Some cars leave a lasting impression on the world, while others don’t last long. That’s the case with these 10 high-performance cars.
Since the first car was made, carmakers have always been trying to make them run better. Cars are one of the few things that have always been interesting to people, and this is even more true for high-performance cars. Even though history has a lot of famous models, there are some that don’t get as much attention. Whether it was because of their high prices, low numbers of production, or the brand that made them, these cars came, saw, and left quietly, rarely being talked about.
Sometimes, the company that made a car keeps people from giving it its full value. Even when a car company has a bad track record, they sometimes make cars that turn out to be really good. British carmakers have made their fair share of these cars, but they are not the only ones. There are high-performance sports cars and supercars from American, British, and even Italian carmakers. Some of these cars had been forgotten, but a well-known design studio brought them back to life.
Noble M600
One of the last supercars with real analog parts was made by the British company Noble Automotive in 2010. On paper, the Noble M600, not to be confused with the Noble M500, has everything: a mid-engine layout, rear-wheel drive, a powerful V-8, a manual transmission, and no driver aids. All of that came from a small car company in Leicester, England, called a “boutique.” The most interesting thing about the car was that Richard Hammond drove it in the first episode of Season 18 of Top Gear. The engine was a V-8 made by Yamaha. It was originally a naturally aspirated engine for Volvo’s full-size cars.
Inside the Alcantara-covered cockpit, there was a rotating knob for the engine’s three power levels: Street (450 horsepower), Track (550 horsepower), and Race (650 horsepower). Officially, the M600 is still being made, but reports say that only 20 of the 50 cars planned have been built so far. The main reason is that it costs US$333,000, which puts it in the same price range as Ferrari and McLaren.
Mosler MT900
There aren’t that many American companies that make high-end cars. But Mosler Automotive is probably not the first company you think of. The company is almost completely forgotten now, but when it started in 1985, it was called Consulier Industries. After the company changed its name in 1993, the Mosler MT900 was the first high-performance car it made.
Rod Trenne, who also worked on the C5 Corvette, designed the Mosler MT900. The “MT” stands for “Mosler Trenne,” and the “900” stands for the weight goal, which was reached with the MT900S Photon, which weighed 1,980 pounds (898 kg). The car looked like a Corvette C5 with a mid-mounted engine, and early versions were even powered by an LS1 V-8. The LS6 and LS7 engines were used in later models. All Mosler MT900s had a ZF manual, which was made for Porsche at first. Between 2001 and 2011, only 23 cars that could be driven on the road were made. This is even less than the 30 race cars that were made.
Saleen S7
Steve Saleen started out in some ways like Carrol Shelby. Since his business began in 1983, Saleen has worked on some of the fastest Fords. The company’s founder and owner decided in 2000 that he wanted to make his own supercar. The Ford 427 Windsor V-8 engine was in the middle of the Saleen S7. After a few years, the S7 Twin-Turbo came out. There were less than 100 made, and only 30 were S7 Twin Turbo. Even fewer got the Competition package, which made the Saleen S7 Twin Turbo almost as fast as a Bugatti Veyron.
Each car was made just for its driver, so the driver’s seat couldn’t be changed. Saleen announced the S7 LM in 2017, but it was never made. It was said to be able to go 298 mph (480 km/h).
TVR Griffith
TVR is one of those brands that we need to keep around, especially now when cars are all starting to look the same and have no personality. The company was started in 1944, and “TVR” is an abbreviation of the founder’s first name, which is Trevor Wilkinson. Together with the company’s co-founder, Jack Pickard, they focused on making fast, light sports cars. Even more modern TVRs had no driver aids, but their inline-six and V-8 engines were very powerful.
The company went out of business more than once, but it seems to be back on its feet now. In 2017, TVR hinted at a new Griffith with a lightweight, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive chassis and a Mustang GT Coyote V-8 that had been tuned by Cosworth. Production was supposed to start in 2023, but now it won’t start until 2024. The new Griffith will be an analog, light-weight sports car, just like the original Griffith from the 1990s.
9ff GT9
When a car tuner makes its own car, it’s always a nice change. The German company 9ff Fahrzeugtechnik is based in Dortmund and focuses on tuning Porsche cars. The 9ff GT9 was based on the Porsche 997 in a very loose way. The chassis was changed a lot to make a mid-engine layout that could fit high-horsepower flat-six engines that were cooled by water. During its time on the market, the GT9 came in a few different versions, such as the high-performance GT9-R and the lightweight, track-focused GT9 CS, which had less power.
Most versions of the GT9 could go faster than 250 mph, but the top model, the GT9 Vmax, was said to be able to go 272 mph (437 km/h). People say that about 150 GT9s were made, and 20 of those were GT9 Vmaxs.
Noble M500
We’ve already talked about the M600, but Noble seems to come out with a new model about once every 10 years. The British boutique car company is giving us the M500 for this decade. It’s the most innovative car we’ve seen from the brand. By getting smaller, the M500 goes with the flow of change. The M500 doesn’t have the M600’s big V-8 engine. Instead, it has a Ford EcoBoost V-6. It still only sends power to the back wheels through a manual transmission, and it still doesn’t have ABS.
This means that the Noble M500 probably won’t be sold in the U.S. because of rules set by the government about driver aids. This time, Noble hasn’t gone crazy with the prices because the goal is for the M500 to keep up with more established players at a lower price. The M500 still starts at $205,000, though.
Read More – 5 Things Chevy Camaro Owners Keep Quiet About
