We Will Call You Back: Rare Cars That No One Needs

2023 Author: Natalie MacDonald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 13:59

Cars are sold every second, and these are not only new Solaris and other liquid Toyota. There are also a lot of offers at countless auctions, and sometimes it's even surprising how many people are willing for all this beauty. But this is not always the case - we found 8 examples when rare and extremely rare, as well as expensive and terribly expensive cars remained unclaimed.

Ascari Ecosse

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Let's start with the most recent example - a very rare British sports car that no one wanted to buy at Sotheby's February auction. For Ascari Ecosse they hoped to gain 155-195 thousand euros (13.5-17 million rubles), but no one offered even the minimum 130 thousand necessary for the buyback.

But this is a car with history! In 1995, the Ascari company (in 2010 it ceased operations) introduced its first model - the FGT racing prototype. And he liked the Dutch driver Klaas Zwart so much that he bought the entire company (in fact, formed it as a manufacturer) and decided to personally participate in the FGT in races.

The Ecosse, which could not be auctioned, is a road version of a race car. With leather interior, premium audio system and air conditioning. As in the case of the FGT, the famous British engineer Lee Noble worked on the car - the one who made crazy cars without electronics, but with wild power under the Noble brand.

Instead of racing "eight" Chevrolet and Ford, the civilian version used a V8 from BMW, but the engine was modified by the Hartge studio and learned to give out over 300 forces. It accelerated the 1250-kilogram coupe to 100 km / h in about four seconds, and the top speed was about 320 km / h.

After the premiere in 1997, less than two dozen Ecosse were produced (according to various sources, from 17 to 19 cars). And with a left-hand drive, there are two of them! Moreover, this particular instance remained in the family of Claes Zwart until 2019, which makes it even more special.

To match the history and the state of the two-door - it is characterized as ideal, and the only deviation from the original condition was the six-speed "mechanics", which was installed relatively recently instead of the native five-stage. But even with such introductory notes, the car did not find a new owner.

BMW-Glas 3000 V8

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This coupe doesn't look much like a BMW, does it? But there is a very interesting explanation why the legendary abbreviation is still present in the name of this car. Although the interest in the car itself at the recent online auction Bring Trailer, for some reason, things were so-so. For the 1968 copy, one of only 389 issued, they were ready to give only 63 thousand dollars (4.6 million rubles).

The trades ended with the Reserve not met status - that is, no one offered the minimum possible amount specified by the seller. However, experienced buyers drew attention in the comments to the fact that the seller did not provide sufficient information to assess the condition of the car. And copies of not the first freshness just cost less than 70 thousand.

The reason why this is a BMW without "nostrils" (at the time of the release of the model, the proprietary radiator grill had been used for 35 years) is simply explained: in fact, it is not a BMW at all. The car was developed by the small German company Glas, which was mainly engaged in compact cars. The coupe with a V8 and design in Italian style (the exterior was done by the Frua studio, which also worked on Maserati, so the two-door was nicknamed Glaserati) became the most luxurious car of the brand. Although it was offered for very modest money by the standards of the class.

But the history of the BMW-Glas 3000 V8 was short-lived. Things were not going well during the collaboration, and in 1966 it all ended with the takeover of the Bavarian brand. Moreover, BMW's decision to buy the manufacturer was dictated by the desire to gain access to Glas engineering patents.

The two-door GT class became the latest model of the company. BMW immediately killed the other Glas cars after the acquisition, and soon replaced the fast coupe with the double name - its own 2500 CS model.

Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Coupe

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Modern cars, in the name of which the eminent body shop appears, are almost always very rare and incredibly expensive exhibits. And this Aston Martin, produced with the participation of Italian craftsmen from Zagato, was no exception. The circulation was only 99 pieces, and each two-door cost more than half a million dollars.

Ready to find out how much a US buyer paid for it in 2017? 820 thousand dollars (almost 60 million rubles at the current exchange rate)! Moreover, 72 thousand of this amount was spent on options, and the usual Vanquish, for reference, could be bought for half a million cheaper! Wow surcharge for a special body! Potential buyers at online auctions in 2020 seem to have reasoned the same way. Therefore, the offer grew to 420,000 dollars and refused to move on, and the seller did not dare to give the rarest sports car for such a sum.

Although there could be no questions about the condition of the goods. The mileage was a little over two thousand kilometers, so the six-liter V12 with a capacity of 580 forces and the eight-speed "automatic", one might say, have not even rolled in yet. The same can be said for other items of equipment of the luxury model: carbon-ceramic brakes, adaptive dampers and Bang & Olufsen "music".

However, there were also a couple of opinions in the comments, similar to the true reasons for the failed auction. Firstly, the lot is expensive for online trading, and such expensive cars are rarely bought without personal acquaintance with them. And secondly, not everyone could have liked the extravagant interior decoration.

Aston Martin Vulcan

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Another Aston Martin that has bad luck at auctions. The track Vulcan was released in a circulation of 24 cars and theoretically should only go up in price. However, they tried to sell this car twice at auctions, and both times failed.

In 2016, it was put up for auction with a projected cost of $ 2.3–3.3 million (168–241 million rubles at the current exchange rate). After the failed sale (with a new placement in the list of lots of the same auction house Mecum Auctions), the forecast has changed dramatically - in the range from 600 thousand to 2.7 million dollars. At the same time, the minimum price set by the seller remained the same: 2.3 million.

And after all, it will not work to accuse the owner of greed: the amount requested by him approximately corresponded to the cost of a new car. Aston Martin wanted so much for a rear wheel drive track shell with a steering wheel instead of a steering wheel, a very light carbon body and a 12-cylinder 7-liter engine with 831 hp. (780 Nm). The Vulcan was introduced in 2015, but by today's standards it is cosmically fast: 0-100 km / h in 2.9 seconds and 360 km / h top speed. It's just that it is being sold much slower, and you can't write down the resale rate in the performance characteristics.

Nissan Skyline GT-R

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But a completely different case - for something vegetating in a barn, a seller from Japan wanted as much as 338 thousand dollars (24.7 million rubles). Moreover, there is information that he has been trying to sell the car for several years, but still has not bothered to at least sort out the trash around the car.

At the same time, a really interesting car rests in a heap of garbage - the second generation Nissan Skyline GT-R (produced in 1973). Nothing like that was released because of the oil crisis. This event simultaneously worsened the economic situation and severely undermined the demand for sports cars: production of the GT-R with an in-line six-cylinder engine ended less than a year after the start of sales. In total, they managed to make 197 copies. The iconic letters only returned to Nissan's lineup in the late 1980s with the R32 generation.

The car for sale was one of seven in this color, making it even rarer. However, the seller seems to have slightly bent the price - in 2020, a similar Skyline GT-R was sold in Tokyo for 456 thousand dollars (33.3 million rubles), only in that case it was a car in very good condition., albeit with a range of 43.5 thousand kilometers. And here the state is far from ideal.

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

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The SLS AMG supercar isn't very rare. It was produced for a little over four years and a few months before the end of production, the company announced more than 10 thousand copies sold. It is all the more surprising that it was included in our selection - after all, several copies had been idle for many years after the release was completed!

Moreover, it was in the USA, where they bought about a quarter of all SLS AMGs. In 2015, a year and a half after the model was removed from the assembly line, dealers were selling the leftovers. And the numbers confirm this: that year, 29 copies were sold, in 2016 - one, and after that there was a natural silence.

However, at the beginning of this year, it turned out that two brand new supercars were sold in 2020, which somehow got stuck for six years at the dealer (s). Unfortunately, there is no information about which versions of the model they were. After all, there were quite a few of them: coupe, roadster, GT and GT3, not to mention a lot of special versions.

The SLS AMG (by the way, the first model fully developed by AMG) even had an electric version, although it definitely belongs to the rare - it cost over 400 thousand euros, and the power reserve in the best case scenario was 250 kilometers. In total, less than a hundred cars have been sold.

Lexus lfa

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A similar story happened (or is still happening) with the Lexus supercar. The edition of the famous two-door, which Jeremy Clarkson himself has repeatedly called the best car he has ever driven, is still not out of print. Or, in any case, it was not sold out a year ago: at the beginning of 2020, information appeared that in 2019 three new copies were bought in the United States.

Moreover, the total circulation of the LF was only 500 cars, and the release ended, for a second, in 2012. Despite this, in 2017 it became known that 12 brand new cars remained in the United States in various dealerships. In the same year, three of them were sold, in 2018 - two more. Add to this the result of 2019, and it turns out that in 2020 at least four more LFs remained unclaimed.

But the history of the model began at the dawn of the 2000s. The first prototype of the two-door was assembled in 2003, and the Japanese started production of the serial version already in 2010. In two years, 450 "regular" LFs were produced and 50 more - in the Nürburgring version. In the latter, the power of the naturally-aspirated V10 engine was 571 power (plus 10 hp), the six-speed gearbox shifted 0.05 seconds faster, and additional aerodynamic elements appeared on the body.

Ferrari SP30

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Finally - the rarest car that they have been trying to sell for several years. And judging by the announcement of the site where he was last put up for sale, he still has not found a new owner. It's about a unique Ferrari built to order: the SP30.

The supercar was released in 2012 by order of a businessman from Dubai. It is a modified Ferrari 599 GTO - with exterior details in the style of 458 Italia, F12 Berlinetta, 812 Superfast and track 599XX. It has a six-liter V12 with 670 horsepower, acceleration to 100 km / h in 3.3 seconds and a top speed of 335 km / h.

How much the customer gave for the unique car is not disclosed. However, we can say with confidence that he did not particularly like her. How else to explain the mileage of 165 kilometers ?!

The first attempt to sell the SP30 took place in 2018 in the USA, after the car went to auction in Paris and … returned to Texas. For how much the owner is now ready to sell an almost 10-year-old two-door - we do not know, but at the previous auction, the designated "minimum wage" was 1.95 million euros (almost 170 million rubles).