Every superstar has a scrapbook with new hairstyles and bad suits without any reference to their later fame. This also applies to cars.
1. Nissan GT-R
Car enthusiasts still talk in awe about the R32 Nissan GT-R from 1989. But the first examples from 20 years earlier were much less sexy. They were fast square trays, powered by a two-liter twin cam.
2. Ford Capri
The car that you had to give yourself, according to Ford, appeared in January 1969. Eight years earlier, there was also a Ford Capri, a coupé version of the Consul Classic. It had too little power and was hardly sold between 1961 and 1964.
3. Corvette C1
It seems hardly conceivable: a Corvette C1 without the legendary V8 engine. Yet the first one in 1953 was only available with a very lazy power source and only two gears.
4. Dodge Charger
It is probably due to the shapes inspired by a coke bottle that almost 100,000 Dodge Chargers have been sold. Because for its mechanically identical, but much less sexy predecessor, almost nobody got their hands on each other.
5. McLaren M6 GT
The F1 race car was not McLaren’s first attempt to make the fastest four-wheeled streetcar. Two M6 GTs appeared in 1970, but that was not until after the fatal crash of Bruce McLaren in Goodwood.
6. Mitsubishi Lancer
The Mitsubishi Lancer was put on the map between 1996-1999 by WRC champion Tommi Mäkinen. It was already for sale in 1992, but apparently it lacked charisma.
7. Volkswagen K70
The Golf from 1974 received the credits for the introduction of air-cooled front-wheel-drive cars. But the square K70 already had that. The sales figures for that model were disappointing.
8. Peugeot Ralley
Who doesn’t know the 106 and 306 Ralley’s. But what about the 205? England only received a 75 hp version. The competitive 100 hp GTi version was only available on the European mainland.
9. Porsche 989
It was a shock that Porsche was going to build SUVs. As if that wasn’t enough, a Panamera salon appeared, with the look of a 911. He was slaughtered, although the styling was much better than that of the almost identical 989 twenty years earlier.
10. Dacia Duster
Renault’s budget model, the brilliant Duster SUV, actually deserves better than being named after a Romanian off-road model from the early 1980s.
