What cars do you consider 'brilliant failures'?

[Eunos_Cosmo]

787B still looks more elegant IMO. The jag definitely does look good though. Remember, I'm a rotary fanboy too.

 

[tone76]

Isuzu as a company is sadly a failure, but back in the day, I reeeealy wanted the Impulse Turbo, Lotus-tuned suspension (and badges to prove it). Isuzu-ness aside, that was probably the first Japanese performance car that caught my eye.

That was sold in Australia as the Holden Piazza. A good looking car, despite the fact it took about a few years after the original 'Ace Of Clubs' concept on which it was based for this car to finally reach production.

As for the Lotus tuned suspension, they must have tuned it on a Friday afternoon when they got back from the pub. Reported to have truly rotten handling. From what I read, Holden only sold something like 200 Piazzas over a 3 year period. That said, the Piazza/Impulse was never a huge volume seller anywhere.

It's still a stunning looking car, even now. I can see why these things have a small but enthusiastic cult following.

 

[fbc]

As for the Lotus tuned suspension, they must have tuned it on a Friday afternoon when they got back from the pub. Reported to have truly rotten handling.

Yeah, I remember the journos of the day saying it was pretty dire - I seem to recall photos of it lifting wheels (not in a good Sport Clio way) ridiculously.

 

[Hazardous]

Mazda 787B. Its failure was not its own fault, but changing rules made it obsolete. 2.6 liters with the capability to produce over 900hp naturally aspirated, come get some F1. Possibly the prettiest race car of recent times.

There's so much wrong with this nomination. A) the thing won Le Mans, B) it proved that rotary performance engine was a viable concept, C) undoubtedly provided heaps of research data for Mazda to use in their future production engnies and D) from the first post:

2. no race cars

Brilliant, spot on, but hardly a failure.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I just wanted to post my favorite car again

 

[vikiradTG2007]

A "brilliantly" pathetic failure...

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/09/01/742.jpg

The Life F190 F1 car from 1990, with an innovative W12 engine that was as gutless as it was fragile.

 

[Interrobang]

Basically all FWD Alfa Romeos ... they (with exceptions) always were the most pretty cars in their classes at their times but they are not that fun to drive, and poorly build. Cars everybody would have craved ... but nobody would be stupid enough to buy ...

 

[Solberg]

To be honest I'm not that impressed by the brrera.

 

[CrzRsn]

What about the Ferrari 400a (a for automatic transmission)?
http://img221.imageshack.**/img221/8463/20894pp5.jpg


Oh wait.. this thread is for brilliant failures, not pathetic ones.

 

[H0nzik]

To be honest I'm not that impressed by the brrera.

Me neither, to me it looks like a 159 that's lost its back end in a horrible accident.

 

[Spectre]

There's so much wrong with this nomination. A) the thing won Le Mans, B) it proved that rotary performance engine was a viable concept, C) undoubtedly provided heaps of research data for Mazda to use in their future production engnies and D) from the first post:



Brilliant, spot on, but hardly a failure.

You forgot one - it was built using a leftover XJR-12 TWR/Jaguar chassis from 1990. Which was, not coincidentally, the last year that the XJR-12 had won at LeMans.

787B still looks more elegant IMO. The jag definitely does look good though. Remember, I'm a rotary fanboy too.

Which is amusing, since the 787B is really a re-engined XJR-*12*.


Kind of hard to label that thing as a failure in any sense.

My entry for "brilliant failure" in the sense that it could have been a good idea but went oh-so-wrong:

This one was mine. It seems Quiky had one too.

 

[edkwon]

My entry for "brilliant failure" in the sense that it could have been a good idea but went oh-so-wrong:

This one was mine. It seems Quiky had one too.

For those of us that don't recognize this car, what is it?

 

[A.Fonz]

^It's a Rover Sterling, It's pretty much a rebadged Honda if I recall correctly

 

[zaybxcwd12]

For those of us that don't recognize this car, what is it?

Rover 800 Mk1, rebadged a Sterling in the US (which was the name given to the top of the range model in the UK. As Fonz pointed out it is pretty much a Honda Legend with a Rover body (with other Rover bits and pieces). Bought a 2yr old example direct from Rover in the early 90's. Not a good car mechanics where not the best and the electrical faults ranged from seriours to the bizzare. An example of this was one of the rear doors would not open from the outside but if touched the button and lowered the rear window a fraction of a inch it worked, I thought this was just something odd until some1 at work bought a older example and he told me that one of his rear doors would not open. Also the front window if you used the one touch and lowered the window to the bottom it got stuck due to wear, and you have to take the door skin off and force the window up a notch or two to put it back on the rail.

 

[tedb43o2o3]

How about Range Rover sport?

 

[Spectre]

For those of us that don't recognize this car, what is it?

^It's a Rover Sterling, It's pretty much a rebadged Honda if I recall correctly

It was a Rover 800-series, sold in the US as the Sterling 825 and 827 (because Rover pissed away all their brand equity in the US during the BL era).

What it was was a Honda/Acura Legend with different exterior panels and redone interior and suspension tuning by Rover. It had the Honda drivetrain in the US as an an option in Europe; over there it came with a Rover gas or diesel engine as well. It was supposed to combine Japanese reliability with British flair/styling and German handling. Instead, what it was was British reliability with German styling and Japanese handling. Ooops.

There was so much stuff on that car that there was no reason for Rover to change, yet they did. Case in point - they swapped out the Honda brakes for unique Rover ones and made it impossible to fit Acura/Honda brakes, which cost less and were actually *more* effective. Another annoying touch was the removal of all Honda switchgear for pathetic Rover switches that died on a regular basis.

There's a whole laundry list of things that went wrong with those cars. And remember, underneath it all, they were still the Honda/Acura Legend! Rover managed to screw up one of the most reliable sedans of the era!!! It takes special skill to do that...

Mine was "the best of the lot," the last year they came to the US - a 1991 Sterling 827SL. It was absolutely awful - made my Jaguars look like reliable Corollas in comparison as it got older. Fun to drive for a FWD car, though... when it all worked. Which wasn't often.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_800

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_(car)

How about Range Rover sport?

It actually has sold really well, so it isn't a failure.

 

[Hazardous]

A few nominations from me:

Lancia Beta

The Beta should have been a brilliant car. Good looks, functional design and apparently good fun to drive as well. But cost cutting arrangements drove Lancia to use low grade steel to build the car and it corroded itself into pile or rust in no time. In the process it (as well as other Lancia models with similar problems at the time) did considerable damage to Lancia brand.

Studebaker Avanti

Well, where to start with this one... There's the distinctive looks of that aerodynamic body, there was the V8 power that took this car to numerous production car speed records and there were the advanced safety features for the day like disc brakes and roll-over bars, and thanks to marketing efforts there was buzz around the car before it came to production. Sadly it came to nothing as production woes and delays dried up the sales and the Avanti was killed off only a year after it came to production, and the Studebaker company followed few years later.

 

[Spectre]

Um, hate to tell you, but they made Avantis for more than 40 years. Studebaker made them for just one year, but production continued under Avanti Motors until 2005.

 

[Hazardous]

Um, hate to tell you, but they made Avantis for more than 40 years. Studebaker made them for just one year, but production continued under Avanti Motors until 2005.

I was referring to the original Studebaker made Avanti. Not the Avanti 2 and other 'unofficial ones'

 

[Spectre]

Um.. the Avanti II *was* an Avanti. They were made on the same tools, with the same parts, in the same plant. Only difference (initially) was that they were made by a different company.