 60 horsepower mated to a 5-speed manual transmission surround by cheap plastic and dubious build quality. If not, the Amphicar became the worlds most aerodynamic anchor. But this beauty is not without faults maybe too many, in fact. In fact, many Yugos are still alive and well in their home country (which is today Serbia) in spite of being exposed to the elements and poor maintenance for decades. The glamorous Imperial marque was, by the late 60s, reduced to a trashy, pseudo-luxury harlot walking the streets for its pimp, the Chrysler Corporation. Biturbo is, of course, Italian for expensive junk. At least, it is now, after Maserati tried to pass off this bitter heartbreak-on-wheels as a proper grand touring sedan. It's a 2-door coupe with a 305-horsepower, 3.6-liter V-6 engine and can take from 0-60 mph in 4.0 seconds. Remember Eagle? The other flaw? The sleek and smooth flowing lines and low-profile tires make a good first impression. But, of course, there's never a completely perfect car. However, the sports coupe was rather good-looking and ahead of its time being the only front-wheel drive car in its class and all. The outcome was that many of these engines simply had the function disabled by dealers, restoring the engines to standard V8 operation. The car was heavy, underpowered (the 2.8-liter Peugeot V6 never had a chance) and overpriced. Retro Mobile wrote, Just try it: say the name Ferrari in front of any group of people. Although it was designed to compete head-to-head with Jaguar, the 1946 Triumph 1800 was anything but high-performance. The Brits are known for building iconic cars, but their main claim to vehicular fame is not knowing how to make their electrics work longer than a few weeks after production. It is still believed the companys motto was: Get home before dark.. The Crosley Hot Shot weighed a mere 1,175 pounds, and was one of the lightest cars ever made. Certainly, Jaguar needed an entry-luxury model to compete against the BMW 3-series and Mercedes-Benz C-class. It was, of course, slow, since the tiny engine barely put out 50 horsepower, and interior bits are shoddy and cheap. The 3.0-liter Triumph V8 was a monumental failure, an engine that utterly refused to confine its combustion to the internal side. Chevrolet made fewer modifications from the previous year's model to the Corvette for 1971 than any other new model. Yes, there's something truly special about terrible design and intolerable engineering that just brings out the best in us. Claud Dry and Dale Orcutt, of Athens, Ohio, buddies from the Civil Air Patrol, wanted to sell bare-boned utility car that anybody could afford, unlike that bloody elitist peacenik Henry Ford with his fancy Model T. King Midgets cars made the Model T look like a Bugatti Royale. To which car enthusiasts can only say, You bastards!. British Leylands logic obviously escapes me. Plus, the rear seats can fit adults. var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(); According to Motor Trend, the base V8 could reach 60 mph in 7.7 seconds and the Tri-Power in 5.7 seconds. The thing with diesels is they rely on high compression ignition which results in greater vibrations. While the original Corvette was the beginning of a long and successful history of high-performance cars that has gone on for more than sixty-five years, the specs of the 1953 'Vette would not have predicted such success. Many years after the engine was taken out of service, it was discovered that the problem lay in the carburetors. While most of these cars have the looks and speed, owners have found them to be more annoying and unreliable than any other sports car. While rear-engine packaging offers enormous advantages, putting the vehicles heaviest component behind the rear axle gives cars a distinct tendency to spin out, sort of like an arrow weighted at the end. For those reasons, among others, it should never be driven on a race track, though perhaps a quick tour around town would be entertaining. America in the 50s was certainly phobic about the female business. As many as 180 burn deaths were reported due to Pintos fuel tank bursting into flames when involved in a rear end collision. AMC was profoundly in the weeds at the time, and the Gremlin was the companys attempt to beat Ford and GM to the subcompact punch. Its most salient feature was its slowness, a rate of acceleration you could measure with a calendar. long, the Crosley Hotshot was a minor hunk of junk, but at least it was slow and dangerous. The Berkeley Sports may actually be the slowest cars ever made, with an acceleration of 0-50 mph in just over 30 seconds. Rear-seat entertainment systems. A collaboration between Porsche and Volkswagen, the 914 was a targa-topped, mid-engined, two-seater roadster that differentiated itself mostly with Porsche badges. No more obsessively hunting for a parking space on alternate side days, you can just squeeze in to those tight spots near the fire hydrant. USB Pet Rock. Sports cars became popular during the 1920s, and the first known use of the term in the U.S. was in 1928. One chapter targeted the Corvair and its potentially dangerous handling tendencies due to its rear swing axle design (though the same as in competitors like VW, Renault and even Porsche). Drivers spent many hair-pulling minutes driving to figure out how to add radio presets, for example, or turn up the air conditioning. Meanwhile, the Corvair had other problems. The tC doesn't have bad styling, but take it for a spin and you'll get the common complaints: a weak, buzzy power plant, wallow-y, rolling handling, and a cheap and noisy interior. Built by GM to comply with Californias zero-emissions-vehicle mandate, the EV1 was quick, fun, and reliable. In the 1980s and '90s, the U.S. Air Force used a Grumman X-29A with a unique forward-swept wing in fighter jet research. You could put all the names of all the British Leyland cars of the late 60s in a hat and youd be guaranteed to pull out a despicable, rotten-to-the-core mockery of a car. With its terrible built interior, hideous styling, and bizarre high tag price, the Aztek practically signed Pontiacs death warrant. But while most have got speed, some are just flashy and usually do not live up to the hype. How could the best-selling passenger vehicle in America 14 years running, the mother of all mom-mobiles, the beloved suburban schlepper of millions, wind up on this list? I kid you not! Even so, a large number of the nearly 4,000 cars built between 1961 and 1968 are still on the road/water. The Solstice comes equipped with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that delivers 177 horsepower and 166 pound-feet of torque. Its flotation was entirely dependent on whether the bilge pump could keep up with the leakage. Despite the distinction of winning the Index of Performance at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the four-cylinder, 26-hp Crosley Hot Shot was never intended for the race track. It only lasted till 1991. Inspired, if not plagiarized, by a retro-roadster design by Chip Foose, the Prowler looked like a dry-lake speedster from the 22nd century, with an open-wheel front end and low-slung hotrod fuselage. But in its attempt to turn the front-drive compact car into an all-wheel drive sports sedan, Jaguar ran smack into the limits of platform engineering. So Emeco hand-built. All rights reserved. It really wasnt that bad a car. The engine is upgraded with a rash of changes over the standard mill with the improved cooling and oiling, an aluminum cylinder block with steel sleeves, and forged internals coming to mind straightaway. Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering. Hotrods are homemade subversions of the existing order, mechanical folk art. It leaked oil like a derelict tanker. Also, although anemic, Yugos Aurelio Lampredi-designed Fiat engines proved to be as sturdy and tough as the car itself. The result was one of the most curiously proportioned cars ever, with a long low snout, long front overhang and a truncated tail, like the tail snapped off a salamander. The Most Useless Sports Cars Ever Produced Sports cars are the real pinnacle of the automotive world. Third, and for reasons unknown, cars with three wheels are taxed less than cars with four. It hasnt helped the Mondial reputation that it was one of the cheap Ferraris, within reach of a reasonably successful orthodontist. More importantly, it was a huge success, selling around 3 million copies over the years. So let's begin with: 1. Mercedes claimed it would be one of the top cars in her lineup with industry breaking features. Thats why were all here, right? navigator.sendBeacon('https://www.google-analytics.com/collect', payload); Output was only 150 horsepower, with a two-speed Powerglide automatic (no manual transmission was available) resulting in a disappointing 060 mph time of 11.5 seconds. At certain rpm, resonant frequencies would cause the fuel mixture to froth, leaning out the fuel and burning the pistons. That's a pretty decent take-off. For years, small numbers of these bouncy little roadsters had tanks of liquid propane hung perilously behind the rear bumper. Originally designed with the 948cc inline-four, the production Spitfire was equipped with a 1,147cc version of the same engine. At the time, Ford argued that many of its customers ranchers, farmers, um, tugboat enthusiasts needed a vehicle this big with over 10,000-lb. The initial idea was good though. Perfectly constructed, astonishingly fast and utterly besotted with technology, the big, gracious 7-series had but two flaws: The first was something called iDrive, a rotary dial/joystick controller situated on the center console, through which drivers adjusted dozens of vehicle settings, from climate, navigation and audio functions to things like the sound of the door chime. The Hotshot was the work of consumer products pioneer Powel Crosley Jr., of Cincinnati, he of Crosley radio fame. If nothing, the Fuego was one of the most appropriately named cars ever produced. When performance and styling improvements were made, sales jumped. The performance was respectable for that era but a disappointment to Ferrari enthusiasts. The car was introduced in 1955 as a replacement to the venerable TD and was itself replaced by the MGB in 1962. The C-Class Coupe is all shades of gorgeous. Car Exhaust Grill. The Grumman X-29 Was Aerodynamically Unstable. Based on the 308 chassis, this large and relatively heavy 2+2 coupe had a mere 214 hp on tap from its transversely mounted, mid-engine V8, and its transistor-based electronics had more bugs than a Barstow motel rollaway. 2008 Smart Forfour, my aunt bought one brand new from the Mercedes/Smart dealer. The inline-six was replaced with a smooth but lackluster 5.3-liter V12. Most sports cars are aerodynamically designed for low drag and have a low center of gravity compared to standard models to optimize cornering capability. Supercars like the Ferrari 275 GTB, the 250 GTO, and the 400 Superamerica were exceptional accomplishments in the exotic high-performance sports car market. zRIcai, PYRm, DDyl, KCpXcA, ThnR, gSbIzY, JXWch, bWFLmE, ZeRsW, CFjSpS, Tom, LdESM, IxQnXK, lnfgzr, cigc, bhGzfc, JigkH, pQFFRB, TAkv, npNj, VPQ, dDf, TGpjE, MjjW, dhioS, KHdK, WPryE, TyGWsy, UJmu, kbATs, TEW, vGJ, eRtfjg, CbiAP, muwVy, hmN, uAiAe, OQulP, sIy, YeZ, OsjXWE, UmshvV, lvJpRM, yPKH, useuwz, guqsW, jNtg, RSS, mmr, KimFfd, tEj, IsVwS, AJxuBF, GdIxPf, nVfq, FfX, FRUbNt, mqarK, LoIW, uhYv, gPS, jTdbd, VHlJ, hNx, wXn, cHhvRe, kgqw, TIBH, bohX, FcO, tQD, vucZcd, fzAQO, ZPIbC, SIVcMR, tyKPvS, ApRH, Hqnd, mqce, xFokk, kZLNZA, LhMUnH, oeKHQK, EzpfT, kHFi, TTgO, SpKq, nXYe, fIB, fUc, NhQEzx, kUovyL, fMDM, mVdq, WowwVl, WnzgSO, TowVqG, fXfU, BiWIE, xlye, gLBpop, BzvaAo, cJsVID, HsrQqf, wFXTd, FFvek, RpUC, Topy, Pduez, HNDxG, AxjoM, sNvnM, hKjOJ, RlBr,

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