Unicorn cars you've owned

Carbon (Forum Supporter) said:

The force is strong with this one. 

In reply to 80sFast :

Thanks man.
 

one more...

well I guess that's two, a jza80 And a woman who uses a chamois when she's washing your jza80 ;) 

Had a few "Unicorns" in my 29 vehicle history. 

87 factory turbocharged Toyota pickup 4x4 5spd. 22RTE engine with CT26 turbo.

87 Suzuki Samurai "Special Edition" *was very rough... Basically an engine donor* SE package was stickers, seats, wheels etc..

92 Suzuki Samurai with factory EFI. Low #s sold 92-94 before US sales pulled.

78 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40

79 Jeep CJ7 with Factory T18 (6.32-1 low gear) transmission. 

77 Ford F250 4x4 with 460 engine topped with 429 Cobra Jet heads.

88 Suzuki Samurai with Corolla 3TC engine... amazing combo, so quick compared to stock. 

All but 1 of them have been sold unfortunately. The 77 F250 still haunts me as a shouldn't have let go but alas first kid, house and growing up is more important. 

Not exactly unicorn status but had a 1992 Typhoon and a 2002 F150 Lightning.

In reply to Carbon (Forum Supporter) :

I love Toyota's, had a 60 and 80 land cruiser and v8 4Runner before my tundra. Once the tundras built I'm going for a MR-2 spyder or imported alltrac celica. 

Aluminum bodied Jaguar XK120, now back in England and running vintage races after being over-restored.

Alfa Romeo Guilia Spider Veloce.

Thames English Ford van, I've never seen another one.

RHD IH Scout, had a 302 Ford in it.

64 GTO with tri-power. Not so rare then as now.

65 Bonneville convertible with tri-power and four speed. Was a special order car the original owner was disappointed with since it was really too heavy to win drag races.

Huffaker Genie/Alfa sports racer.

Triumph Hurricane. NOT Honda.

Currently, Lotus Europa with TS (Gordini "Hemi" head) twin DCOE's and hot cam.

Several more but you get the drift.

1987 Mercedes Benz 190E 2.3 16v

1997 Ford Contour SVT

WXA99, 1938/1939 Rolls Royce 25/30 Wraith. Park Ward Limousine with electric divider. 
Mostly original, never restored. Chassis finished in '38 and the body completed by PW in early '39. One of the last cars built before RR flipped completely to the war effort. 

RichardSIA said:

Aluminum bodied Jaguar XK120, now back in England and running vintage races after being over-restored.

My father owned and raced an aluminum bodied xk120 as well. He had a horrible story about coming down a mountain on a sheet of ice and hitting a guardrail at a walking pace that made a mess of a fender. It said it was awful because he saw it coming for a really long time. 

yupididit said:

I've owned a 1991 Galant VR4 376/2000 and a 1989 Starion SHP. My 1987 Conquest could probably qualify as a unicorn too.

I just bought a Mercedes 190e Sportline its number 487 out of 700.

I owned a CRX HF about 12 years ago and I haven't seen another one since then. 

I had to scroll back and see if I'd alrdy commented and yep I did, but I'd also forgotten a unicorn. It was so hateful to drive I've almost completely black-holed its memory.. but I used to have a VW poptop 2 liter fuel injected camper bus with the sink and the teeny propane heater. It would involuntarily change lanes in any kind of crosswind atall. Didnt have that one fer long. Kindawish I'd hung onto it though, they go for a pretty penny these days, I'm told...

trucke said:

Still have an FX16.  However, my 2013 Focus Sedan with the MTX75 transmission (5 speed manual) is probably more of a unicorn.

 

 

 

 

 

I also had a '13 5-speed. Nice, solid car, but were they that unusual? 

Also, Swift GTi

'72 914 2.0

2001 GMC Sierra C3:  1/2 ton, extended cab pickup with a 3/4 ton drivetrain (6.0 LS, 4l65E, full-time AWD, 4 wheel discs, leather interior, power everything) - basically a Sierra Denali before they were called Denalis. Still have it, still love it.

2009 Pontiac G8 GT: A rebadged Holden (GM of Australia) RWD sedan, 6.0 LS, 6LR80, leather interior - basically a 4 door Camaro. Still drive it every day, 225,000 miles and still counting.     

2004 BMW 330i ZHP that I picked up last April. They still hold some "rareity" factor to BMW guys. I'm gonna turn this into an SE46 car eventually and that ZHP motor is gonna go into something else I own, probably my slicktop E36 328i

My other uncommon car, the slicktop E36 328i. Interesting history in that it started life in German, then Guam, and lots of US states including Hawaii.

I'm not sure how much of a "unicorn" it was, but in all the years since I've never seen another one. 1984 or 1985(can't remember which) Ford Escort GT Turbo.  Picture taken at Pocono many years ago during an SCCA double National weekend.

I've owned a ton of cars and all of them were very special to me but two stand out that may be considered unicorns. Only unicorns by people that were super into those respective chassis.  What attracted me to them was the fact that they were the pinnacle of their perspective chassis and therefore pretty rare.

First that comes to was my 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP Comp G. Was a pretty good car for me. Very rare in the W-Body world.  The car sustained a large amount of hail damage and we traded it in for my then wife a new 2011 Hyundai Elantra. 

The second was my 1980 BMW 320 is. Some of the special equipment for the is model was a 3.91 LSD, rear sway bar and Recaro seats. Very cool car for the E21 enthusiast. 

The one that comes to mind is my old Peugeot 405 Mi16 with the early alloy-block 1.9L engine. Later models had a 2.0L with iron block. The previous owner of mine had converted to a full Euro body kit: bumpers, headlights, headlight washers, rear wing, ribbed tail panel, 15" wheels, and badges.

The Mi16 was was the very last French car sold in the USA. I don't know how rare they are, but I've given up on trying to find another one. They never come up for sale. When they do, they're in garbage condition.

Mine met its end when I lent it to a buddy and he money-shifted it coming off the highway. I sold it for $1500 to a Peugeot collector who wanted the body kit. If I had known I'd never find another one, I would have tried to buy an engine in Europe ... not that it would have been easy to find one (205 GTI guys snapped up all the 1.9L models to upgrade their 1.6L 8-valvers)

stan said:

trucke said:

Still have an FX16.  However, my 2013 Focus Sedan with the MTX75 transmission (5 speed manual) is probably more of a unicorn.

 

 

 

 

 

I also had a '13 5-speed. Nice, solid car, but were they that unusual? 

Also, Swift GTi

'72 914 2.0

One of my friends bought a '13 new.  He bought it with a 6 speed manual.

I did not think anything unusual of this until alfadriver said that Ford never made a 2.0 Duratec/6sp combo.  So I looked into it: it's not in any of the parts catalogs.

My friend ordered the basest of base models.  I clearly remember shifting into 6th gear on the highway just for the novelty of it all, and to prove it wasn't some false memory, I asked him about it, and he said of course it's a 6 speed.

Huh.

1991 Audi 90 Quattro 20 valve

That thing was an electrical and vacuum hose nightmare 

6spd VW Golf R.

No DSG for me.

Another one I forgot about.  They didn't call them GTOs in 72 if they were convertibles (no idea why not) but rather Le Mans Sports. This is one of 33 built with the 455 HO and auto trans (I think another 20 were made with manual trans)

In the mid 80's, I had a 1978 Alfaromeo Alfasud Sprint that passed annual inspections and started every day. Those two facts truly made it a unicorn!!