10 Cancelled Cars We’re Sad Never Made Production

Just because a car’s in development, it’s not necessarily destined for production. Whether it’s at the stage of being signed off by the board or about to go on sale, all manner of factors – economics, regulations, a simple change of heart – can bring a car’s development to a grinding halt.

Sometimes, this is fine, because the car in question is some sort of bland SUV or hatchback that we’d likely have forgotten existed anyway. More often than not, though, it’ll be the niche, enthusiast-geared stuff that’s first to get the chop, which has led us to miss out on all manner of tantalising performance cars. Some of these, like the VW XL Sport, Renault Clio RS16 and reborn Audi Quattro, we’ve covered in-depth recently, but that barely scratches the surface.

Here, then, are 10 more cancelled cars that we’re gutted never got to see the light of day.

Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge

If you’re Nissan, and you’re trying to establish Infiniti, your Lexus-alike luxury sub-brand, as a serious player in Europe, what do you do? Nissan’s bright idea was to take the 3.8-litre, 560bhp V6 from the GT-R, drop it into the forgettable Q50 exec saloon, name it after one of racing’s most iconic corners and hand it over to a chap called Sebastian Vettel to help develop it.

That, for a while, was a tantalisingly real prospect in the shape of the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge. Debuting as a concept at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, by 2015 there was a running prototype, with the four-time F1 champ – then driving for Infiniti-sponsored Red Bull – providing feedback. Come September 2015, though, this potential M5 fighter had been shelved to make way for cars that would further boost Infiniti’s ‘credibility’ in Europe. Which went well.

Toyota GR Super Sport Toyota GR Super Sport prototype

When Toyota began its string of dominant performances at the 24 Hours of Le Mans following the exit of all its factory rivals, it looked to capitalise on this with a roadgoing supercar inspired by its TS050 LMP1 car. There’d be further synergy as the then-upcoming Le Mans Hypercar rules, which Toyota had committed to, stated that the race cars had to be based on roadgoing supercars – a requirement that was later dropped.

Nevertheless, Toyota cracked on with development of the GR Super Sport. First displayed as a concept in 2018, a disguised prototype was driven in a demo lap ahead of the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, and all looked rosy for this limited-run, 986bhp hybrid supercar. After that, though, things went a bit quiet, and the project was seemingly canned in 2021, reportedly after the prototype burned to the ground at Fuji Speedway.

Pontiac G8 Sport Truck Pontiac G8 Sport Truck

This ‘coupe-utility’ pickup shown off at the 2008 New York Auto Show was effectively production ready. Granted, that wouldn’t have taken much – all Pontiac’s parent, General Motors, had to do was borrow a Commodore Ute from its Australian Holden division, swap the steering wheel to the other side, and graft on late-era Pontiac’s split-grille corporate front end.

The only thing that prevented the G8 Sport Truck from going into production was that, a little over a year after it was unveiled, it was announced that Pontiac would be no more. A victim of the 2008 financial crisis (and not the last one on this list), this spiritual successor to the Chevrolet El Camino would have packed a 6.0-litre, 361bhp V8. Pontiac had gotten as far as running an online competition to decide the production version’s name when it all came crumbling down.

Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA concept

While quite pretty, the little Alfa Romeo MiTo supermini was never a great car. That could have been very different had the rorty GTA version made production. Shown off at Geneva 2009, the fundamentals looked very good indeed: 240bhp from a 1.8-litre turbo four, a six-speed manual, trick adaptive suspension, and much carbon fibre.

It all looked set to give the Mini JCW a thing or two to think about, until that pesky financial crisis led to the car being put “on hold.” It was never officially cancelled, then, but something tells us we’re never going to see it make production. Just a hunch. Still, the subsequent 12-year wait for another GTA-badged Alfa was worth it.

Lotus Esprit (2010) Lotus Esprit concept

When perennial underdog Lotus pitched up to the 2010 Paris Motor Show with – count ’em – five concept cars that it boldly claimed were production-bound, most of us naturally assumed that the plan would be flat on its face within a couple of years, and so it would be.

Some of the cars would get further than others, though. Front and centre was a revival of the Esprit name, to take on the likes of the Ferrari 458, McLaren 12C and Lamborghini Gallardo. Improbably, Lotus was developing its own engine, a naturally aspirated V8, for this project – an engine that, so goes a long-held rumour, was up and running and installed in the back of a hacked-up 458 for development work. It wasn’t until 2014 that the car was officially killed off.

Honda NSX V10Almost as soon as the original Honda NSX was discontinued in 2005, rumours began swirling of a replacement. That would eventually come with the V6 hybrid second-gen NSX in 2016, but the replacement could have been very, very different.

In 2007, Honda confirmed that a successor was in the works, with a front-mounted, naturally aspirated V10 making somewhere in the region of 550bhp – just like a certain other Japanese supercar that was in development at the time. 2007’s Acura Advanced Sports Car concept previewed the styling, and a prototype was seen running around the Nürburgring making many good noises, and then – guess what? 2008 happened, and the howling V10 NSX was dead. It did at least live on in a small way in the V8-powered HSV-010 Super GT racer, which was based on the scrapped road car.

BMW M3 E46 Touring BMW M3 E46 Touring prototype

The E46 BMW M3 is an excellent car – many would argue the best M3 – but, only ever available as a coupe or convertible, one area it was always lacking in was practicality. That could have been solved and then some with a Touring estate version, and BMW went as far as building a prototype that looked damn near production ready.

It would have blended all the best bits of the E46 M3 – the shrieking 338bhp S54 straight-six, those lovely flared arches – with the practicality of the 3-series Touring. And which car enthusiast worth their salt doesn’t get a bit frothy at the prospect of a rapid estate car? Not enough in the mid-2000s, apparently, which is why we’d have to wait until 2022 for the first official M3 Touring. Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of all, this.

Lexus LC-F The Lexus LC race car that was to use the new twin-turbo V8

The Lexus LC500 is a very rare thing these days (if you can even still buy it in your country) – a big, cushty GT car powered by a rumbly naturally aspirated V8. That’s the thing, though – being a luxurious GT has somewhat dampened its sporting credentials.

It wasn’t always going to be this way. For several years, Lexus was working on a range-topping version that would wear its F performance badge, and be powered by a new twin-turbo V8. Lexus was even going to run the new engine in a racing LC at the 2020 Nürburgring 24 Hours, before Covid put a stop to that. Ultimately, the car was deemed unfeasible for production despite prototypes existing, but this one’s a little easier to stomach: Toyota is readying a new front-engined sports car as a base for its next GT3 racer, and it’ll likely be powered by a twin-turbo V8 and potentially wear Lexus badges.

Jaguar C-X75 Jaguar C-X75

Unveiled at the 2010 Paris show, the jaw-dropping Jaguar C-X75 concept utilised an unorthodox powertrain in the form of two tiny gas microturbines. In 2011, Jag announced a limited production run with an only slightly more normal setup – a hybrid system based around a highly boosted, turbo- and supercharged 1.6-litre four-pot. However, the ongoing effects of (yes) the great recession put paid to those plans the following year.

As any cinema-goers circa 2015 know, it wasn’t quite the end of the C-X75, as it appeared as the car driven by the villainous Mr. Hinx in Spectre, which was absolutely, unquestionably one of the films in the James Bond franchise. In a sort of strange full-circle moment, two of the Spectre stunt cars were made road legal in 2024 by Callum, the design and engineering firm established by ex-Jag designer Ian Callum – who led the C-X75’s design in the first place.

Volkswagen Golf R400 Volkswagen Golf R400 concept

Many could argue that 2013’s Mk7 was Peak Golf, before VW mucked it up a bit with the (now much-improved) Mk8. The performance versions were better still, with the four-wheel drive Golf R getting a healthy 296bhp. There was nearly a more powerful one, though. Much more powerful.

At 2014’s Beijing Motor Show, VW unveiled the Golf R400, a concept that saw the R’s 2.0-litre turbo four-pot turned up to a mighty 395bhp, at a time when the power-crazed Mercedes A45 AMG was making ‘only’ 376bhp. Come early 2015, everything looked good for this mega-Golf to make production, but later that year, it suddenly became a rather bad look for VW to be flitting money away on frivolous performance car projects. We forget why.