When it comes to sports cars, other than the mid-engined Corvette and a few other niche car makers in the US, the world usually looks to Europe or Japan. Although, when it comes to the best-looking and the most-thrilling of convertibles and coupes, it's usually Europe. Think British, German, and Italian cars.
But does the European sports car-superiority extend to every sports car to come out of this continent? Sadly enough, no. Some European sports cars have been the biggest lemons of their time, with poor sales, and some scathing reviews from the most venerable car experts across the world.
You know the adage, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." In the case of these 10 European sports cars, it was more a matter of the bigger they are, the harder they flopped.
It's not only the Detroit Three and other smaller American carmakers (such as AMC) that messed up some of their cars spectacularly. Here are 10 sports cars from Europe that flopped like none other.
10 1969 Porsche 914: Unwanted Offspring
The illegitimate love child from an illicit and much-frowned-upon affair of Porsche and Volkswagen, the 914 could be the result of the Soviet Union's fall and the way it impacted all the countries of Europe. One of the most popular engines in its line-up was a 1.7-liter VW unit that made all of 80 horses.
Pathetic, even for the ‘70s. Plus, why did Porsche come with a VW engine in the first place? A 0-60 mpg run was 13 seconds, topped only by that pathetic excuse of a muscle car, the Iron Duke Camaro!
9 1992 Jaguar XJ220J: Failed Its Buyers
Today, many feel that the 1992 Jaguar XJ220 was an underrated car for its time but back then, when Jaguar suddenly backtracked and changed the engine at the last minute, orders were rescinded. Imagine booking a supercar that promises a V12 AWD, and ending with a rear-wheeled turbocharged V6.
The expression you just made was the one that hissed at Jaguar, so it slashed prices and even then, managed to sell only 274 of these beauties. The end of the Jaguar XJ220J was nigh from the start.
8 1984 Maserati Biturbo: A Beautiful Disaster
Why did Maserati ever made a Biturbo, and expect it to save the company, we will never know. This is a car that took the name of all good Italian cars several notches down and killed off any interest people had in the Maserati brand.
Facing bankruptcy at the time, Maserati made a car in the embodiment of Murphy’s Law. Everything that could go wrong with the car, did go wrong, at such regular intervals that most of the cars seemed to be parked at the mechanics. Permanently.
7 1980 Ferrari Mondial 8: A Bad Name
None of us expected to see a Ferrari on this list, especially since Cardi B loves to sing about it and Lamborghinis in every song of hers, but then again, sometimes even the giants do a trip and fall flat on their faces. Or behinds.
The first Ferrari Mondial was a bonafide disaster, too heavy for its 214-horsepower V8 engine to pull with any semblance of speed or finesse. Plus it was cheap and lacked that OMG-you-have-a-Ferrari vibe so the 1980 versions weren’t all that vaunted.
6 1975 Triumph TR7: No Crowning Glory
Why make a car that looks like something you wedge the door with when the doorstopper goes kerplunk? And okay, even if the design is something different and that’s the USP, why make a car that short circuits if you look at it wrong?
The Triumph TR7, as in the “shape of things to come”, came and went with mind-boggling comedy, considering everything in the car was shoddy and tended to snap, burn and crackle. It’s almost as if the workers at the assembly plants deliberately sabotaged the car and killed it off, for good.
5 1975 Morgan Plus 8 Propane: A Very Fiery Idea
The Ford Pinto can finally rest its fiery laurels, and behind, for there was car far more primed to go up in flames than it. This was the Morgan Plus 8 Propane. Technically, the Morgan Motor Company did not make a propane car, they made classic if old-generation Morgans that pulled out of the US in the early ‘70s, failing the emissions test.
A Morgan fan, Bill Fink, slyly imported them and then ran them on propane, with the tank hung just below the rear bumper. Un-finkable, right?
4 1956 Volvo Sport P1900: The Car No One Wanted
The Volvo P1900 was a me-too car so envisaged by Assar Gabrielsson, Volvo's president, who saw a Chevrolet Corvette and decided they wanted to make one too. So he went back to Sweden, got a fiber-glass body commissioned, and in went the 70-horsepower 1.4-liter engine. Sadly, no one wanted the car and in case they bought one, the ride and build quality disappointed.
Made between 1956 and 1957, only 68 of these were made and sold. When Volvo's new president Gunnar Engellau took it for a spin, he returned with the famous words, "I thought it would fall apart". Thankfully, Volvo redeemed itself with the P1800, launched in 1961.
3 1974 Jaguar XK-E V12 Series III: Regression, Not Evolution
The perfect way to ruin what was once called the most beautiful car, ever. A far cry from the ‘60s XK-E, the 1974 emission control forced Jaguar to put in a V12 engine and end the coupes, leaving only a nose-heavy 2+2 sedan or convertible.
Then they did the unthinkable by killing the sleek lines and turning the fenders pouty, for lack of a better word, and added rubber bumpers to qualify safety standards. The XK-E killed the XK-E and did so heartlessly even though it did have some takers.
2 1970 Triumph Stag: Runt Of The Pack
The Triumph Stag looked so good, it was even more of a let down than the rest of the bad cars of the ‘70s. Although later, people likened it to being in it like being in some exotic fishbowl, considering the chrome-frame windows.
It did run well if it ran at all. And that was the crux of all its problems. The workings under the hood were a disaster. Everything that should leak, leaked and everything that should pump; sucked. The engine let the car down, in every way possible. Seeing a Stag work perfectly meant the pigs were truly flying.
1 1960 Facel Vega Facellia: The Car Killed The Maker
Facel, now defunct, was a French automaker that did very well with its flagship car, the Vega. The Vega was expensive and came with a Hemi V8, and ran so great, many celebrities bought one and these remain much-cherished classics till today.
Then in 1960, Facel made a mass-affordable sports car, the Vega Facellia, and instead of using an American engine, it went with a Volvo mill. The car sputtered and stalled more than it ran and went down under, taking Facel with it.
Sources: Motor1. Autocar, Time