There’s a little blue ball floating around in the Milky Way galaxy known as earth. The inhabitants of this little planet like to have fun in the wildest variety of ways. Some dive out of planes, while others race along paved and dusty paths in all sorts of vehicles.
Of these vehicles, some are known as sports cars and are easily identifiable due to their great, big, powerful engines, and sleek builds. Yet for whatever reason, some of these sports cars are no longer as popular and admired as they once were.
10 Toyota Celica
Back in the day, the Toyota Celica was crazy popular and at one time it seemed that everyone and his hamster had one! The car was manufactured from 1970 to 2006, with a total of seven generations coming off the production lines.
The Celica was sporty, good looking, and affordable. Sure, it wasn’t the greatest sports car on the market, but it could go almost anywhere and cost almost nothing to maintain. These days they seem to have vanished and you might go weeks without sighting one.
9 Mitsubishi Eclipse
The Eclipse is a compact car from Mitsubishi that had an uncanny ability to win friends and influence people. Its production run was from 1989 to 2011, with the car having a front engine and either an all-wheel or front-wheel drive.
The Eclipse had more than its fair share of recalls and issues, but was, on the whole, a solid vehicle that showed its mettle in rally races and the like. It was fast and agile, but unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to too be many people driving one these days.
8 Mercury Cougar
Nearly 3 million Mercury Cougars have been produced, which is a very respectable run for what is an overall great car. The Mercury Cougar title refers to a variety of cars of varying body shapes, styles, and capacities, from coupes to station wagons, with production starting sometime after the mid-sixties and ending in the early years of this century.
Initially, based on the Ford Mustang, the Mercury Cougar eventually went its own way so to speak and was unimaginably popular during its first few years in the market.
7 Scion tC
Made by Toyota in Japan under the Scion badge, the Scion tC was both compact and fun. A 3-door coupe was standard, as was a front-engine front-wheel drive. Manufactured from 2004-2016, the tC was well equipped for its role and could be gotten for an amazingly cheap price.
In its time, the car was quite the seller, with folks buying them like there was a gun held to their heads! Now though, you will have to look hard to spot one in the streets.
6 Dodge Shelby CSX-VNT
It can be quite a struggle to pronounce the name of this automobile without biting your tongue in half! Anyway, while it might look somewhat cartoonish, the Dodge Shelby CSX-VNT was rather advanced for its time, leading Car and Driver to label it a “high-tech hot rod.”
They praised it as a “technological showcase.” Only 500 vehicles were produced and all had insane acceleration, courtesy of a turbo engine with exceptional performance. Now, they are all but forgotten.
5 Nissan NX2000
The NX2000 was a front-wheel-drive sports car with handling described as being positively heavenly. It featured a comfortable interior, and you didn’t need to sell off your firstborn to purchase one.
The NX2000 was popular in its time, had a 150 horsepower engine, and was reasonably versatile. Sold from 1991 to 1993 in the States, it hasn’t aged all that well. These days, finding one in good condition would take an act of God and barely anyone remembers the speedy monster that was the NX2000.
4 Hyundai Scoupe
It is doubtful if all the folks who recall what the Hyundai Scoupe was all about can fill up a small room. The Scoupe was Hyundai’s first attempt at creating a vehicle that was both stylish and sporty to drive, rather than one that was solely focused on moving people from place to place.
This two-door coupe was available with both automatic and manual transmissions, with production starting in 1988 and ending in 1995. It was overall an unremarkable car that was interesting in its own way.
3 Saturn Ion Redline
The Saturn Ion was a great car with a fun side, with the Redline edition ramping up the thrills by a considerable margin. The Redline edition had a limited-slip differential, plus a hefty horsepower increase over the standard model.
In late 2003, a Saturn Ion Redline on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats hit 212.684 mph, a land speed record at that time. The car was more of a racer than a daily driver, and being in it with your will out of order could be unwise!
2 Volkswagen Corrado
The Volkswagen Corrado is the poster image of cars that almost everyone seems to have no memory of! It was a tiny coupe-hatchback with front-wheel-drive and was both fun to handle and super-reliable.
Supercharger-equipped engines were available and an active spoiler came standard. Its looks do take some getting used to and this combined with the hefty prices the Corrado commanded goes a long way in ensuring that almost none can be seen on our roads today.
1 Mazdaspeed3
The Mazdaspeed3 was sweet and modern, with sharp lines and compact size. Available only as a manual, this hatchback had a front-wheel drive, plus a limited-slip differential and an engine that could crank out more than 250 horses.
The car was fast, loaded to the gills, and good enough to win awards by the bucketful. Produced from 2007 to 2013 across two generations, it is still a mystery how such a popular and lightning-fast car vanished from our streets and our memories!