A proper sports car is a vehicle most car enthusiasts - and even those who don't care all that much about cars - dream of owning. Breaking free from the monotony of commuter oriented cars, a sports car is instead focused on having a fun time. Even then, sports cars are given more focus in their engineering and design process, resulting in some of the most iconic automobiles of all time being sports cars.
While the ownership experience is a blast, at the end of the day, a sports car is still a machine owned by humans, and sometimes life throws a wrench in the way of these awesome machines. Whether it's a sudden turn of financial misfortune, natural or man-made disasters, or just some uniquely unfortunate circumstances, cars that were at one point objects of desire can end up discarded, left to rot as they are forgotten.
While typically sold off or sent to a scrapyard, some sports cars simply are left abandoned, sitting in the same spot they were left in for years. While some locations for abandonment are predictable, others are downright unbelievable, especially when the abandoned car in question is a legendary performance machine. So read on, to see the 10 most unbelievable places sports cars were found abandoned:
10 Porsche 911 - Forgotten In Fukushima
One of the worst nuclear disasters in history, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan's coast devastated land and caused the Fukushima nuclear power plant to meltdown. Now a radioactive wasteland, the Fukushima exclusion zone was left abandoned, including all the resident's cars. Among those cars is this Porsche 911, unfortunately though, the radioactive contamination means it can't be saved.
9 Toyota Supra - Overgrown In Hong Kong
A legendary Japanese sports car of the '90s, the 4th generation Toyota Supra is a proper sports car that is quickly becoming quite the collector's item. It's tragic then, that with so much demand for Supras, this one was found in Hong Kong simply left behind. While the owner has forgotten about it, nature hasn't, engulfing the Supra in vines.
8 Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta - Deserted In The Tucson Desert
The first race car Ferrari made that established their racing prominence, the 166 MM is a true legend, and only 25 of them were made. While most of the small batch of 166 MMs made ended up in museums or private collections, this one was found abandoned, just sitting in a backyard within the Tucson Arizona desert.
7 Ford GT40 - Buried In A Garage Full Of Junk
Look closely at this unsuspecting picture of a garage full of junk. Notice the yellow car? That's none other than an original Ford GT40, a car worth several million dollars today. Purchased in the mid-'70s by a firefighter, the GT40 then sat for decades after it broke down, being ignored and covered in decades worth of junk before finally being purchased by a collector.
6 Honda NSX - Ditched In A Russian Forest
A beautiful Japanese performance machine that helped re-define the supercar, the original NSX is a true legend. Tragically though, this NSX was found sitting abandoned in a forest near St. Petersburg, Russia. Supposedly the owner left it there after the price of their selected upgrades got too large to handle. Although the story does have a happy ending, as the car underwent restoration and was saved from its tragic fate.
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5 Porsche 911 - Sitting In A Singaporean Parking Garage
Found by an exotic car spotter in Singapore, this (formerly) gorgeous vintage 911 Turbo was discovered abandoned in a parking garage. Supposedly the owner refused to pay for work done to the car and simply left it, but others say an engine fire caused it to be abandoned. Either way, it's sad to see such an awesome vintage Porsche left like this.
4 Lotus Esprit - Tragedy In A Train Tunnel
While a train tunnel is one of the weirdest places to abandon a car, the story makes sense, in a tragic sort of way. The tunnel was discontinued for train use and subsequently converted into a car repair shop. Unfortunately, the tunnel began to collapse, forcing the shop to shut down and abandon their cars within the now sealed-off tunnel. Among those cars was a Lotus Esprit, an awesome '80s wedge that deserves better than this fate.
3 Chevrolet Corvette - Sunken Underwater
Found at the bottom of a lake, right at the end of a boat launch, Youtuber "Adventures With Purpose" discovered this Corvette while on a dive. Supposedly either stolen or ditched to commit insurance fraud, the vintage Corvette was extracted from the lake. Even weirder, a VW Beetle and vintage Jaguar were found in the same lake.
2 Mazda MX-5 Miata - Track-side Graveyard
Lying within the Road Atlanta grounds was the Skip Barber Racing School, and their fleet of MX-5 race cars. Used for MX-5 Cup Racing Series, the fleet of cars was left to rot by Skip Barber's facilities at Road Atlanta after Skip Barber declared bankruptcy. Fortunately, many were sold off in their bankruptcy auction, saving the peppy racecars from an overgrown fate.
1 Honda S2000 - Thrown Into A Canyon
While the cause of the crash remains unknown, the reason for abandonment is fairly obvious. Found at the bottom of the Azuza Canyon in California, its clear the S2000 slid off the road, ending up hundreds of feet away within the canyon. How exactly the car can be recovered is a question that most likely led the owner to abandon it completely.