Designing a car is an incredibly complicated task. With thousands of aspects to design, each of which needing to work in tandem with each other, and each needing to look good, car design is one of the most intensive fields out there, with legends of the car design often being more iconic than their engineers.
In the world of performance cars though, looking good isn't always the goal. While glamorous supercars do have good looks as a need, brutally fast performance monsters can put it lower on their list of priorities. Often due to a focus on aerodynamic function taking precedent over their form, these 10 seriously quick road-going beasts are as ugly as they are fast.
10 Panoz Abruzzi
Panoz is a rather obscure low-volume sports car builder based in the USA, building properly fast racecars, and properly weird road-going sports cars as well, including this beast that may just be the ugliest performance car ever made.
Built around the "spirit of Le Mans," the Abruzzi debuted in 2010 with a planned production run of 81 examples - one for each year the 24 Hours of Le Mans has run for. Aerodynamically optimized, and built as a proper racecar for the road, the Abruzzi's 640 hp V8 makes it properly fast as well. Another proper aspect of the Abruzzi is that it's properly ugly, with a wide-mouthed alien-looking design that is just hilarious to look at. That being said, it does look a lot better in its proper race car form, though still nowhere near what you'd call beautiful.
9 Marcos Mantara LM500
A small British sports car builder that is no longer in business, Marcos' history is chock full of some seriously strange cars. Among their proper road-going race cars though is the Mantara LM500, a Le Mans-bred beast that is as ugly as it is fast.
Full of awkward proportions and strange curves, the Mantara on its own was a fast sports car, re-introducing the Marcos brand in 1993 after a decades-long hiatus, but reached its peak when turned into a proper racecar and driven at Le Mans. Selling this race-bred version of the Mantara as a limited production road car, the LM500 weighed less than 2,500 lbs and got its power from a Rover V8 laying down 320 hp.
8 Marcos Mantara LM600
The depths of Marcos' fast and ugly cars neither start nor end with the LM500, no, as the LM600 takes both aspects of the Mantara to the ultimate extreme, creating perhaps the strangest looking racecar, and road going supercar of all time.
Rather than a British Rover V8 engine, the LM600 got its power from a small-block Chevy V8 and had an even more extreme aerodynamic body, with massive arched fenders that are nearly as wide as the cockpit itself, and a slathering of vents across the car. Scoring several wins in the British GT Championship in the '90s, and seeing use in other GT racing championships, the LM600 also raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans several times in proper race car form. Just one example was produced as a road-going supercar.
7 TVR Cerbera Speed 12
Another motorsports-bred, low volume British beast, if there's one thing TVR is famous for, it's their ridiculously strange designs, and brutal performance, and the Cerbera Speed 12 takes both of those factors to the ultimate extreme.
Never making it to full production, the Cerbera Speed 12 was designed in the mid-'90s to compete in GT1 racing, and eclipse the McLaren F1 - then the fastest road car. Supposedly breaking every dyno it was tested on, the Speed 12's monstrous V12 engine was estimated to have a power figure just under 1000 hp, and was so brutal that road use was an unrealistic goal for anyone except the best drivers. Purpose-built to be an absolute monster, the Speed 12's looks reflect this well, being a strange mix of curves and the ridiculous amount of angular vents.
6 Gumpert Apollo
Founded in 2004 by Audi's former head of motorsports, Gumpert created this absolute monster in the mid-2000s, breaking the Nürburgring record, and becoming one of the fastest, yet ugliest supercars of the decade.
Going on sale in 2007, the Gumpert Apollo was powered by a twin-turbo Audi V8 that let it do a 0-60 mph run in 3 seconds flat and hit a top speed of 224 mph. Breaking the Nürburgring production car record in 2009, the Gumpert Apollo was an absolute monster that like many other cars on this list prioritized function over form. But, those function-first body lines and design elements like the grille do it no favors, making the whole car look as strange as it is fast.
5 Ferrari F50
The unloved successor to the legendary F40, the Ferrari F50 is just as incredible a car performance-wise, but had its legacy cut short in part thanks to some incredibly odd looks.
Celebrating Ferrari's 50th anniversary in 1995, the F50 was a brutal Formula 1 derived supercar that was as fast as a road car could get in the '90s. Aerodynamically optimized, lightweight, and powered by a Formula 1 developed V12, the F50 was just as incredible as the F40 but is often forgotten as such due to it not being created under Enzo Ferrari's supervision, and is designed with some decidedly ugly looks.
4 Lamborghini Veneno
On the other side of the spectrum from "function over form," the Lamborghini Veneno was a special limited edition supercar with a focus on the most extreme looks possible.
Essentially a Lamborghini Aventador fitted with a new and absolutely insane body, the Veneno debuted in 2013 with only 13 examples produced and was meant to celebrate Lamborghini's 50th anniversary with a goal of having the craziest, most outrageous styling possible. Outrageous is no exaggeration, as the Veneno is up there with the most insane-looking cars in history.
3 Mosler Raptor
An incredibly strange sports car, the Mosler Raptor began life in the '80s as a purpose-built track weapon, with a design that made no compromises to achieve aerodynamic efficiency, even at the expense of good looks.
Starting off life as the Consulier GTP under Consulier Industries - later re-named Mosler Automotive, the Raptor was Born from Mosler's desire for a truly lightweight American sports car. Becoming the Mosler Intruder in the '90s, then the Raptor when given a 450 hp Chevy small-block V8, the GTP gained a fair bit of weight thanks to this engine, but still weighed well under 3,000 lbs, and retained its racecar oriented design, letting it outrun most supercars of its day.
2 Tramontana R
Not a country you'd associate with insane supercars, the Tramontana R is a Spanish car with some awesome racecar-inspired performance and downright strange looks.
Weighing in at around 2,800 lbs with a nearly full carbon fiber construction, the Tramontana R is ridiculously fast. Powered by a twin-turbo Mercedes V8 pushing out 720 hp, the Tramontana R can do the 0-60 mph run in 3.5 seconds and has some awesome handling to boot. Looks-wise though, the car is a strange mix of Formula 1 racer, alien spaceship, and insect.
1 Nissan Juke R
Widely regarded as the ugliest crossover SUV in modern history, the Nissan Juke normally is by no means a fast car. However, by stuffing in the heart of Nissan's fastest car with a plethora of go-fast bits, the Juke R was born as a ridiculous-looking, ridiculously fast monster.
Created as a concept car at first, the Juke R was fitted with the engine, transmission, and drivetrain from the GT-R with modifications letting it lay down a whopping 690 hp, ad given a roll cage, big brakes, and a coilover suspension. Put into limited production by popular demand, just 5 Juke Rs were built as some of the ugliest, yet quickest crossovers to existing.