I was born in 1990 so grew up with the likes of the F40, F50, McLaren F1 and Lamborghini Diablo on my wall in poster form as a kid.
Growing up around then was absolutely fantastic as a car nut, so many great supercars, sportscars, hot hatches, homologation specials and so on with many amazing racing series around as well.
With the boom economy of the late 80's and then the bust with the recession of the early 90's (and then later Asian crisis around '98 I think), loads of special, rare cars went unproduced with only a prototype or maybe a couple of cars made and then hidden away mostly for nobody to see.
Would be nice if we could get an idea of the different cars made and maybe where they are nowadays. Is anyone else a fan?
Here's a few to get started in any case.
1. Isdera
Mercedes-Benz revealed the CW311 concept in 1978 with Isdera founder Eberhard Schulz being part of the design team. MB allowed him to create a roadgoing version based on the design called the Imperator 108i
The 108i was released in 1984 with a 5.0 M117 Mercedes V8 though later versions had either a 5.6 or a 6.0 version of the engine, tuned by AMG. Production continued until 1993 according to Wikipedia.
Isdera later released another prototype/concept called the Commendatore 112i IN 1993. Fans of Need for Speed 2 will remember it well. Again Isdera reached out to Mercedes for the engine, this time a 6.0 V12 with 402bhp. Supposedly the car can reach 213mph which I presume is down to gearing and aerodynamics as 402bhp seems a pretty low figure for that speed.
Reportedly they made a second chassis in 1999 dubbed the Silver Arrow 112i with an updated engine and more power. This time it produced 611bhp and was good for 230mph though I doubt it's ever been tested. This was for sale on eBay around 2005 and then has been sold since. The owner appeared on Car passion but I can't find the thread where he said he had it.
2. Jiotto Caspita
Back in 1989, a fashion company called Wacoal backed the making of a supercar under the brand name Jiotto. The cars were made by the Dome company famous for Le Mans prototypes. The first prototype featured a detuned Motori Moderni flat-12 engine from the failed Subaru F1 project. It produced 450bhp and was supposedly good for 199mph.
In 1993 they produced a second prototype, this time with a Judd V10, again an F1 engine. This time with 577bhp.
Again I doubt ever car has actually been tested so any quoted figures are likely hypothetical. Both chassis still exist in museums. The 1989 silver car is in the National Motor Museum in Tokyo and the 1993 beige car is kept by Dome at their base.
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