The supercars you (probably) forgot ever existed

Slide of For every supercar brand that has succeeded there have been plenty that have fallen by the wayside… When you're spending a lot of money on a top-end car you expect it to have some pedigree; branding count for a lot when buying most cars, but where supercars are concerned it's nothing less than crucial. In the past few decades very few new brands have emerged in the supercar arena and survived for any length of time – but dozens have come and gone having failed to make their mark. These are just some of those that didn't make it: Slide of Monteverdi Hai (1970) When it comes to exclusive supercars, few are rarer than the Monteverdi Hai. Just two were built, the cars designed by the late Peter Monteverdi, despite no formal training. Power came from a 7.0-litre Chrysler Hemi V8, tuned to give 450bhp and 180mph. With air-con, leather trim and power everything this was one luxurious supercar, but build quality wasn’t up to scratch and just two examples were made. Slide of Argyll GT (1976) When Bob Henderson set out to create a Scottish 200mph supercar in 1976, he didn’t bank on the oil crisis putting paid to his plans quite so quickly. It would be 1977 before the project got going and 1984 by the time the first customer cars were ready for delivery. But by then the planned twin-turbo V8 had been downgraded to a turbocharged 2664cc V6 and potential customers had lost interest in the project. Slide of Panther Six (1977) In the late 1970s there was a poster of this mad hypercar on every junior petrolhead's wall. With its six-wheel layout and twin-turbo 8.2-litre Cadillac V8 hung out the back, it was one crazy monster of a car. Just two were built, each one supposedly capable of 200mph, although nobody ever got to verify this. One Six has been restored and is up and running in Europe; the other (the motorshow car) disappeared from view years ago and is reckoned to be hiding in the Middle East somewhere. Slide of Dome Zero (1978) When the wraps were taken off the Dome Zero at the 1978 Geneva motor show there were some sharp intakes of breath. How could a Japanese outfit produce something so far out? Crazier than a Countach, the Zero was amazing but its maker couldn’t afford to put it through Japanese homologation tests. It wouldn’t have been that quick anyway; the 2.8-litre straight-six offered just 145bhp – but what a looker. Slide of Aston Martin Bulldog (1979) When Aston Martin developed the mid-engined Bulldog there was talk of building up to 25 of the Williams Towns-designed machines. With electrically operated gullwing doors, a 700bhp twin-turbo V8 and an impossibly dramatic design, the necessary buyers could probably have been found. After all, with a verified near-200mph top speed this would have been the world’s fastest production road car. But with all the development work done Aston Martin changed hands and the new owners didn’t feel this was the way forward for a quintessentially English car maker. So the sole Bulldog built was sold instead, but it still survives and occasionally appears at car events in the UK. Slide of Wolfrace Sonic (1981) We're cheating a bit here because the Wolfrace Sonic was never meant to be more than a one-off, but it still fits in here as it was built as a high-profile publicity machine and it's now all but forgotten. Commissioned by the original owner of Wolfrace Wheels, Barry Treacy, it was designed by Nick Butler who came up with a six-wheeled two-seater beast powered by two Rover V8s. The Sonic cost £100,000 to build and generated huge publicity for Wolfrace before it disappeared from view, only to resurface in a derelict state in 2015 on eBay, where it sold for £18,100. Slide of Kodiak F1 (1983) In 1983, Serbian Mladen Mitrovic unveiled a supercar at the Frankfurt motor show, which would supposedly be the equal of anything to come out of, well, anywhere. With its 320bhp 5.4-litre Chevrolet V8, the F1 was inspired by Mercedes’ gull-winged C-111; it was claimed to be capable of sitting at 170mph all day, with absolute reliability. Later cars were supposed to get a 5.6-litre Mercedes V8 – except there weren’t any later cars. Slide of Isdera Imperator (1984) Mercedes spent six years creating its CW311 concept, which was unveiled in 1978 – but it had no plans to put the car into production. Which was a shame because there were plenty of people clamouring to buy one, so CW311 designer Eberhard Schulz put the car into production himself, using the Isdera brand. He called his supercar the Imperator which came with a choice of 5.0, 5.6 or 6.0-litre V8 engines offering up to 390bhp and 176mph. Production lasted until 1993 when Isdera went bust, but in that time 30 Imperators were made. They occasionally come up for sale for in the region of £400,000. Slide of Cizeta V16 (1989) If supercars are about extremes, this must be the ultimate, thanks to a crazy 599