What cars do you consider 'brilliant failures'?

The 2+2 Mantis.

How could you mess up a fast handbuilt 4-seater British sports coupe?





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Thats how, 32 made.
 
What was brilliant about this? I think it looks horrid.
 
bartboy9891 said:
Was the Thunderbird, SSR, or those two Cadillacs actually brilliant? The Thunderbird looked pretty interesting when it debuted, but the interior was low rent for something that was so expensive and I've heard that they weren't very good to drive. The SSR was a ridiculous concept in every way, that was just a failure. And the two Cadillacs just seem to be bad cars. The Chrysler Turbine was only loaned to 50 customers in the same way that BMW is loaning people their Hydrogen powered 7-series. I don't think that would necessarily be called a failure.
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The two Caddys were brilliant ideas for the time. Don't forget the second fuel crisis hit around that time so a car with the ability to shut off some of its cylinders was a radical idea. It did work, but it was never smooth or seamless..and hasn't been tackled until recently.

The Turbine at the time loaned 50 out to potential customers wondering if it should go into mass production, those 50 put off the whole turbine car concept.
 
Ezbok58a said:
The two Caddys were brilliant ideas for the time. Don't forget the second fuel crisis hit around that time so a car with the ability to shut off some of its cylinders was a radical idea. It did work, but it was never smooth or seamless..and hasn't been tackled until recently.

The Turbine at the time loaned 50 out to potential customers wondering if it should go into mass production, those 50 put off the whole turbine car concept.
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The 8-6-4 was supposedly working quite well in testing. The problem it had was the bean counters forced them to use throttle body injection when the system required port injection for the system. I'm sure spectre will find some other random excuse to say it sucks (like that it's not a Jag, or that it was the 1 cadillac with Lucas electronics).
 
thedguy said:
The 8-6-4 was supposedly working quite well in testing. The problem it had was the bean counters forced them to use throttle body injection when the system required port injection for the system. I'm sure spectre will find some other random excuse to say it sucks (like that it's not a Jag, or that it was the 1 cadillac with Lucas electronics).
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Actually, it wasn't a bad idea, but what let it down wasn't the TBI per se as it was also used with a smogger carb while under development. No, the big problem was that the computer power needed to make it work successfully simply was not available for economic automotive use, so they decided to make it work with pneumatic/vacuum and analog electronic controls, which as we know is a total disaster anywhere but a sterile test environment.
 
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I believe most of mine have already been nominated, but here goes.
The BMW 8-series. An older guy who lives near me drives a black one occasionally, and I can't help but gawk every time I see it. It seems worth buying on the basis of looks alone.
The 2nd generation Ford Probe. Aside from the questionable choice of name, the car seemed brilliant. It looked great, and drove very well. The 2.5L DOHC V6 sounded fantastic, and used some fairly advanced technology, but was drastically overcomplicated and had terrible reliability, coupled with a weak transmission and clutch. Had the car had the power it needed to compete with its contemporary rivals, and halfway decent reliability, it might have made more of a name for itself. Of course, there was the problem of Ford's FWD V6 powered coupe being better than it's V8 powered RWD muscle car...
And of course, the Honda/Acura NSX is almost a given in this debate...
I had more...but I honestly can't remember them at the moment...
 
AltimaXX said:
I believe most of mine have already been nominated, but here goes.
The BMW 8-series. An older guy who lives near me drives a black one occasionally, and I can't help but gawk every time I see it. It seems worth buying on the basis of looks alone.
The 2nd generation Ford Probe. Aside from the questionable choice of name, the car seemed brilliant. It looked great, and drove very well. The 2.5L DOHC V6 sounded fantastic, and used some fairly advanced technology, but was drastically overcomplicated and had terrible reliability, coupled with a weak transmission and clutch. Had the car had the power it needed to compete with its contemporary rivals, and halfway decent reliability, it might have made more of a name for itself. Of course, there was the problem of Ford's FWD V6 powered coupe being better than it's V8 powered RWD muscle car...
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I see plenty of Probes all the time, I wouldn't consider them a failure. I also highly doubt it was made unreliable and under powered so as not to compete with the Mustang. It was intended to replace the Mustang after all. Thankfully it didn't, as the Probe has nowhere near the upgrade potential as the pony car. And a world without a Terminator Mustang is a very sad world.
 
argatoga said:
I see plenty of Probes all the time, I wouldn't consider them a failure. I also highly doubt it was made unreliable and under powered so as not to compete with the Mustang. It was intended to replace the Mustang after all. Thankfully it didn't, as the Probe has nowhere near the upgrade potential as the pony car. And a world without a Terminator Mustang is a very sad world.
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Agreed, it was actually a decent seller but the fact it never did its intended job of replacing the Mustang and fading into, now, relative obscurity makes it a failure in that respect.
 
The Probe was probably more like a Capri successor, from an European point of view. RWD would've helped it, of course, but being able to share some Mazda 626/MX-6 dna probably helped its reliability...
 
Ezbok58a said:
Cadillac diesel, take a olds gas motor and convert it to diesel...what could possibly go wrong? Everything

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The Cadillac V8-6-4
The first engine to deactivate its cylinders to save fuel, only the transitions were as smooth as falling down the stairs...
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Ha, right, turning a gas motor into a diesel motor isn't brilliant, especially when it was done so horribly wrong. It was just a cheap shortcut that did fail, I'll give you that, but it was much more idiotic than it was brilliant.

The V8-6-4 was brilliant in theory but pooooorly executed. A little ahead of its time for the technology it was trying to make it work with. So on that I'll agree.

I'm guessing "brilliant" applies to both theory and/or outcome?
 
edkwon said:
Agreed, it was actually a decent seller but the fact it never did its intended job of replacing the Mustang and fading into, now, relative obscurity makes it a failure in that respect.
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I don't see it being all that brilliant, it is for the most part a rebadged Mazda.
 
argatoga said:
I don't see it being all that brilliant, it is for the most part a rebadged Mazda.
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...with much better styling. Pop-up headlights FTW!
 
Let's not let this thread die.
Here is another brilliant failure - the Vector W8
http://img204.imageshack.**/img204/7263/img10776om.jpg
It was developed for more than 10 years. It used a simple philosophy - get an american V8 engine and twin-turbocharge it. The body used methods relative to a jet fighter. It was supposed to be aerodynamic. It was supposed to be the fastest car in the world.
It wasn't.

The turbocharged engine made an advertised 625hp, but overheated constantly. The "aerodynamic" body did not allow the car to go above 180mph (although the prototype W2 was measured at 242mph)
Did I mention it only had a 3-speed automatic gearbox?
The car still looks incredible and I love it! I just wish they made it properly. Only 19 were ever made because of financial crisis.
 
_HighVoltage_ said:
Let's not let this thread die.
Here is another brilliant failure - the Vector W8
http://img204.imageshack.**/img204/7263/img10776om.jpg
It was developed for more than 10 years. It used a simple philosophy - get an american V8 engine and twin-turbocharge it. The body used methods relative to a jet fighter. It was supposed to be aerodynamic. It was supposed to be the fastest car in the world.
It wasn't.

The turbocharged engine made an advertised 625hp, but overheated constantly. The "aerodynamic" body did not allow the car to go above 180mph (although the prototype W2 was measured at 242mph)
Did I mention it only had a 3-speed automatic gearbox?
The car still looks incredible and I love it! I just wish they made it properly. Only 19 were ever made because of financial crisis.
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Looks like a cross between the Countach/Diablo and some sort of a Lotus.
 
Actually, the original first generation Probe was intended to replace the mustang, but there was so much outcry against the idea that Ford decided to keep both of them. Unfortunately, most of the unreliability came from the Mazda motor. Of course it wasn't deliberately made unreliable, but it was always apparent that Ford/Mazda sort of...gave up on the motor. It could have been fantastic, had Mazda just given it a few bucks more research time...
Ah well.
 
_HighVoltage_ said:
Let's not let this thread die.
Here is another brilliant failure - the Vector W8
http://img204.imageshack.**/img204/7263/img10776om.jpg
It was developed for more than 10 years. It used a simple philosophy - get an american V8 engine and twin-turbocharge it. The body used methods relative to a jet fighter. It was supposed to be aerodynamic. It was supposed to be the fastest car in the world.
It wasn't.

The turbocharged engine made an advertised 625hp, but overheated constantly. The "aerodynamic" body did not allow the car to go above 180mph (although the prototype W2 was measured at 242mph)
Did I mention it only had a 3-speed automatic gearbox?
The car still looks incredible and I love it! I just wish they made it properly. Only 19 were ever made because of financial crisis.
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I love those windscreen wipers.
 
MattW said:
I love those windscreen wipers.
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Yeah... I've been trying to find a video of those in action everywhere online... anyone know where I can see 'em?
 
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