The new Lamborghini Countach has now been officially unveiled to the public, and it's seriously quick. Its hybrid powertrain gives it 803 hp and it should pull 0-62 in just 2.8 seconds. It's also eye-wateringly expensive, with Bloomberg reporting a price tag of $2.64 million for each of the 112 planned cars. Specs aside, it's hard to escape the feeling that this reinvented icon is a little, dare we say boring? It's based on the long-running Aventador platform, and it uses most of the same internals as the previous limited-run Lambo, the Sian.
Sure, it sports a new, retro-modern design that's inspired by the original Countach, but it's still a bit underwhelming for something that revives such an iconic name. No one here at HotCars has anywhere close to $2 million to spend on a supercar, but if we did, it wouldn't be on the new Countach. Instead, those millions would go towards another one of the following unusual supercars. They all offer the same exclusivity and status, and they've got much more interesting backstories, too.
10 Isdera Commendatore 112i
A one-of-one supercar, the Isdera Commendatore 112i drew a lot of attention when it went under the auction hammer at RM Sotheby's in early 2021. It was originally built in 1993 as a concept car with the goal of putting the model into full production. However, financial woes meant that never happened.
The car was in some ways the predecessor to the Pagani Zonda, as it used the same Mercedes V12 engine and a six-speed manual transmission. Unlike Pagani though, Isdera never saw much success as a company, and the Commendatore was eventually sold off to a private investor for a significant loss compared to the development cost.
9 Koenigsegg CCR
When it debuted in 2004, the Koenigsegg CCR was the fastest and most powerful car the company had ever built. Only 14 examples were made and each one featured a 4.7-liter V8 engine that made 806 hp. If that wasn't enough, the whole car only weighed 2,601 lbs dry.
Company CEO Christian von Koenigsegg claimed the car was the fastest production car ever when it was released, and sure enough, in 2005, the CCR achieved an official top speed of 241 mph, beating the previous record held by the McLaren F1. Just a few short months later, though, the CCR lost its crown to the newly-unveiled Bugatti Veyron, which posted a new record of 253.8 mph. This formed a fierce rivalry between the two companies that continues to this day.
8 Aston Martin Victor
Aston Martin has been on a roll with releasing amazing special edition cars in recent years, with models such as the Valkyrie and Vulcan shooting straight to the top of many gearheads' dream car lists. One such exclusive model that went somewhat under the radar is the Victor, a coach-built supercar with a Cosworth-engineered V12 engine.
It's based on the Aston Martin One-77, and it shares several body parts with the Vulcan track car. It's also undoubtedly one of the best-looking British cars of recent years, with a retro-inspired design that was developed in-house by the Aston Martin Lagonda team.
7 BMW M1
It's an icon that's quickly snapped up by collectors today, but back in the '80s, the BMW M1 was a proper sales failure. Originally, BMW contracted out Lamborghini to build this new supercar, but after the Italian manufacturer went bankrupt, Beemer had to cobble together a plan to make the M1 at their racing division's factory instead.
Costs kept piling up as the car was delayed year after year, and despite building the car to take on the biggest names in the racing world, the M1 wasn't that successful in competition. It was eventually canned after just 453 cars were built, and today remains as BMW's only true supercar.
6 McLaren Speedtail
The fourth entry into McLaren's Ultimate Series after the F1, P1, and Senna, the Speedtail is not only insanely fast, but looks out of this world. Sporting a 1,035-hp hybrid V8 powertrain, the car takes every technological advancement McLaren has made in their decades of motorsport experience and puts it all in one machine.
Production started in 2020 and is ongoing, with all 106 examples spoken for. Despite its crazy looks and unbelievable engineering, the Speedtail is actually cheaper than the Lamborghini Countach, coming in at a comparatively reasonable $2.25 million.
5 Spyker C8 Preliator
Most gearheads haven't heard of Spyker, and that's not surprising. The boutique Dutch automaker has suffered from serious financial trouble since its relaunch in 1999, and it's not clear if the company is even still making cars as it filed for bankruptcy in January 2021.
The C8 Preliator is the latest iteration of Spyker's long-running C8 line, and it's a stunner. It houses a 4.2-liter Audi V8 that makes around 518 hp, giving it a generous top speed of 200 mph and a 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds. However, it's luxury that Spyker tends to focus on most, with interiors covered in fine quilted leather and optional extras like a custom-made Louis Vuitton travel set available.
4 Bugatti EB110 SS
In the mid-'80s, the Bugatti marque was revived by an Italian entrepreneur. This was way before Veyron and Volkswagen’s involvement, and so the company's cash flow at the time was minimal. Using the limited resources they had, Bugatti built their first supercar, the EB110.
It was a beast of a car, with a quad-turbo V12 engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission. Like many small automakers, Bugatti struggled to sell enough cars to cover their development costs and the company ended up going bankrupt in 1995. Strangely enough, another company called Dauer bought the remaining unfinished EB 110 chassis and completed them in the early 2000s. They then sold the car under their own brand, even though they were identical to the original Bugattis.
3 Lotus Elise GT1
Another brand with a fascinating backstory is Lotus, which has been through countless ownership and management changes since Colin Chapman founded the company in 1948. By 1997, the company was majority-owned by Malaysian automaker Proton, and they decided to build a GT1 race car to expand the brand.
The result was the Elise GT1, an incredibly rare vehicle that raced up against the likes of the Porsche 911 GT1 and Mercedes-AMG CLK GTR. Seven track cars were built and only one road-legal car was ever made. Today, the car is an automotive unicorn, but one of the original seven cars is actually for sale at a German dealership. It's the price on request, of course.
2 Pagani Zonda Revolucion
Even the original Pagani Zonda is an uncompromising automobile that's built for speed over everything else. However, it pales in comparison to the Zonda Revolucion, the final and most extreme version of the Zonda R track car. The R line was the product of Horacio Pagani asking the question, "how fast can the car be if it doesn't have to be road legal?"
The Revolucion was unveiled in 2013, with its Mercedes-derived V12 pumping out 791 hp and 536 lb-ft of torque. The whole car weighs in at just 2,359 lbs, which makes it lightning fast. It employs a ton of racing technologies, including DRS and an active aero system. Yet despite all that, in 2021, a Revolucion was sent back to the Pagani factory to undergo a road-legal conversion.
1 Lamborghini Sesto Elemento
If there's any billionaire out there that just has to spend their millions on a Lamborghini, there's still plenty of better options than the new Countach. The Sesto Elemento was built between 2010 and 2012 and only 20 units were ever made. It cost a total of $2.92 million when it was new, and for that price, owners didn't even get seats.
Instead, to save weight, Lambo attached foam pads directly to the carbon-fiber monocoque chassis. It's as focused and extreme as anything the Italian manufacturer has ever made, with an iconic design to boot. It's also one of the last naturally-aspirated special edition Lamborghinis, so it's sure to keep increasing in value well into the future.