There is nothing quite like a sports car. The speed, agility, and excitement they provide are almost unrivaled, and history is full of excellent sports cars such as the Honda S2000 and Toyota Supra.
Unfortunately, there are some sports cars that don’t provide that level of excitement. Instead, they are complete duds and ones you would quickly regret buying if you were unfortunate enough to do so.
Our list contains 13 of the worst sports cars. We selected these terrible performance cars based on their lack of speed, ridiculous price tag, and awful reliability, and in some cases their poor styling.
Covini C6W
In the mid-2000s, Italian automotive manufacturer Covini Engineering came up with an idea for an all-new sportscar for a difference. Taking inspiration from the Tyrrell P34 six-wheel F1 car of the mid-1970s, Covini came up with a striking six-wheel sports car with a large Audi V8 under the hood.
Covini produced the C6W from 2004 to 2016, yet the company sold just a handful of its sports cars. The unusual six-wheel arrangement proved a turn-off for many. Also not helping was that the C6W had an asking price of $500,000, making it one of the most expensive sports cars of the time.
DeLorean DMC-12
There is a strong argument not to include the DeLorean DMC-12 on a list of bad sports cars. The DMC-12 was the star of the Back to the Future franchise, which elevated its popularity and turned it into an icon of pop culture. Yet the actual sports car itself was a significant letdown.
Under the hood of the DMC-12 was a small 2.85-liter engine from an alliance between Peugeot, Renault, and Volvo. The ZMJ-159 V6 produced just 130-hp and 153 lb-ft of torque, a pathetic amount for a vehicle labeled as a sports car. The DMC-12 was also caught up in build quality issues and the scandal surrounding DeLorean Motor Company founder John DeLorean.
Mitsuoka Orochi
The Mitsuoka Orochi is likely a sports car with one of the lowest followings in the world. Mitsuoka is known for its outlandish creations, and the Japanese company claimed that the new Orochhi was based on the Honda NSX and was their answer to the likes of Ferrari.
Yet the Orochi became a massive letdown with poor reviews and was as far removed from a sports car as possible. Under the hood, all it had was a Lexus-sourced 3.3-liter V7 with just 231-hp, leading to a prolonged 0-60 mph of just 7.0 seconds. What didn’t help the Orochi was its terrible design, and while looks can be subjective, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone with a positive word about the Orochi.
Saturn Sky
In the mid-late 2000s, General Motors was in a precarious position, and several brands were not doing well. One of those was Saturn, which would disappear for good in 2010 despite an attempt by Penske Automotive to acquire Saturn from GM and keep the company going.
Before the end came, GM and Saturn produced the Sky, a sports car they hoped would reverse the company’s fortunes. Sadly, that didn’t happen. The Sky had two engine options: a 2.4-liter Ecotec LE5 inline-four and a turbocharged 2.0-liter LNF inline-four, but neither produced more than 290-hp. It did not help that the Sky had many reliability issues, including contamination of the coolant and the five recalls that it went through.
Vector M12
On the face of things, there was a lot to like about the Vector M12. Based on the Lamborghini Diablo, the M12 was Vector’s first car after Megatech’s hostile takeover of the company’s founder, Jerry Wiegert. Sadly, that was the least of the problems for Vector once it launched the M12.
Vector based the M12 on the Lamborghini Diablo, which had a large 5.7-liter Lamborghini V12 under the hood, producing 492 hp and 425 lb-ft of torque. Vector produced 17 M12s, which weren’t helped by the car’s reliability problems and Megatech’s tricky financial situation.
Dome Zero
We will forgive you if you’ve never heard of the Dome Zero. This strange-looking sports car never got beyond the concept stage. The Japanese car was meant to be affordable for the entry-level segment and appeal to those on a tighter budget.
The car’s shape and design were unusual, with its wedge design very European. However, Dome had insufficient funding to take the project forward, and because they could not meet Japan’s testing standards, Zero never got into production. Maybe that’s just as well, as the 2.8-liter naturally-aspirated inline-six only produced 143-hp.
Bricklin SV-1
The eye-catching Bricklin SV-1 certainly had a lot of promise when first launched. This radical sports car was the brainchild of company founder Malcolm Bricklin, and he went all-in on its design. The gullwing doors and dramatic wedge styling made the SV-12 look incredibly European.
Yet the SV-1’s most power, either from its AMC V8 or Ford Windsior V8, was just 220-hp. This might have been okay if it wasn’t for the fact that the car weighed 3,520lbs and had a fiberglass and color-impregnated acrylic resin body. The SV-1 made little impact on the American automotive market, although that, in turn, now makes them incredibly rare.
Mosler Consulier GTP
Based on its performance, some credit must be given to the highly unusual Mosler Consulier GTP. This quirky American sports car is packed in a Chrysler 2.2-liter inline-four turbo engine producing 175 hp. The second series used the improved Turbo III to produce 190-hp. Mosler then introduced the Intruder, which had 300-hp under the hood of the Corvette LT1 V8.
Mosler produced between 60 and 100 Consulier GTPs, but the strange design put many customers off buying one of these quirky sports cars. Strength was alson’t the byproduct of the GTP, so Mosler used carbon fiber and kevlar construction to keep the weight down as much as possible.
2002 Ford Thunderbird
The Ford Thunderbird is one of the most famous cars from the Blue Oval, but the name disappeared in the 1990s. However, in 2002, Ford brought the Thunderbird back with a new, eleventh-generation sports car with a retro design to evoke memories of the Thunderbird’s glory days.
Despite Ford’s best efforts and innovative design, the 2002 Thunderbird never reached its sales projections. Not even the 3.9-liter Jaguar V8 under the hood could save it, and Ford produced just under 70,000 examples of the Thunderbird across its four-year production run from 2001 to 2005.
Lancia Scorpion
Lancia still remains an automotive legend. The company got things wrong several times and appeared out of depth. But it certainly got things wrong with the Lancia Scorpion of the 1980s, which was sadly a result of the oil crisis of the mid-1970s, which saw demand for performance cars plummet.
Although Lancia persevered with the Scorpion, it quickly became apparent how underpowered this new Lancia was. In Europe, the Scorpion had at least 120-hp, yet in the United States, it had just 81-hp. Hardly befitting of a brand that produced exceptional cars such as the Stratos and 037. The straight-line performance of the Scorpion was terrible, and because of issues with the brake booster, front brakes could often lock up prematurely during braking.
Weber Faster One
The unusual-looking Weber Faster One is one of the oddest names and oddest-looking cars on this list. Yet the Swiss company promised so much from its sports car, saying its twin-supercharged Chrysler 7.0-liter LS7 V8 engine could produce 888-hp and launch the vehicle to a 0-62 mph time of just 2.5 seconds.
There were some issues around this. The Faster One would have cost nearly $1 million, and no one has driven the car outside the company. So, there is a real chance that no one out there knows just how good or bad the Faster One drives.
Venturi Atlantique
The often-forgotten Venturi Atlanqiue is a rare occasion when the car is let down. Instead, the French manufacturer would go into serious financial issues in the late 1980s, curtailing the car’s development that offered up so much promise.
The large 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 with 307-hp is a solid engine, and it is more potent than quiet compared to a few of the cars on this list. Venturi also kept the Atlantique’s weight down thanks to its fiberglass body. The most it weighed was 2,450lbs, a figure many modern cars only dream of having.
Pontiac Fiero
While the Pontiac Fiero certainly didn’t live up to its promise, what made things even worse were the sudden fires that could engulf the sports car. Things got so bad that in 1990, General Motors had to recall 244,000 four-cylinder versions of the Pontiac due to the engine fire that the model faced.
The Fiero launched in 1983, but things became so bad that just four years later, Pontiac removed the car from its lineup. Pontiac produced so many, which is remarkable, but what is less impressive and more worrying is that by mid-1987, the 1984 Fieros were catching fire at a rate of about 20 per month. This was a massive wake-up call for Pontiac, who worked as hard as possible to eliminate the fiery issues with the Fiero.
Henry Kelsall
+ posts
