SUPERCARS WITH TINY ENGINES

01 Lancia 037 Stradale

Can a car with a 2.0-litre four-pot really be a supercar? Well, when the car in question weighs only 1,170kg, had its engine mounted in the middle, is supercharged to churn out 208bhp and was the last RWD car to win the World Rally Championship, you’ve got to say yes.

04 Porsche 911 GT1

The 911 GT1 is the definition of ‘a racing car for the road’. It wasn’t really a 911, more a 962-based prototype dressed up to look a bit like a 993. It won Le Mans in 1998, thanks to the reliability of its 600bhp 3.2 twin-turbo flat-six. The 22 street-legal Straßenversion GT1s were detuned to 536bhp.

07 Porsche 959

Suspiciously similar to the F40’s engine displacement, no? Of course it is – the 959 was also a Group B project left without a race series to compete in. In stock trim, it made 444bhp from a 2.9-litre twin-turbo flat-six and powered the 959 to a top speed of 198mph.

02 Honda NSX

The NSX was benchmarked to beat the Ferrari 348. Even though its 3.0 V6 only made 274bhp, it had titanium con-rods and revved to 8,000rpm, which is exotic enough for us. Until the Audi R8, this was without a doubt the most sensible supercar of all time.

05 Ferrari F40

Intended for racing, the F40’s weeny 2.9-litre very-turbo V8 was effectively a Group B refugee. Officially, it developed 476bhp, which was mighty in a car that barely weighed 1,100kg. In reality, few F40s left the factory making less than 500bhp. From a 2.9-litre!

08 Jaguar XJ220

OK, 3.5 litres isn’t a tiny engine by 2019 standards, but in the Nineties when Lambo thrived on V12s, it was small. Especially as the 1989 XJ220 concept had promised a 6.2 V12, only to be replaced by the V6 from a Metro 6R4 rally car, delivering a huge (and laggy) 542bhp.

03 Ferrari 208 GTB

Back in the Eighties, Italy slapped a tax penalty on any car over 2,000cc. Cannily, Ferrari took the 308 and plumbed in a 1990cc mini-V8. Developing 154bhp, the 208 GTB and GTS twins were so slow, by 1982 Ferrari had bolted on a turbo, to take power to 217bhp.

06 Jaguar C-X75

A hypercar with a turbo’d and s’charged 4cyl 1.6? Which nation would attempt such a plucky, ambitious plot? Yes, it was the Brits. Jaguar, to be precise, assisted by Williams. The 900bhp hybrid C-X75 was canned before it reached production, despite the prototypes showing huge promise.

09 BMW i8

Originally unveiled in 2014, the i8 is a plug-in hybrid using two electric motors and the 1.5-litre turbo’d 3cyl engine from a Mini Cooper. However, BMW’s upped power to 231bhp. And there’s a 141bhp boost from the EV department, to get the i8 from zero to 62mph in 4.4 seconds.