5 More Crazy Supercars We Bet You’ve Forgotten

Our original list of forgotten supercars kick-started a few fond memories last week. So without further ado, we're back for round two:

Venturi 400GT

We already wrote extensively about MVS/Venturi a couple of years ago, so there's little more to add than highlights. Back in the heady days before Venturi became a builder of motor show special electric cars, they offered a range of sports cars similar in concept, construction and power to the Lotus Esprit. However, Venturi had motorsport intentions that lead to the genesis of true French supercars.

The Venturi Trophy was a one-make series for gentleman drivers to turn up in their Venturi and race. The championship used purpose-built cars based on the 260LM, which they called the Trophy - a carbon-kevlar monster with a 400hp version of Peugeot's 3.0 V6 and carbon-ceramic brakes. The Trophy evolved into a road car - by way of changing absolutely nothing except giving it a leather interior - called the 400GT.

Looking not too different from the Ferrari F40, the 180mph Venturi 400GT was a supercar in its own right - and with 500 and 600hp versions raced in the Le Mans 24 Hours, some owners converted their ordinary 400GTs to 600SLM specification for added punch. You could even buy a right-hand drive version - though there was only the one made!

Spectre R42

Of all the cars listed so far, this is the least likely to be forgotten. Because you've probably not heard of it in the first place.

The Spectre was an attempt by the firm to cross the Atlantic, nailing together European style and sophistication with the USA's grunt. Designed by GT40 replica builder Ray Christopher, the Spectre featured extensive use of composites and aluminium, making the R42 quite the lightweight. Ford's 4.6-litre V8 - positioned behind the driver - provided an unstressed 360hp, which was good for a 4.0sec 0-60mph sprint time and 180mph top speed.

Despite the focus on performance, the car was a comfortable place to be - trimmed with leather and shagpile - and was on the whole a civilised car, without the crashing and banging on bumpy roads typical of supers. More surprisingly, the Spectre sold for only £70,000 in the days of the million pound hypercar. Despite all these pluses, however, only 23 Spectre R42s were sold before the company folded in 1997.

Lister Storm

Back in the day, Lister made its name racing sports cars, running Lister-prepped versions of Bristols, Maseratis, Chevrolets and particularly, Jaguars. After the hiatus typical to British sports car manufacturers (caused by going out of business), Lister made its return tuning Jaguars again. And this success prompted them to build their own road car for the first time.

The Storm was utterly brutal in every aspect. The bodywork paid little heed to aesthetics, favouring aerodynamics and resulting in one of the ugliest performance cars ever made (until Gumpert had a crack at it). Even the monstrous looks didn't come close to the sledgehammer of an engine - a 550hp, 600lbft 7.0-litre V12 that Lister lifted directly from the Le Mans winning Jaguar XJR12 racer. Despite the relative heftiness of the car, the engine hurled the Storm to 60mph in 4.0sec and was good for 210mph.

Of course, Lister remained true to its roots and took the Storm racing. Unfortunately, the GT1 class they entered it in had moved on, and the Storm was outclassed. It took a move down a class (and for its lead competitors to drop out of the sport) for the Storm to become a world champion, though it performed well in British GT.

Asking £220,000 a time for an ugly duckling supercar with little racing pedigree, it's hardly surprising that Lister sold just four Storms.

Ascari KZ1

British manufacturer Ascari followed up its 1998 Ecosse sports car, after a prolonged pre-production spell, with the KZ1 in 2004.

Named after Dutch owner Klaas Zwart - who bought the company from Lee Noble - the KZ1 had all the ingredients of a winner. Using a carbonfibre tub, the KZ1 was effectively a cultured race car with a well-appointed interior and a liberated BMW M5 V8 engine positioned behind the driver. Able to bang up to 60mph in under 4.0sec and 100mph in under 8.0sec, the KZ1 could hit 200mph and showed its mettle when it set the then fifth fastest time on Top Gear's Power Lap.

But it wouldn't be here if it were successful, and sure enough the £235,000 price tag killed it. A scheduled production run of fifty went unfulfilled as orders barely hit a quarter of that. The even faster A10 successor wasn't enough to keep Ascari in the UK. The company shipped out to Marbella to run a bespoke race track resort and their brand new factory in Banbury became home of Virgin Racing before they became Marussia F1.

Isdera Imperator 108i

The Imperator is a strange example in the motoring world of a car built by a company that didn't even exist when the car was built...

Its origins were in the Mercedes-Benz CW311 concept car, presented as a concept for the 1978 motor show circuit. The car's designer Eberhard Schulz liked the car so much, he approached Mercedes to allow him to produce the car himself under his own brand. Isdera was born in 1981 and the Imperator entered production in 1983.

The Imperator was physically a simple affair; the usual steel spaceframe draped in GRP, with a big V8 out back. With 400hp - more from later cars with newer V8s - it was as capable as other super cars of the day. With gullwing doors (who doesn't like gullwing doors?) and a cute rear view periscope above the car, it was as pretty as anything else too. But despite selling at only £90k a time, only 30 cars were ever made over the ten year run.