We’re cheating a bit here because the Wolfrace Sonic was never meant to be more than a one-off, but it still fits in here as it was built as a high-profile publicity machine and it’s now all but forgotten. Commissioned by the original owner of Wolfrace Wheels, Barry Treacy, it was designed by Nick Butler who came up with a six-wheeled two-seater beast powered by two Rover V8s.
The Sonic cost £100,000 to build and generated huge publicity for Wolfrace before it disappeared from view, only to resurface in a derelict state in 2015 on eBay, where it sold for £18,100.
Kodiak F1 (1983)
In 1983, Serbian Mladen Mitrovic unveiled a supercar at the Frankfurt motor show, which would supposedly be the equal of anything to come out of, well, anywhere. With its 320bhp 5.4-litre Chevrolet V8, the F1 was inspired by Mercedes’ gull-winged C-111; it was claimed to be capable of sitting at 170mph all day, with absolute reliability. Later cars were supposed to get a 5.6-litre Mercedes V8 – except there weren’t any later cars.
Isdera Imperator (1984)
Mercedes spent six years creating its CW311 concept, which was unveiled in 1978 – but it had no plans to put the car into production. Which was a shame because there were plenty of people clamouring to buy one, so CW311 designer Eberhard Schulz put the car into production himself, using the Isdera brand. He called his supercar the Imperator which came with a choice of 5.0, 5.6 or 6.0-litre V8 engines offering up to 390bhp and 176mph.
Production lasted until 1993 when Isdera went bust, but in that time 30 Imperators were made. They occasionally come up for sale for in the region of £400,000.
Cizeta V16 (1989)
If supercars are about extremes, this must be the ultimate, thanks to a crazy 5995cc 16-cylinder engine – transversely mounted! No wonder the Cizeta was so wide; it had eight cylinders across its girth. With 560bhp at a dizzying 8000rpm, the noise was awe-inspiring at full chat, thanks to 64 valves doing their stuff. It was claimed the V16T could top 204mph, but nobody ever officially tested the car, so who knows?