BMW designs these days? Let’s just say they raise eyebrows. Big grilles. Aggressive kits. It’s a new direction and people don’t really know what to make of it. The XM Label Red sits there looking like a spaceship crash-landed in a mall.
But honestly? Nothing new under the sun. Car companies have always tried to pull our legs with radical ideas. The XM isn’t an anomaly, just the latest entry in a long list of vehicles that stopped us in our tracks. Shocked us. Sometimes impressed us, rarely both.
When Supercars Get Big
Lamborghini LM002 (19
86
Remember when making a two-seater screaming fast was the entire job? Yeah. That was then.
Lamborghini launched the LM002 and everyone lost their minds. An SUV. From them. It seemed impossible back in ’86. Now it’s just Tuesday.
They wanted military contracts first. Tried building the “Cheetah” for the US Army. Too heavy. Engine in the back. Clunky. The army bought Humvees instead. Makes sense. Lamborghini had the tooling lying around though. So they took those lessons, applied them to road use, and built their first proper off-roader. Decades later they did it again with the Urus, a 600-bhp V8 beast that made the LM002 look conservative by comparison.
The Truck That Ate Ferraris
GMC Syclone (1
99
Look at that truck. Looks innocent, right? Low stance. Square headlights. Don’t be fooled. This is a factory hot rod and it has serious muscle underneath the sheet metal.
GMC started with a Sonoma. Bored the engine out, slapped on a turbo, squeezed it into a 4.3-liter V6. Paired it with a four-speed auto. The result? 280 horsepower from a six-cylinder.
Car & Driver didn’t believe it either. So they took a Syclone and a Ferrari 348TS to a strip. Guess who won? The truck. Using all-wheel drive to plant power where it counted, the Syclone ate the Ferrari’s lunch over a quarter-mile. You’d never expect a pickup to outrun an Italian sports car but there it is.
The Saucer That Died
General Motors EV1 (1
99
Start-ups get to play nice and green. Legacy giants? They play safe. Or so we thought.
GM built the EV1 and it looked like something out of a 1950s comic book. Sleek. Closed-top. Flying saucer chic. Underneath was a 137-hp electric motor pushing a 16.5 kWh battery. They used aluminum and plastic everywhere to keep the weight down to roughly 1,400 kilos. Light as a feather for an EV at the time.
Only 1,147 were ever made. Leased, mostly in California and Arizona. No buying. You just rent the future.
Then 2003 came along. GM said profitability was impossible. Called the whole project off. Customers were forced to return them. Most ended up in the crusher. Conspiracy theories ran wild, obviously. Who kills the electric dream unless someone has something to hide?
Rick Wagoner, former GM CEO, called crushing them his biggest regret. Maybe he meant business-wise. Or maybe he meant something else.
The Quiet Buick That Wasn’t
Buick GNX (1
98
Buick makes sedans. Comfortable ones. You buy a Buick because your knees hurt or you need space for golf clubs. Performance? Don’t make me laugh.
Until the 1980s.
GM decided their premium brand needed a badge that scared Chevys. The Regal Grand National launched in 1982 thanks to NASCAR success. Started modest enough with 125 hp from a 4.1-liter V6. Buick killed the name briefly, then brought it back bigger and louder. Turbocharged 3.8-liter. 200 horsepower. Then more power. Always more power.
By 1987 they unleashed the GNX. It was faster than the Camaro Z28. Faster than almost anything in the showroom that month. People didn’t expect a Buick to run away with them. They did. One of the most collectible models ever built.
