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No other type of car spawns so many could-have, would-have and should-have conversations as the supercar.
Some don’t make it for lack of investment, while others are doomed due to a shortfall in styling or engineering.
We’ve gathered together those supercars that might have been but never were for a variety of reasons. They’re listed in chronological order:
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Chevrolet Aerovette (1969)
Just as Corvette is readying its first ever mid-engined model for sale, the Aerovette was a serious attempt to achieve the same back in the 1960s.
It was designed by Zora Arkus-Duntov, known as the "Father of the Corvette", and moved the idea of the American supercar forward in a significant way. That included using a pair of rotary engines developing 420bhp that would have made the car very light and powerful.
Problems arose when Chevrolet’s general manager, John DeLorean, canned the project on cost grounds and then exhumed it in 1970 in response to the Ford-back De Tomaso Pantera for a motorshow appearance. None of this helped the Aerovette into production and customer research showed much resistance among existing Corvette drivers to a mid-engined model.
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Ford GT70 (1970)
After Ford’s dominant success at Le Mans with the GT40, the GT70 was a radical departure. It was intended as a rally car and swapped the GT40’s bellowing V8 for either a 1.6-litre four-cylinder motor lifted from an Escort RS or a Capri RS2600’s V6 engine. The smaller motor was preferred for its lower centre of gravity in the chassis.
Rally ace Roger Clark was drafted in to drive the GT70 and he used it on the 1971 Ronde Cevenole Rally in France. However, reliability was a problem and the Ford didn’t get on top of this, so the project was cancelled after just six GT70s had been built.
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Monteverdi Hai (1970)
Swiss garage owner Peter Monteverdi had enjoyed some small success with his High Speed models and wanted to go further in every sense with the Hai. It was a mid-engined supercar to rival the Lamborghini Miura and used a 450bhp 7.2-litre Chrysler Hemi engine. This endowed the Hai with a 175mph top speed and 0-60mph in 5.5 seconds – impressive figures for the time.
The problems came when Monteverdi wanted to move to a production model and the reality of cost and complexity of supercar manufacture hit home. Two prototypes were made and the original Geneva Motor Show display car still exists, but the Hai remained a what-if.
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Aston Martin Bulldog (1979)
William Towns styled the Aston Martin Bulldog with his trademark love of wedge looks. It was planned there would be a limited run of 25 cars made, each with a twin-turbo version of Aston’s 5.3-litre V8 motor giving 600bhp and a top speed of 237mph. That claim was somewhat optimistic and contemporary tests showed the Bulldog topped out at 192mph.
Undeterred, Aston filled the Bulldog’s cabin with a mix of traditional leather and high-tech LED touchscreens. This was the plan to make the car appeal to wealthy Middle Eastern buyers, but Victor Gauntlett pulled the plug on the car when he took over as Aston’s chairman in 1981. The one and only Bulldog was later sold by the factory for £130,000 (around $250,000 (US) at the time) and is still seen at classic car shows occasionally.
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Yamaha OX99-11 (1992)
Not quite a Formula 1 car for the road, the Yamaha OX99-11 was still intended to make full use of the Japanese company’s expertise in building engines for this top tier of motorsport. The 3.5-litre engine’s V12 layout mirrored contemporary motorsport form and delivered 400bhp at a screaming 10,000rpm, so it wasn’t that far removed from an F1 machine.
Also borrowed from racing was the carbonfibre tub as a base and the central driving position. Unlike the McLaren F1 of the same period that shared the same driver positioning, the Yamaha stuck its single passenger in tandem behind the pilote. In the end, a fall out between Yamaha and engineering firm IAD combined with a financial crisis in Japan killed off the OX99-11 after only three prototypes had been built.
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Lamborghini Cala (1995)
Few cars have endured such a prolonged and agonised journey as the Lamborghini Cala. First shown as a concept at the 1995 Geneva Motor Show as a possible entry-level model below the Diablo, it was created by ItalDesign Giugiaro. This design was originally commissioned by Lamborghini’s then owner Chrysler and taken forward by Megatech, which bought the supercar company in 1994.
However, when Volkswagen Group took over Lamborghini in 1998, the Cala was unceremoniously ditched and work began on the Gallardo instead. The Cala shared a V10 engine configuration with the Gallardo and top speed was claimed to be 181mph, but VW wanted more power, four-wheel drive and bolder styling, which the Gallardo delivered.
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Zagato Raptor (1996)
The Zagato Raptor could easily have become the replacement for the Lamborghini Diablo. Zagato and former Swiss ice skeleton racer Alain Wicki came up with the concept for the Italian car company using a Diablo as the base, so it came with four-wheel drive and a 6.0-litre V12 engine producing 492bhp.
The exterior styling included a ‘double-bubble’ roof and the car was shown some praise at the 1996 Geneva motor show. However, Lamborghini was less impressed and said no thank you. So, Wicki tried to get the project off the ground on his own, but it faltered and he sold the only Raptor at auction in 2000 to a private collector.
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Volkswagen W12 (1997)
Volkswagen had several cracks at stirring up interest in its take on the supercar, starting with the W12 Syncro in 1997. That was followed by the W12 Roadster the following year and then the W12 Nardo in 2001. All used the W12 engine that was to find its way into the Bentley Continental GT, as well as the less popular Phaeton luxury saloon.
The first two concepts made do with a mere 420bhp from a 5.6-litre version of the W12 engine, but the Nardo upped its game with 591bhp. That was enough to see the Nardo from rest to 60mph in 3.5 seconds and on to 221mph. It also helped convince Volkswagen that a supercar was a good idea, but it swapped the VW badge for a Bugatti one and gained a W16 engine.
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TVR Speed 12 (1997)
You could never accuse Peter Wheeler of lacking ambition for TVR and the Speed 12 summed up that spirit to perfection. Building on the success of his cars in the 1990s, Wheeler wanted to compete in the GT1 endurance racing category against the likes of Porsche and Mercedes. He had the tool for the job in the Speed 12, which had a 7.7-litre V12 engine producing 800bhp.
The car did compete but never made it to Le Mans and the parallel road car project stalled despite several orders being taken. It was priced at £188,000 and had around 960bhp, but Wheeler decided to return customer deposits when he thought the car was too powerful to be used on the road.
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Cadillac Sixteen (2003)
Looking like it belonged in a Marvel Comics cartoon, the Cadillac Sixteen had an equally heroic 13.6-litre V16 engine under its vast bonnet. Drive went through an automatic gearbox to the rear wheels and the engine was claimed to produce 1000bhp. Even so, Cadillac also said the car offered 16.7mpg fuel economy thanks to Active Fuel Management that shut down as many as 12 cylinders when the car was cruising.
There was a lot of hope that Cadillac would put a limited number of Sixteens into production, but it didn’t happen as the cost of the engine and development was prohibitive. However, elements of the Sixteen’s styling went on to be used in subsequent Cadillac models.
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Chrysler ME 4-12 (2004)
No stranger to fast cars, Chrysler wanted to up its stock and build a full-on supercar rather than a muscle car in 2004. The result was the ME 4-12 unveiled at Detroit that year with carbon-fibre chassis and the requisite hunkered-down styling of this breed of car. Power came from a turbocharged Mercedes V12 with 850bhp that was good enough for 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds and a claimed 248mph top end.
Billed as the ‘most advanced Chrysler ever made’, the ME 4-12 was developed with production in mind, but the financial case didn’t add up. It was too expensive to build and the Chrysler name wasn’t reckoned to have enough clout with buyers of this sort of car, so the ME 4-12 stayed as a show pony.
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Maybach Exelero (2005)
The Maybach Exelero was no flight of a designer’s fancy, it was created specifically to drive at speeds of more than 217mph. That was the brief from tyre maker Fulda when it approached Maybach parent company Mercedes as it needed a car to test its latest high-performance tyres.
The result was the Excelero with a twin-turbo 5.9-litre V12 engine as used in the Maybach saloons but tuned to 690bhp.
That was enough to meet Fulda’s demands as it could reach 218mph and cover 0-62mph in 4.4 seconds. It sits on 315/25 ZR 23 tyres with unique alloy wheels. Unusually for a car that remained a one-off, it was sold and is now apparently owned by German Mercedes restorer Mechatronik.
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Maserati Birdcage (2005)
As birthday presents go, the 2005 Maserati Birdcage built to mark 75 years of the Italian company is quite the gift to itself. Styled by Pininfarina and blessed with one of the most iconic names from the firm’s history, the Birdcage should have been a runaway success. It was based on the MC12 with its Ferrari Enzo-derived V12 engine providing 700bhp.
Unlike the 1950s Birdcage, the modern car had a closed cockpit that was accessed by lifting the entire canopy that included the front nose cone. The driver was also surrounded by several cameras so he could share the driving experience with others outside of the car, but that was a pleasure denied when the Birdcage remained a concept.
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Lamborghini Miura Concept (2006)
The Lamborghini Miura invented the supercar when it was launched in 1966, so the company reckoned it could cash in with the reinvented retro version in 2006.
It marked the 40th anniversary of the original and was styled by Walter de’Silva with a smoothed-out appearance. Hidden beneath the classically good looks was the same platform used for the Murcielago, so the Miura Concept came with a 6.2-litre V12.
However, the engine was mounted longitudinally in the concept rather than transversely as in the original. Lamborghini wasn’t concerned about this and several customers were keen to place orders, but Lambo boss Stefan Winkelmann nixed that idea when he said the company didn’t do retro.
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Acura ASCC (2007)
The Honda NSX is rightly lauded in both its original and current guises, but there was a lengthy period when the Japanese firm teased us with possible replacements.
The most likely of these came 10 years after the first NSX had ceased production with the debut of the Acura ASCC, which used the US luxury arm of Honda for its name. Fans were desperate for a new NSX and this had all the ingredients, including a 4.5-litre V10 engine.
With more than 500bhp promised from the VTEC-equipped motor, top speed was said to be more than 200mph. Four-wheel drive was also promised, as well as an affordable price tag. Yet all of this failed to materialise and NSX fans had to wait a further decade before finally getting what they wanted.
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BMW M1 Homage (2008)
Thirty years on from having its fingers burnt trying to make a supercar with the first M1, BMW showed off the M1 Homage at the 2008 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. This haute couture show for classic cars and concepts was the ideal place to pitch an updated M1, even if BMW didn’t bother releasing even the most basic details of its specification.
As a result, the Homage was only every going to be a show car, but it did go on to influence the 2009 Vision EfficientDynamics Concept that ultimately resulted in the hybrid i8.
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Jaguar CX-75 (2010)
Jaguar has a history of stealing motorshow limelight with its sportscars and the CX-75 was no different when the covers were pulled back at the 2010 Paris show.
Every inch the contemporary supercar, the low-slung CX-75 also predicted the trend towards hybrid power with its electric power, using a motor for each wheel and small gas turbine engines as range-extender motors. This gave a 200mph top speed and 31-mile battery range.
Developed with F1’s Williams Advanced Engineering, the CX-75 looked set to take Jaguar into contention with Ferrari and Lamborghini.
However, the economic climate counted against this move and the estimated price of £700,000 made it unviable. A starring role in the James Bond film Spectre was as close as the CX-75 got to being used on the public road, and then it was powered by a good old fashioned 542bhp 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine more usually found in a F-Type.
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Lotus Esprit (2010)
The Lotus press conference at the 2010 Paris motor show has gone down in automotive folklore for its bold claims for five new models, including the new Esprit. As well as the scale of the product place, the Esprit’s specification was equally ambitious with a 612bhp 5.0-litre V8 engine driving through a seven-speed DSG gearbox.
Development was claimed to be going well after the Esprit’s show debut, but the rot had set in to Lotus cash reserves, and the Lotus CEO responsible for the grand plans departed. The outcome was the inevitable cancellation of the Esprit programme in 2014, which was even more of a pity when the Esprit looked like it had all of the ingredients to match or better the McLaren MP4-12C that had a very similar ethos.
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Apollo Arrow (2016)
The Apollo Arrow is a prime example of a car that had too many fathers. Initially conceived by Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus and Roland Gumpert, famed for his eponymous supercar, the Arrow was to be built by Italian firm MAT. Its impressive specification appealed thanks to either a track-only V12 model or a road car with 986bhp twin turbo 4.0-litre Audi V8.
A carbonfibre tub underpinned both models and a seven-speed sequential gearbox was part of the plan. However, plans faltered and the Apollo Arrow came to nothing even after being displayed at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show with claims of 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds and a 224mph top speed.
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