You learn something new... - Cars you didn't know existed, until now!

  • Thread starter Rue
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W140 Landaulet built for the Pope.
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What could have been
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The Daihatsu X-021, which was introduced in 1991 was a proposal for a lightweight, two-seat sports car to rival the Mazda MX-5.

The Daihatsu X-021 was an advanced vehicle which displayed some promising tech and specifications. It featured an aluminium space frame chassis, plastic bodywork, and race-derived inboard suspension.

Powering the X-021 was a 1.6 litre. 16 valve, inline 4 cylinder engine which produced 140 horsepower. In such a diminutive vehicle, which weighed just 700 kgs (1,543 lbs), this drivetrain gave the X-021 a top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h).

The X-021 is one of those 'what could have been' cars. It's so unfortunate that rather than developing this little firecracker of a roadster, Daihatsu decided to go ahead and produce the Copen instead.
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I figured out what this Bentley is, a Continental R Azure.
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EDIT: The story is basically that I saw this Bentley at a car dealership chain that was hosting a Cars and Coffee event and it was the first "Cars and Coffee" event I ever went to. There were basically a lot of high end luxury cars, sports cars, and supercars there with a couple of muscle cars aswell. I kinda was introduced to a bunch of Rolls Royces and Bentleys for the first time as I don't usually see those kind of cars.
 
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Alfa Romeo 145/146.
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Not much to say, I just never knew about it until now. The back is a bit strange, and it came with many interesting engine options. Of course, I'm not going to tell you, because I'm a lazy 🤬.
 
This happens infrequently, but I genuinely didn't know about this until I was reading through an old issue of Car: the San Storm.

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Small Indian sports car conceived in the late 90s. And made until 2013 according to Wikipedia, which is remarkable. As you'd expect, as an Indian market vehicle, it errs on the economy side of sports, being both front-wheel drive and using the old 1.1-litre engine from the first-gen Renault Twingo. Only weighed 820kg though. Allegedly sold as a coupe, but virtually all the images I can find on the internet depict people actually driving the convertible version.
 
The shape makes me think of a Twingo-sized Mégane convertible. Something like that from Renault could have been nifty back in the day.
 
Heldenzeit
Allard-Lexus based on the LS400. Allard wanted a road car tie in to their new Group C race program and attract manufacturer backing. They constructed 2 prototypes to get Toyota's attention. Allard was unable to present a marketing case and the project was dropped.
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Weirdly, in the first two images this looks like a really cheap knock off of the 1990s Aston Martin Vantage.
 
homeforsummer
This happens infrequently, but I genuinely didn't know about this until I was reading through an old issue of Car: the San Storm.

sanstorm.jpg

Small Indian sports car conceived in the late 90s. And made until 2013 according to Wikipedia, which is remarkable. As you'd expect, as an Indian market vehicle, it errs on the economy side of sports, being both front-wheel drive and using the old 1.1-litre engine from the first-gen Renault Twingo. Only weighed 820kg though. Allegedly sold as a coupe, but virtually all the images I can find on the internet depict people actually driving the convertible version.
Click to expand...
Ah, so that's how Nissan got the idea to make the Murano CrossCabriolet.
 
homeforsummer
This happens infrequently, but I genuinely didn't know about this until I was reading through an old issue of Car: the San Storm.

sanstorm.jpg

Small Indian sports car conceived in the late 90s. And made until 2013 according to Wikipedia, which is remarkable. As you'd expect, as an Indian market vehicle, it errs on the economy side of sports, being both front-wheel drive and using the old 1.1-litre engine from the first-gen Renault Twingo. Only weighed 820kg though. Allegedly sold as a coupe, but virtually all the images I can find on the internet depict people actually driving the convertible version.
Click to expand...

Found an image of the coupe:
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:)
 

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