Turn to the person nearest to you and ask them what they think the coolest car in the world is. Go on, try it.
Chances are they’ll have said something along the lines of “Ferrari”, “Lamborghini” or “one of them new Tesla whatsits”. Names like Zotye, Carbon Motors and Cizeta-Moroder, on the other hand, might leave them scratching their heads.
But just because they aren’t household names doesn’t mean that they aren’t cool. Here’s some of the absolute baddest, maddest and raddest vehicles you’ve never heard of.
W Motors Lykan HyperSport
The Lykan HyperSport, built by Lebanese manufacturer W Motors isn’t just one of the coolest-looking modern cars, it’s also one of the most exclusive and one of the most costly.
Limited to just seven units, the HyperSport comes with a price tag of $3.4 million in its standard form, but for your money you get headlights encrusted with 15 carat diamonds and a 780 horsepower 3.7-litre flat-six engine.
The first car to be manufactured entirely in the Arab world, the Lykan HyperSport can run from 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds, and eagle eyed fans will recognise it from the seventh Fast and Furious film.
Cizeta-Moroder V16T
You’ll have never heard of the manufacturer’s name and we don’t blame you for it either, but in fact the Cizeta-Moroder V16T was very nearly a car that you’d have known extremely well.
The V16T was originally drawn up by Lamborghini designer Marcello Gandini as the Lamborghini Diablo, but after the company softened the edges and modified Gandini’s design, he left and decided to take matters into his own hands.
For four years the car was produced by Cizeta-Moroder complete with a ‘V16’ engine that was in fact two flat-plane V8 engines bolted together, producing a maximum of 540bhp.
Although the company estimated that the car was so good they’d sell one every week, in reality only 18 of them were sold in five years before the manufacturer eventually went bust.
Mega Track
It’s got a name that sounds as though it was ripped straight from a 90s advert for a remote control toy, and in honesty the Mega Track had all the performance to match.
A mid-engined supercar designed for off-roading, the Track was built by the French Aixam Group in the mid-1990s using a 6.0-litre Mercedes V12 engine that pumped out a maximum of 400 horsepower.
It also came with an adjustable ride height, which was eight inches as stock but which could be cranked up to as much as 13 inches for bona-fide off-roading hilarity, especially when combined with the car’s four-wheel drive.
Despite the fact that it sounds like the most fun anybody could have on four wheels, unfortunately only five examples of the Mega Track were made, before it was lumped in with other 90s obscurities like Crystal Pepsi and Chumbawamba.
Lightning Car Company GT
Take the eccentricity of TVR and match it with a Tesla-style high-performance electric drivetrain and the result is pretty much exactly what British car builders Lightning Car Company are going for.
Like the Ultimate Aero, Lightning’s GT is built around a tubular spaceframe, but instead of a V8 it’s propelled by four powerful 120Kw electric motors. Lightning says that the car’s batteries can be charged to full capacity in just 10 minutes, thanks to its nano-titanate construction.
It’s capable of hitting 62mph from a standstill in under four seconds and can reach a top speed of 200mph, Lightning says, and first deliveries of the GT are due to start later this year.
Noble M600
British boutique brand Noble specialises in building cars that perform as ridiculously as they look, and its hand-built M600 model delivers everything you would expect from more mainstream brands like Ferrari or Lamborghini.
Powered by a 4.4-litre Yamaha-derived Volvo V8 with twin turbochargers to boost its output, the M600 generates upwards of 650 horsepower in race setting mode.
It proved a hit with the Top Gear team too, thrashing cars like Pagani Zonda F and the Bugatti Veyron around the BBC show’s test track, and Jeremy Clarkson in particular praised the car considerably.
Key to the Noble’s success is the fact that it’s built purely for the enthusiasts: you’ll find no automatic gearbox here, just a proper six-speed manual, while the car also features no ABS and minimal traction control assistance.
Carbon Motors E7
Carbon Motors differs from all the other car manufacturers in this list, because instead of building cars for public consumption, Carbon deals exclusively in making purpose-built police cars.
With its E7 prototype, Carbon wants to replace the venerable old Crown Vics and Dodge Chargers used by American law enforcement, and to that end it comes chock-full of cop goodies like lights, sirens and bull bars.
However, its builders claim that the E7’s bespoke structure allows it to endure up to 250,000 miles of intense police use, while its 300 horsepower 3.0-litre turbodiesel engine is fast enough to rocket from 0-62mph quicker than you can say “stop in the name of the law”.
Interestingly, it also comes with suicide-style rear doors to make putting suspects in the back easier, and Carbon is due to produce up to 80,000 of the things for use among US patrol officers.
Shelby Supercars Ultimate Aero
Hang on a second, you’re saying, everybody’s heard of Shelby, right? While Shelby Supercars might share a name with the more famous muscle car tuners Shelby American, they are in fact completely separate companies whose founders just so happen to share a surname.
While Shelby American is better known for its race-spec Mustangs, the GT40 and the Shelby Cobra, Shelby Supercars instead focuses on mid-engined supercars with ridiculous outputs.
Funny enough, despite the fact few have heard of them, the Shelby Supercars Ultimate Aero model actually once held the Guinness World Record for the fastest production car, clocking a top speed of 256.14 mph.
The Ultimate Aero is powered by a 1,183 horsepower 6.3-litre twin-turbo V8, and is built on a steel spaceframe chassis to keep its weight down. It’s not the prettiest car on the list, but it just might be the most functional after its carbon-intensive bodyshell was tested in NASA’s wind tunnel in Langley, Virginia.
