Slow Cars That Fooled Us Into Thinking That They Were Fast

Some cars look slow, but stamp on the throttle and the earth's rotation slows! Then, there are the cars that look fast but have nothing under the hood to back up the looks. Here are a few of those cars as suggested by you...
Slow Cars That Fooled Us Into Thinking That They Were Fast

Ferrari Mondial

Suggested by: Matt Robinson
Suggested by: Matt Robinson

Released in 1980, the Mondial came with a wheezy 3.0-litre 205bhp V8, giving the car from Maranello a 0-62mph time of 8.2 seconds. Top speed was an equally slow 140mph.

Toyota Supra JZA80 2JZ-GE

Suggested by: Mobius 1
Suggested by: Mobius 1

The Toyota Supra: supercar-baiting performance at an affordable price. Not so with the naturally-aspirated 2JZ-GE 3.0-litre 220bhp inline-six. The base level of Supra was only good for a 0-62mph time of 6.2 seconds and a top speed of 140mph.

Delorean DMC-12

Suggested by: Urocyeox
Suggested by: Urocyeox

Marty McFly might have fooled us into thinking the DeLorean DMC-12 had some real firepower, but in reality the iconic car only packed a 2.8-litre 130bhp V6 engine. Performance is best described as sedate, with a 0-62mph time of 8.9 seconds and a top speed of 109mph.

Chrysler Crossfire

Suggested by: Mike Hummel
Suggested by: Mike Hummel

With woolly steering, an outdated chassis and the aesthetics of a dog relieving itself, this American sports car didn’t have a lot going for it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even that fast in a straight line. With a 3.2-litre V6 packing a measly 215bhp, the Crossfire had a 0-62mph time of around 6.4 seconds and a top speed of 155mph.

Hyundai Coupe

Dylan Smit
Dylan Smit

The Hyundai Coupe had a good chassis, communicative steering, and some journalists even expressed that it looked similar to a Ferrari 456. Shame, then, that the top-spec 2.7-litre V6 only produced 165bhp. 0-62mph came up in 8.1 seconds and a top speed of 137mph stopped it from being the great little sports car that it had the potential for.

Mk1 Mazda MX-5

Suggested by: Alex Walder
Suggested by: Alex Walder

Sorry Alex, but the Mk1 Mazda MX-5 is one seriously slow machine. With a 1.8-litre, 131bhp four-cylinder motor, 62mph was hit in a laborious 8.3 seconds. Top speed is an equally ponderous 123mph. Thankfully, these cars respond well to boost!

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

Suggested by: Eduardo Ocampo
Suggested by: Eduardo Ocampo

With a turbocharged 1.6-litre and 184bhp, the asymmetric Veloster (it has two doors on one side and one door on the other side) would hit 62mph from standing in a pedestrian time of 8.4 seconds, ahead of its 133mph top speed. The Turbo was, then, a pitiful excuse for a hot hatch.

Volkswagen SP2

Suggested by: On the Apex
Suggested by: On the Apex

The Brazil-only Volkswagen SP2 is potentially the sexiest sports car you’ve never heard of. Unfortunately, a 1.7-litre 75bhp four-cylinder engine resulted in a car so slow that the 0-62mph dash was achieved in 16 seconds. As for its top speed, that was only 100mph.

Ferrari 400i

Suggested by: Christopher Mckenna Jr.
Suggested by: Christopher Mckenna Jr.

The Ferrari 400i was designed to be the ultimate GT car. With a 4.8-litre V12 producing 340bhp, 0-62mph could be achieved in a not unreasonable 7.2 seconds. Granted, with a top speed of 152mph it certainly wasn’t the quickest car to come out of Maranello, but we’d buy one just for the looks!

Mitsubishi FTO GPX

Suggested by: Mushuri Bobpobs
Suggested by: Mushuri Bobpobs

The standard Mitsubishi FTO (aka FTSlow) was embarrassingly sluggish with a 0-62mph time in the 10-second range. Thankfully, the 2.0-litre 197bhp V6 GPX was a bit quicker, with a 0-62mph time of 7.1 seconds and a top speed of 120mph.

Pontiac Fiero

Suggested by: spyder_89
Suggested by: spyder_89

The first-generation Pontiac Fiero was a disaster for GM. The project ran over budget so the ‘lightweight’ sports car got lumped with a heavy 2.5-litre 92bhp four-cylinder engine. Performance was pedestrian, with a 0-62mph time of 11.3 seconds and a top speed of 105mph.

Plymouth Prowler

Suggested by: Parker Benner
Suggested by: Parker Benner

The Plymouth Prowler was designed to be a hot-rod for the street. Unfortunately, the car didn’t have the firepower to back up its aggressive looks. The 3.5-litre V6 was a lifeless unit packing only 214bhp. 0-62mph in 7.2 seconds and a top speed of 118mph made the Prowler one of the most disappointing ‘performance’ cars of the ‘90s.

Chevrolet Camaro Iroc Z

Suggested by: AlexBMW
Suggested by: AlexBMW

Stringent emissions laws resulted in a colossal 5.7-litre V8 that produced just 223bhp. A 0-62mph time of 6.3 seconds and a top speed of 130mph might have been considered impressive, but not when you consider the real potential of that engine.

Porsche 924

Suggested by: The Brick
Suggested by: The Brick

Is that the Porsche with the engine from a Volkswagen van? Yes, it is. With a 2.0-litre 110bhp four-cylinder it’s safe to say that the 924 was slower than it looked. With a 0-62mph time of 9.1 seconds and a top speed of 124mph it was one of the slowest performance cars of the day. Thankfully, the chassis was truly brilliant.

Honda CRZ

Slow Cars That Fooled Us Into Thinking That They Were Fast

The original CRZ was arguably the world’s first ‘pocket-rocket’. The 2010 CRZ, however, was a bit of a disappointment. With a 1.5-litre hybrid powertrain with 122bhp, the innovative little hatch was an underwhelming steer; a 0-62mph time of 9.1 seconds and a top speed of 121mph didn’t help matters.

Opel GT 1900

Suggested by: John Malloway
Suggested by: John Malloway

The Opel GT 1900 featured a 1.9-litre 88bhp four-cylinder, giving the car a slightly embarrassing 0-62mph time of 11 seconds and a top speed of 116mph. But do we care? Not at all, because just look at it!

So guys, which car was the biggest let down? Let us know! You can also find our original community question here.

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Comments

Formula_D96

Where’s the 86/brz? :D

04/02/2016 - 08:23 |
134 | 14

Hahahahah, I’m also expecting that

04/02/2016 - 11:46 |
2 | 2

200hp at 1.3 ton is fine mate (your a sheep if you say its under powered)
0–62 mph (0–100 km/h): 7.6s (manufacturer’s claim)

04/03/2016 - 03:19 |
6 | 2
DeLeon

6,4 sec isnt thst bad..

04/02/2016 - 08:24 |
294 | 2
Dzonny the e36 maniaq

In reply to by DeLeon

Quite a lot of wrong cars on this list unfortunately…

04/02/2016 - 10:02 |
140 | 2
Prangowski

In reply to by DeLeon

Something went wrong here…

04/02/2016 - 10:56 |
24 | 0
Figureight

In reply to by DeLeon

Not just “not bad”. That’s pretty damn fast.

04/02/2016 - 17:05 |
20 | 2
Anonymous

In reply to by DeLeon

To put things in perspective. My daughter’s 2007 VW TFSI Jetta does 0-62mph n 7.2 seconds and has a top speed of about 145mph. That’s as good as or better than most cars in the list, including the Ferrari Mondial of the lights. Granted, the Toyota Supra actually looks a bit iffy on the list and could easily be replaced by the Paseo.

04/03/2016 - 09:06 |
4 | 8
H5SKB4RU (Returned to CT)

Where is the honda prelude?

04/02/2016 - 08:24 |
0 | 0

Thats for the “10 cars that fooled you to think they are RWD” list…

04/02/2016 - 08:50 |
38 | 0
Aaron 15

Errr, I’m sorry, but 6.2 seconds to 60 in a 220hp Supra sounds pretty quick to me, for the love of god the BMW E24 635csi should be on this list, it’s a great car but the 0-60 on that was about 8 seconds

04/02/2016 - 08:26 |
106 | 10
ShinRotary

Waiting for Alex to comment about the MX5…

04/02/2016 - 08:34 |
44 | 0
Anonymous

but… but…. the FTO is one of my favorite FWD cars :(

04/02/2016 - 08:43 |
0 | 0
Zam Roadblazer

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Don’t worry about it; just because a car is slow doesn’t mean that it’s terrible.

04/02/2016 - 08:51 |
18 | 0
ramses rizal

I never knew that CR-Z only makes 122bhp? Is that already combine with electric motors?

04/02/2016 - 08:45 |
0 | 0

Yup…. Pretty poor to be honest. Should’ve squeezed in one of their 2litre lumps instead of the 1500

04/02/2016 - 10:17 |
0 | 0

WHAAATT, you should check review the latest CR-Z at Autonetmagz YouTube channel

04/02/2016 - 11:47 |
0 | 0

Oh yes FYI the electric engine only producing 8bhp, it only work at traffic jam, The engine itself was taken from Fit Hybrid, I was hoping the next CR Z will get some Turbo

04/02/2016 - 11:49 |
0 | 0
Renault GTR

This article shows how engine technology advanced.

1983 Fiero: 2.5L I4 92bHP
1999 323: 1.5L I4 88bHP

04/02/2016 - 08:45 |
36 | 2

2015 MX-5 ND: 1.5 I4 130bhp

04/02/2016 - 09:37 |
22 | 2

Not necessarily as for example the Ferrari f40 had over 400 bhp from a 2.9 litre v8

04/02/2016 - 15:35 |
0 | 0

2016 Honda Civic EX-T : 1.5 l4 178bhp

05/29/2016 - 14:17 |
0 | 0
Roi Nieto

Even for this, miata is still the answer

04/02/2016 - 08:52 |
18 | 6
WhiteDevil630

Slowpra

04/02/2016 - 08:56 |
10 | 8