What is the first thing you expect from a sports car? Of course, it's the performance - speed, driving dynamics, and sheer excitement. You expect a car that's able to outrun everything else on the road and provide tons of fun doing so. This is what sports cars are all about. The design and prestige come secondary, even though many people buy sports cars just for the wow-factor.
But don’t be fooled and think that all sports cars are fast. Unfortunately, they are not, and today we will show you 15 slowest sports cars in the world. Acceleration and handling are a whole other thing, but for this list, we're judging sports cars by their top speed.
Even though there are some respectable names and expensive classics on this list, the fact is that none of the models listed here can top 150 mph, which is something that even the family SUVs can do nowadays. So, here are the 15 slowest sports cars ever produced!
15 Saab Sonett – 105 MPH
Even though it looks like a sports car and has the V4 engine mounted in the back, the Saab Sonett is painfully slow. We can’t understand how Saab managed to fool its customers into thinking that they are buying a performance car since this little coupe was powered by a 1.5-liter engine with pathetic 65 hp.
14 Honda S2000 – 149 MPH
The Honda S2000 was praised for its driving dynamics, high-revving engine, and overall quality as one of the best affordable roadsters you could buy. However, it was never a fast car per se, and its top speed is "just" 149 mph. Pretty fast for a small roadster, but hardly impressive for a sports car.
13 Opel GT – 113 MPH
The original Opel GT looks like little the Corvette C3 and has cool '60s styling. However, it has nothing of a Corvette performance since it is powered by a tiny four-cylinder engine and has a top speed of 113 mph. Interestingly, it was sold by Buick back in the day as a sports coupe.
12 Alpine A110 – 120 MPH
120 mph from the 1.3-liter engine is a significant achievement by early '70s standards, and Alpine managed to do it by making A110 very light and nimble. However, the downsides were that the car was cramped, uncomfortable, and fragile. Some five decades later, and this once-impressive sports car finds itself among the slowest ever produced.
11 Porsche 914 – 115 MPH
If you think that all Porsches are fast, think again. Back in the late '60s, Porsche teamed up with Volkswagen and produced the 914, an entry-level model powered by VW's flat-four engine. Although affordable, the 914 was by no means fast, and it struggled to go over 100 mph, eventually hitting a plateau at 115 mph.
10 Mazda Miata – 135 MPH
The Miata is considered one of the best sports cars ever made. It is affordable, light, immensely fun to drive, easy to maintain, and can be modified extensively. In stock form, its modest top speed of 135 mph shows that you don’t need to go extremely fast to have fun.
9 DeLorean DMC 12 – 110 MPH
Don’t worry, the DMC 12 CAN go faster than 88 mph, but its real top speed isn't that impressive, at just 110 mph. A top speed that's not even high enough for the police to take notice in a car with a gullwing design? Disappointing.
8 Porsche 912 – 119 MPH
For so many generations, the Porsche 911 has been a symbol of speed. But in the late '60s, due to slow sales, the company was forced to introduce a slower model called the 912. Powered by a 2.0-liter flat-four, this 911 lookalike managed to go only 119 mph with the wind in the back.
7 Toyota MR2 Turbo – 140 MPH
The fastest Toyota MR2 was the Turbo model, which managed a 140-mph top speed. Considering that most cars on this list can barely hit the 100-mph mark, this is a great achievement. The MR2 Turbo had a 200 hp engine and reasonably good aerodynamics needed for this task.
6 Chevrolet Corvette C3 (1980) – 85 MPH
It is insane, but it is true, the speedometer of 1980 Corvette C3 went only to 85 mph, which was a government-imposed limitation. All cars sold in the US had speedometers limited to that number even though they could go faster. In the case of Corvette, the real top speed was around 120 mph.
5 Ferrari Mondial – 140 MPH
The slowest Ferrari ever made also happens to be the cheapest one, which makes sense. The '80s Mondial falls short in every department and struggles to reach the advertised top speed of 140 mph.
4 Pontiac Fiero – 125 MPH
The biggest problem of the Fiero was always the fact that it was underpowered and slow. It looked like a fast, two-seater sports car, but it lacked power and performance. The fastest Fiero GT model was good only for 125 mph, which was a modest number even by late '80s standards.
3 MG Midget – 90 MPH
The MG Midget might win over buyers with its British charm, roadster body, and affordability, but it certainly didn’t win them over with performance. This small convertible wasn’t able to go over 90 mph making it ridiculously slow even by classic car standards.
2 Matra Baghera – 115 MPH
One of our favorite French sports cars is the '70s Matra Baghera. It had an unusual three-seat configuration, a plastic body, and a tiny Peugeot engine, and it was much slower than it looked. The top-spec model was good only for 115 mph, which was disappointing then as it is now.
1 Skoda 110 R – 90 MPH
If you lived in Eastern Europe in the '70s, the object of your automobile desires was sporty-looking Skoda 110 R. It looked like a communist Porsche 911, but it didn’t drive like one. In fact, it couldn’t even reach 100 mph! However, that didn’t stop Skoda from selling over 100,000 of them.