25 of the coolest mid-engined concept cars that never made production

Based on Peugeot’s mid-engined, all-wheel drive 205 T16 Group B rally hatchback, the Quasar was shown off at the 1984 Paris Motor Show and remains possibly the most Eighties thing we’ve ever seen.

It used the same 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine as the WRC-spec 205 too, although it was now twin turbocharged for a claimed 600bhp. The supercar body was constructed mostly of carbon and Kevlar, and inside was a giant CRT monitor for navigation.  

Four years after the Quasar came the Oxia, with Peugeot once again pulling the covers off at the Paris Motor Show. But where the former was based on a rallying hero, the latter sourced its engine from the WM P87 Le Mans car. That was a 2.8-litre twin-turbo V6, but while it made 850bhp in the race car, it was dialled back to just 670bhp in the concept.

Don’t fret, this isn’t just going to be a list full of Peugeots. Does show that it has frequently toyed with the idea of a proper mid-engined supercar though, doesn’t it? Go on Peugeot, you know you still want to do it…

The Onyx used the 3.7-litre diesel V8 from Peugeot’s 2011 Le Mans contender, but here it was hybridised to take power to 680bhp. It also had funky copper body panels which should be oxidising nicely by now. 
 

Released as a series of concept cars over a number of years, the W12 originally appeared as the Syncro Coupe at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, painted bright yellow and with a 5.6-litre naturally aspirated W12 engine mounted midship, it proved that the VW Group could be cool.

Cadillac was celebrating its centenary in 2002, so it rocked up to the Detroit Auto Show with a wedgy hypercar concept that it planned to put into production. The Cien (Spanish for 100) featured a carbon chassis, styling supposedly inspired by the F-22 Raptor, and a monster 7.5-litre V12 engine that sent 750bhp to the rear wheels.

Named after a straight at Circuit de la Sarthe, the tricky-to-pronounce Hunaudières was unveiled at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show as VW Group boss Ferdinand Piech continued with his search to find the perfect brand for a monstrous supercar.

Bentley had been acquired by the Group just a year earlier, but this mid-engined concept was quickly knocked together with a naturally aspirated 8.0-litre W16 and a five-speed manual gearbox. Of course, in the end we got the Bugatti Veyron, so don’t be too disappointed that this Bentley never went any further. 

Pagani Zonda, eat your heart out. As part of the otherwise-rather-rubbish DaimlerChrysler partnership, we very nearly got another mid-engined supercar using Merc’s glorious 6.0-litre V12. The difference was that Chrysler planned to use four turbos for a total of 850bhp and 850lb ft of torque at the rear wheels.

Unveiled in Detroit in 2004, the ME Four-Twelve was supposed to do 0-60mph in just 2.9 seconds and might have sold for around $500,000, but the plug was pulled to avoid massive development costs. A crying shame. 
 

When Chevrolet launched the C8 Corvette back in 2019, it was the culmination of many years of mid-engined planning and development. In fact, it was a whole 60 years since Zora Arkus-Duntov’s first open-wheel, single-seater CERV I (Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle).

One of the coolest prototypes though was undoubtedly the gullwing-doored Aerovette, complete with a pair of twin-rotor Wankel rotary engines that added up to 9.5-litres of displacement and made over 400bhp. 

You wonder why it took Chevy so long to go mid-engined when all of its Corvette prototypes were this exciting. As a development of the earlier Corvette Indy, the long-tailed CERV III was shown off at the Detroit show in 1990 and featured active suspension, all-wheel steering and a 5.7-litre twin-turbo V8 with 650bhp.

Want more 1990s goodness? Unveiled at the 1995 Detroit Motor Show, Ford’s GT90 was a wonderfully futuristic supercar concept that borrowed the chassis from a Jaguar XJ220 but buried a quad-turbo 6.0-litre V12 behind the cabin. 

What could have been, hey? Before the first-generation Mustang pony car arrived in 1964, Ford used the name on a very different concept. This one was mid-engined and open-topped, with pop-up headlights, a little 1.5-litre V4 engine and a plan to fill the gap between imported European roadsters and the Chevrolet Corvette. 

Back in the early 1990s it very much looked like BMW was set to launch an all-new mid-engined V12 supercar. First came the Nazca M12 – designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro’s son Fabrizio – at the 1991 Geneva Motor Show, and then a few months later the wonderfully refined Nazca C2 broke cover at the Tokyo show. What a pity it never made production, although Italdesign did create a C2 Spider a couple of years later. 

Fabrizio clearly had his own style in the 90s, because later in the decade he penned the strikingly similar Alfa Romeo Scighera. The doors actually used the same half-conventional, half-gullwing setup as the BMW, but the engine in the Scighera was Alfa’s sublime Busso V6.

Because you can’t have a list of concept cars that doesn’t include the Lancia Stratos Zero. The king of the wedges arrived at the 1970 Turin Auto Show with a mid-mounted 1.6-litre V4 engine from a Lancia Fulvia.

Remember Saleen? In the late 2000s it was planning a more affordable follow up to its mega S7, and at the 2008 New York show it pulled the covers off the S5S Raptor. With a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 making 650bhp it was inevitably labelled a ‘Ferrari-fighter’, but very soon after the show Saleen hit financial troubles and was forced to sell off a load of its assets. 

Hang on, perhaps the Stratos Zero wasn’t the wedgiest car ever made? Also unveiled in 1970 was Pininfarina’s wild Ferrari Modulo. And yes, an actual, working 5.0-litre V12 sits in the middle there.

Back in the middle of 2023, the restored Aston Martin Bulldog finally broke the 200mph barrier for the first time. Only took 45 years or so…

Because yes, the Bulldog was originally built in the late 1970s and was officially unveiled in 1980. With twin-turbocharging of its 5.3-litre V8, Aston claimed a top speed of 237mph at the time and had a small production run planned, but eventually it was deemed too costly and the sole prototype was sold to a Saudi prince for £130,000. 

How best to create a successor to cars like the Carrera GT and 918 Spyder? Well, at one point Porsche was considering a very limited production run of the 919 Street. Essentially this was to be a road-legal version of the all-conquering 919 Hybrid, but its 900bhp+ mid-mounted V4 engine plus hybrid system was just too complex.

Yep, there was a time when Isuzu was actually considering a mid-engined supercar. Designed by Julian Thompson and Shiro Nakamura, the V8-engined, all-wheel drive 4200R was unveiled in 1989 when both Isuzu and Lotus were owned by GM. 

Back in 2014, Volkswagen decided that it would tear out the two-cylinder diesel engine and hybrid gubbins from its XL1 eco-warrior and replace it with something a little bit different…

The resulting XL Sport had the same amount of cylinders, but its new heart came from the Ducati 1199 Superleggera superbike. That meant a redline north of 11,000rpm and an output of 200bhp. 

As you may have noticed, the global recession in the early 1990s killed many of the flights of fancy in this list. Would any have been as dramatic as Yamaha’s OX99-11 though? We’re not so sure.

This carbon-tubbed oddity was set to feature a detuned version of the 3.5-litre V12 engine doing service in Brabham and Jordan F1 cars at the time. Sadly only three prototypes were ever built. 

Designed by Bertone for the Turin Motor Show in 1980, the Athon was one of those rare beasts – a fully functional concept car. Bertone wanted to help lift Lamborghini out of its financial difficulties, so the Athon was based on the Silhouette (which itself was based on the Urraco) and featured a 3.0-litre V8 under its flat rear deck. 

Imagine if this had made production. Back in the mid-1980s, Buick went all swoopy with a mid-engined supercar concept that featured a giant Plexiglass canopy that lifted up and over the front of the car. All the while, out back was an exposed 3.8-litre V6 tuned by McLaren Engines to produce erm… 230bhp. D’oh.

Not all mid-engined concepts are supercars of course. Back in the mid-90s BMW was in the process of reviving Mini, and at the 1997 Monte Carlo Rally it unveiled a brilliantly bonkers rear-drive hatch with a mid-mounted 1.8-litre four-pot.

Recently revived and now painted red, this was the Volkswagen Golf as you’d never seen it before. Yep, VW went a little bit mad for Worthersee in 2007, fitting its sensible hatchback with a twin-turbo 6.0-litre W12 that sent 641bhp and 553lb ft to the rear wheels.