5 supercars from automakers you wouldn’t expect
In the late 1980s and mid 1990s, a new genre of vehicle was beginning to emerge called the supercar. There have been quick cars before this era, but they weren’t the same as the supercars we know and love today. In the 1960s and 1970s, vehicles such as high-performance Shelby Mustangs and V12-powered European gran-tourers were often referred to as “supercars”, but there’s no way they’d be called that nowadays.
The first era of supercar as we know it today featured high-downforce cars with an incredible powerplant that produced massive amounts of power, and didn’t stop at performance. Most supercars are not only quick, but luxuriously appointed to make the driver feel as special as possible, and offer a unique experience that just can’t be matched by regular vehicles, or even high-luxury vehicles.
When the first vehicles of this kind rolled out of the shop, everybody took notice and wanted to get in on the supercar game — and we mean everybody. Brands that traditionally have made mundane cars for regular people started pulling in engineers and visionaries from motorsports teams to create some truly awesome cars for the road, and in turn created some supercars you wouldn’t expect.
Ford GT90
Obviously, Ford knows a thing or two about performance. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, the Blue Oval released products that could truly win on Sunday and sell on Monday. The only exception to that rule was the GT40, because while GT40 was an excellent race car, there was no street-legal equivalent. Sure, you could get yourself a DeTomaso Mangusta or Pantera for a similar feeling, but it wasn’t a true Ford.
The first inkling that Ford was serious about building its own supercar was the GT90 in 1995. With a wild cyberpunk-before-cyberpunk take on the styling of the 1960s classic, the GT90 was a dream that would never become a reality. In the trunk was a quad-turbo 4.0-litre V12 producing 720 horsepower — a number unheard of from a Detroit automaker. The GT90 went from a drawing to a running, driving prototype in just six months. Fun fact: the engine was made by electric beam-welding discarded Lincoln V8 blocks.
Acura/Honda NSX
While it might not seem like it now, when Honda released the Acura NSX in 1989, it was an extreme departure from what the world thought Honda was capable of. Honda has always been involved in racing, whether it was with two wheels or four, but the NSX brought some of what they’d learned on the track to the street. The NSX featured the world’s first all-aluminum body on a production vehicle, which contributed significantly to its low mass.
Peugeot Quasar
Peugeot has typically stuck to passenger cars for the everyday commuter. However, although it might not seem like it, Peugeot is no stranger to supercar concepts. As the French automaker was dominating Group B rally in the mid-1980s, it wanted to build a supercar that would carry that performance from the dirt to the pavement.
That machine would be the Peugeot Quasar. The chassis of a 205 T16 served as the basis for the vehicle, to which F1-style suspension components were installed. Multiple parts were made of either kevlar or carbon fibre. The mid-mounted, twin-turbo inline four-cylinder engine was also borrowed from the 205 T16, and produced 600 horsepower 360 lb.-ft. of torque. This show of power could be seen even when the car was sitting still, thanks to a completely exposed rear body section.
Chrysler ME Four-Twelve
A carbon-fibre body sat on top of a carbon-fibre-and-aluminum-honeycomb chassis, and power came from Mercedes’ 6.0-litre V12 mounted behind the driver. Thanks to the addition of four-turbochargers, it produced a respectable 850 horsepower, which would’ve been more than anything else on the road at the time — if Chrysler actually put the vehicle into production. That power was also good enough to give the ME Four-Twelve a zero-to-100 km/h time of just 2.9 seconds and an estimated top speed of 399 km/h.
Cadillac Cien
In the trunk of the Cien is a displacement as Cadillac as chrome, a 7.5-litre Northstar V12 engine producing 750 horsepower and 650 lb.-ft. of torque. The V12 actually had a special cylinder deactivation feature, which meant it could run on eight or fewer cylinders under lighter loads.
The chassis is made of a composite of “aerogel”, one of the weirdest and lightest materials, while the car itself was built in the U.K. by Prodrive, the motorsports company most famously known for its rally expertise. The exterior design was inspired by the F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet that also inspired the interior design of the 2020 Corvette C8. Say, now that the C8 has been revealed, this looks pretty similar, doesn’t it?