Let’s face it, no other types of cars put a smile on your face quite like a sports car, and yet somehow sales of even the best examples are in decline. Sooner or later we’ll all end up driving minivans or SUVs.
For carmakers and gearheads alike, times are hard, with growing environmental pressures niggling away at our conscience to buy cleaner, more efficient cars. But this is slowly killing off sports car companies, some models are forced to go electric while others just fade into history.
It’s time to stop the decline, get out there, and save one of these sports cars from oblivion.
10 Vector M12
With three failed previous supercar attempts under its belt, you would have thought Vector Automobile would have gotten its sums right with the M12 launched in 1996. Under new ownership with sister company Lamborghini, Vector had all the engineering expertise at its disposal, including engines and chassis.
Despite the promise of Lamborghini 5.7-liter V12 engines producing 492 HP, Vector couldn’t convince existing supercar buyers to make the swap, not helped by the higher purchase price and a slightly lower top speed of 189 MPH over the Diablo, on which the M12 was loosely based. Ultimately, lack of brand awareness killed the M12, only a handful of units were produced, leaving gearheads missing out on one of the great supercars of the ’90s.
9 Alfa Romeo 4C
Answering a decades-old plea for a proper two-seater sports car, Alfa Romeo duly responded in 2014 with the sublime 4C coupe to rave reviews among the motoring press, Auto Bild awarding it the most beautiful concept car of the year in 2011.
After an absence from the US of twenty years, Alfa Romeo was back with a bang, a small two-seater carbon-fiber sports car boasting 240 HP from its 1.7-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine for a mere $70,000. Sounds like a bargain to us, and yet gearheads just aren’t buying the 4C in significant numbers, barely 2200 finding homes in the US since launch.
8 Fiat 124 Spider
Wearing the wrong badge can make all the difference between a sales hit and a flop. In 2015 Fiat looking to capture some of the small sports car markets rolled out the 124 Spider in a market segment dominated by Mazda’s MX-5. Surprisingly, the two cars under the skin are near identical.
Oddly, Fiat supplies its own 1.4-liter turbocharged engine to Japan, Mazda then installs the engine into the 124 body shells built alongside the MX-5, confused yet? Despite a shared platform that delivers similar handling in a prettier body, Fiat cannot get near its MX-5 brother, shifting 14,000 cars since its launch.
7 TVR Sagaris
Owning any TVR was pretty much taking your life into your own hands, a combination of brute power in a lightweight chassis with no driver aids meant even the most experienced could and would often end up facing the wrong way. However, shortly before the brand’s demise, Sagaris changed all that, sadly not in large enough numbers to keep the factory open.
TVR hadn’t gone soft, in fact, quite the opposite with a 4-liter naturally aspirated straight-six under the hood boasting 400 HP, the Sagaris was as blindingly quick as any car in the company’s history, this one just happened to handle properly too. Only 221 examples were produced, the Sagaris easily the best TVR ever goes relatively unknown.
6 Alpine A110
Another revival project that hasn’t been quite as successful as the parent company Renault had hoped for. Resurrecting the Alpine name might evoke memories of a sporting past, but there are so many better-established brands we’d have to ask did we really need a new Alpine sports car?
As a driver’s car, yes definitely, its light-weight aluminum body fitted with a mid-mounted 1.8-liter turbocharged engine makes light work of any demands owners care to throw at it, powering to 60 MPH in 4.5-seconds. Usually, a European sports car would be highly sought after in the US, but so far just 914 cars have been sold.
5 Panoz AIV Roadster
This might seem like a ’50s relic brought up to date with modern rubber on each corner, but in truth, the Panoz AIV Roadster was thoroughly modern, from its TIG-welded chassis to light-weight aluminum bodywork through to Ford V8 power.
First produced in 1992, the AIV spec cars deserved to be a bigger success. At the time, Plymouth’s similarly retro-styled Prowler managed to shift nearly 11,000 cars, compared to Panoz’ official figure of 176. Admittedly, the lack of creature comforts might deter some buyers, but as a weekend car, it should’ve been way more successful.
4 Bristol Fighter
Surrounded by the kind of mystery normally associated with a spy movie, Bristol Cars is probably the most secretive brand we have come across. Even the factory didn’t know exactly how many of their Fighter coupes had been produced with figures ranging between nine and fourteen cars. It’s almost as if Bristol had no interest in selling cars.
Assuming gearheads even knew this unique sports coupe existed, we’d like to think any given the chance to get behind the wheel would have been lining up with their checkbook in hand, but even test drives are the stuff of legends. What other car combines so much mystery along with an 8-liter V10 engine lifted from a Dodge Viper.
3 Noble M600
From performance figures alone, gearheads should be beating down Noble’s factory doors, and yet, at its peak, this little-known carmaker produces between ten and twenty cars per year.
Flying under the radar of most sports car owners, the Noble M600 boasts Ferrari levels of performance for less cash, though it’s not exactly cheap at $280,000. What owners get instead is a thunderous 650 HP from a turbocharged Volvo-Yamaha 4.4-liter V8 engine.
2 Renault Sport Spider
One of the great ’90s sports cars that deserves more recognition than most gearheads give it, the Renault Sports Spider was originally intended as both a road car and single-make racing series. Undeniably a great sports car that just happened to launch around the same time as Lotus’ Elise.
Already committed to a racing program, Renault Sport continued production for three years, building 1800 cars in the process. Unlike the Elise, Renault used a conventional welded chassis that added weight, however, the Spider used a 2-liter producing 148 HP giving the Renault superior performance.
1 Dodge Viper SRT/10 ACR
Give gearheads a proper sports car powered by a V10 engine, and you’d think they would be happy, but from the very beginning, dodge struggled to sell Vipers. Many thought the first-generation cars were too powerful for the average owner.
With each new model update, Dodge improved the Vipers refinement and savage power delivery, larger engines, and more power followed, yet still, sales dwindled. Which makes the SRT/10 ACR one of the greatest sports cars that failed to sell in any serious numbers. First produced in 2010 packing a 640 HP version of the famous 8.4-liter V10 engine.
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