Awesome sports cars are being forgotten every day. Others are gaining popularity for reasons no one can explain in simple terms. They are bad cars but end up building a cult-like following all across the globe. Some classics are becoming quite popular for reasons only the buyer can explain. Why would anyone pay over $100,000 for the first-generation BMW M3? It’s an old car with an extremely tired engine and high maintenance costs.

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But that’s beside the point; everyone loves the M3 for its originality and purity of purpose — the car was built to conquer the tracks. And it has a proven record of doing just that. That’s why it’s a darling to many. But for every BMW M3, there’s a good number of equally good sports cars that have been forgotten. Dive in as we take a stroll down the memory lane with some excellent and forgotten sports cars.

10 Lucra LC470

Lucra LC470
Via autoblog.com

Lucra is a Californian car manufacturing company dedicated to building small, lightweight vehicles with big engines — like a modern AC Cobra. Anyone who knows the Lucra LC470 will agree that it is just as attractive as the AC Cobra.

Lucra LC470
Via youtube.com

The car weighs slightly above 900kgs and has excellent weight balance due to its front mid-engine layout. The LC470 has a 500bhp powerplant that propels it from 0-60mph in just 3.2 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 10 seconds. The sports car has race-spec suspension and superb brakes.

9 Alfa Romeo Montreal

Alfa Romeo Montreal
Via goodwood.com

Alfa Romeo builds some of the best performance sports cars in the world. Cars like the legendary 33 Stradale with a high-performance engine and a luxurious cabin. The Montreal is no different — it is based on the transcendent 105 Coupe Series chassis. The Montreal came with a 33 Stradale engine, toned down a bit to produce 200 bhp.

Alfa Romeo Montreal
Via secret-classics.com

With an enlarged engine and different cam profile, the Alfa Romeo Montreal produced more torque than the Stradale’s 2.0-liter, dry-sumped V8. With such power, coupled with Alfa Romeo’s race-bred ZF five-speed and limited-slip differential, it’s pretty hard to explain how the car just slipped under the radar of popularity.

8 Alfa Romeo SZ

Alfa Romeo SZ
Via motorbiscuit.com

Another Alfa. The SZ is a car that will appear mostly on auction sites or lists of the weirdest cars ever built. But does it deserve the hate? The SZ is a perfect modern classic that true collectors will bag and take home. The vehicle is obscure from the outside but is something different underneath — an excellent sports car.

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Alfa Romeo SZ
Via motorbiscuit.com

0  to 60mph took around 7 seconds thanks to the 210 bhp generated from its snarling V6 powerplant. It featured a rear-mounted gearbox and a limited-slip differential. Among the best features of the Alfa Romeo SZ was the powered height-adjustable suspension.

7 Maserati Shamal

Maserati Shamal
Via wikipedia.org

All the best Maserati’s are named after a certain wind. Maserati Khamsin, Ghibli, and this Shamal. This is a clear indication that this is an awesome car that just happened to fall under the most underappreciated vehicles of all time.

Maserati Shamal
Via euroclassixcars.com

Apart from those stats, this car had some attractive features, including an all-new twin-turbocharged V8 powerplant with eight valves. The engine produced a respectable 320bhp and 320lb-ft of torque. It was such a perfect engine that Maserati kept utilizing it in the 3200 GT, the successor of the Shamal.

6 BMW Z1

BMW Z1
Via handh.co.uk

The biggest complaint about the BMW Z1 when it debuted was that it was underpowered. Many motorists claimed that the car was extremely slow. It is a convertible. And even though some convertibles are extremely powerful and equally fast, open-tops do not need to be fast. That’s the quickest way for a driver to lose their hearing from wind buffeting.

BMW Z1
Via bmwblog.com

It was a lame excuse that threw a great sports car under the radar. The Z1 featured a welded still body with a bonded plastic floor designed to enhance stiffness. Under the hood was a 2.5-liter straight-six engine mated to 5-speed manual transmission to produce 170 horsepower.

5 Porsche 968

Porsche 968
Via wikipedia.org

One truth about Porsche sports cars is that they are perfect. The German automaker has dedicated all of its efforts to make the best automobiles. One of those cars is the 968. It was supposed to be an update to the 944, but by the time it was ready, over 80% of it was all new, so Porsche decided to give it a new name, or rather a new number altogether.

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Porsche 968
Via wikipedia.org

The car had a 3.0-liter, four-cylinder engine good for 240bhp and 225lb-ft of torque. It was an evolution of the 924, 944, and then 968 — handling-wise, it was a perfect Porsche.

4 Spyker C8 SWB

Spyker C8 SWB
Via barrett-jackson.com

An excellent sports car is not defined by speed or exotic design. A good car should feel custom-designed to make the driver feel better. It should extract fun from any situation, just by entering in it and turning the key. That is what the Spyker C8 SWB is about.

Spyker C8 SWB
Via barrett-jackson.com

The car is powered by an Audi-sourced 4.2-liter V8 engine that’s been goosed up to deliver 400 horsepower. This, combined with the 1930s aviation-styled interior, characterized with perhaps the world’s best-looking manual transmission, makes for one of the best sports cars in the world.

3 Subaru SVX

Subaru SVX
Via pinterest.com

The SVX is one of the best sports cars of its time. The styling was done by legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro, and power sourced from a 3.3-liter, naturally aspirated flat-six engine capable of 230bhp and 230lb-ft of torque, the SVX deserves much more than the ‘top best and forgotten sports cars of all time.’

Subaru SVX
Via hagerty.com

The SVX featured Subaru’s full-time all-wheel-drive. The vehicle was offered solely with an automatic transmission. Apparently, it's possible to swap the gearbox with a five or six-speed manual from a Subaru WRX.

2 TVR Tuscan

TVR Tuscan
Via wikiwand.com

The TVR Tuscan was a British front-engine RWD sports car. Being a British performance car, many would expect it to be among the top performers, and it was, only underrated. The car came with a fully home-grown, straight-six, naturally aspirated engine called the Speed Six.

TVR Tuscan
Via evo.co.uk

The 4.0-liter engine was capable of 400 bhp. This was enough power for a sports car during this time. The Tuscan accelerated from 0-60mph in 4.0 seconds, maintaining a top speed of 186mph to clear the quarter-mile in around 13.6 seconds.

1 Lancia Montecarlo

Lancia Montecarlo
Via wikipedia.org

To begin with, the Montecarlo was designed and built by Pininfarina, and that’s enough to make it a beautiful sports car. When first introduced, Lancia noted that the vehicle had braking issues; they took it off the market for two years to improve its braking system. A plethora of improvements were also done during these two years.

Lancia Montecarlo
Via technologyshout.com

The original Montecarlo came with a 3.0-liter V6 engine, which was later replaced with a 2.0-liter inline-four powerplant during the oil crisis of the mid-1970s. The 2.0-liter powered Montecarlo was called the Lancia Beta. There was a modified version of the Montecarlo sold in America as Lancia Scorpion.

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