What Could Have Been - Amazing Cars that Never Made the Showroom

The car business is packed with trial and error. Engineers tinker until they get something right, and even then, it might not be right enough. It’s an industry marked by failures, but the good companies celebrate the failures. After all, enough failures can lead you to success, and this occurs over and over again with auto manufacturers. Yet, when something auto-related “fails,” we need to take this with a grain of salt. The reason why is the machine itself might be a work of art, but perhaps due to a host of external factors the car never makes it to the showroom. This doesn’t mean it’s not a kick-butt car, and as we’ll review here, there are some real kick-butt cars that never made the light of day.

2014 Lamborghini Asterion

Slated to have been Lambo’s first hybrid production car, the Italian manufacturer began with an Aventador chassis but didn’t choose to add in the V12. Instead, they went to the Huracan and poached a V10, 610hp engine. In the leftover space, Lambo crammed in two electric motors capable of 300hp. Sum all this up and you get a car that could do 0 to 60 in a hair over 3 seconds and max out at 185mph. The Lambo Sian, not the Asterion, ended up being Lambo’s first hybrid production car. While designers and Lambo personnel were thrilled with the Asterion, they ultimately scrapped it to focus on building the Urus SUV.

2004 Range Rover Range Stormer

Quite the name Rover threw on this ride. We’re going to go out on a limb and say “Stormer” as a car name is not the best. On that reason alone, we’re glad the Stormer never saw the light of day. But this ride was a solid performer, with enough under the engine to crack 180mph. The base was modeled after the Rover Sport and at the time the Stormer was the fastest Rover model. It remains unexplained why this supercharged 4.6-liter V8 never hit. Perhaps it was because of the name - Stormer.

2001 VW W12 Nardo

Man, this one was a bummer to lose. Not exactly a model you’d expect to see out of VW, the Nardo looks like something off any professional racetrack. Equipped with a 5.6-liter W12 engine, the Nardo was more than capable of breaking 200mph (222 to be exact), and could easily go from 0 to 60mph in 3.5 seconds. Churning out over 600hp, the Nardo likely never arrived due to minimal demand. Not that folks wouldn’t have gone crazy over it, but who is going to pay for a VW at a price point of $100,000 plus? Not many.

2013 Nissan IDx

This could be the strangest-looking car on our list. It’s not for everyone, and perhaps that’s why Nissan ultimately decided not to continue with the IDx. A rear-wheel-drive, compact vehicle, the IDx could be compared to a BMW 2 Series, except instead of looking like a two-door coupe, it’s a cross between a Mustang and something out of the future (light-years in the future). The IDx did appear in a handful of video games, so at least some folks could experience it. But Nissan management was never keen on taking it to the public. It’s still a heck of a car, visually at least.

2015 VW XL Sport Concept

It’s surprising this VW Sport Concept never panned out. A tidy two-seater, the concept started with a rather bland 800cc 2-cylinder diesel hybrid engine. Nothing to write home about, so engineers swapped it out and dropped in a 1.2-liter V Twin (an idea taken from the Ducati 1199 Superleggera superbike), thus transforming this ride into an XL Sport. At the time VW had the XL1 Sport already in circulation, and this model would have easily cost in the mid $100,000 range. The XL1 Sport was roughly $100,000, and that is pricey as we’ve commented on for a VW. Mid-$100,000s is frankly unworkable.

2009 Bugatti 16C Galibier

Bugatti makes fast cars. Similar to Coke making great soda, McDonald’s making prime burgers, or Rolex making killer watches, everything Bugatti does is fast, and the Galibier was certainly no exception. What was different, however, with the Galibier is it was to be a four-seater. This was unheard of in Bugatti circles, and as the new Chiron Super Sport 300 teaches us, this company is a two-seat monster, but a third or fourth friend is just not doable. The Galibier was slated to feature an 8-liter engine, like the front-engine Veyron. But alas it remained a concept, and the world will have to wait for a four-seater Bugatti once again.