4 Most Underrated Sports Cars Of All Time!

4 Most Underrated Sports Cars Of All Time!

We'll explore four of the most underappreciated sports cars ever made. These hidden gems packed serious performance and unique designs but never got the recognition they truly deserved.
First up is the Bitter CD, a stunning German grand tourer born from an Opel concept car. Created by former cyclist turned car manufacturer Erich Bitter, this rare beauty combined Italian-inspired styling with reliable German engineering. With only 395 units ever made between 1973-1979, the Bitter CD offered luxury, performance, and exclusivity. Under its sleek hood sat a powerful 5.4-liter Chevrolet V8 engine, proving that sometimes the best combinations cross international borders.
Next, we uncover the Iso Grifo, an Italian masterpiece that challenged Ferrari with American muscle. This unique creation paired gorgeous Italian design by Giorgetto Giugiaro with reliable Chevrolet V8 power. The most powerful version, the Grifo 7 Litri, could hit an impressive 171 mph thanks to its massive 7.0-liter engine. Despite its incredible performance and luxury features, only 412 examples were ever built before production ended in 1974.
The Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada tells an even more intriguing tale. Created by former Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, this remarkable machine combined lightweight aluminum construction with American V8 power. Bizzarrini used his experience developing the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO to create this exceptional sports car, which proved its worth by winning its class at the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Finally, we explore the TVR Griffith 400, a British-American hybrid that packed a serious punch. This lightweight fiberglass sports car combined classic British chassis design with Ford's potent 289 V8 engine. Weighing just 1,900 pounds and producing 271 horsepower, the Griffith 400 could rocket from 0-60 mph in just 4.6 seconds – an incredible feat for the 1960s. While it may have lacked the refinement of its competitors, it more than made up for it with raw, exciting performance.

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[beatglauser]

My Dad was chief of the body shop of the main GM importer in Switzerland. He got a call of a friend who had a big GM dealership and had to fix a beautiful blue metallic Bitter CD with a bad front damage. They studied the damage under the hood and figured out that parts of the front could be fixed with spare parts of the Opel Diplomat. The hood did cost over 4000$ and that was over 45 years ago! The owner of the car was trying to pay the bill of the repair with a fraud check. So the guy in the repair shop kept the car until he passed away last year.
I loved the GTs of the area, specially Italian ones. The Bitter CD has a lot of similarity to one of my favourite cars of all time. The Maserati Ghibli.
My absolute favourite car ever was the early Iso Grifo. A rare Beauty indeed. I could only see one two times in my entire life. Last month I was at an auction where a late model sold for 200 000 Swiss Francs.

[loveisall]

I'm old enough to have been in college when the Bitter came out. To my eyes it looked like a less-attractive Ghibli. Boy, I loved the looks of the early Grifo before the huge hood. As sensual as the Miura with that coke-bottle styling.

[TobiasCat-sn]

Cars like this make my heart sing. Magnificent!

As a motor mechanic of 45+ years, I'd see a few seventies supercars in body shops in the early to mid-eighties undergoing extensive restorations owing to rust.

Then I used to look at the sheer quality of some of the sporty cars from Japan I'd worked on from brand new. Whenever a new model was released I'd think: 'I can't imagine this car rusting away, as it's so well made'.

I was very wrong and it's only in the last 20 years that corrosion-free cars were finally available.

Just prior to Covid, a collector had numerous brand new cars stashed away in a disused mill in Lancashire. He decided to sell them off. stuff like a 100 mile MG Metro Turbo simply fell apart as he tried to load them. The entire floor-pan had separated from the upper bodyshell. Crying shame. A car he imagined was worth £35k went for £2.5k in parts...

[michaelmclean]

Why do these cars look like their from the future more than today's vehicles? Absolutely beautiful designs. Imagine these cars combined with today's technology and horsepower.

[john]

At 3:18 you speak of sending power to the rear wheels, yet show a front suspension unit! At 9:10 you show the chassis of an electric car! At 10:17 the engine of a racing A3C is correctly shown further "rearwards" than ususal! At 10:31 you show the winning Ferrari 250 LM. At 17:22 you show a McPherson Strut front suspension, rather than double wishbones! At 21:29 the rectangular lights shown actually replaced the circular ones, on a later model of the car!

[vince]

I had no idea these cars even existed! Beautiful designs!

[mirandahotspring]

Bitter are still in business and still in partnership with Opal. They turn out customised Astras, Corsas, etc badged with the Bitter logo.

[kevinw]

You're getting your 1960's TVR Griffith and 1990's TVR Griffith mixed up I'm afraid.

[mogoduc]

The man at 16:35 isn't Guigiaro, it's Bertone.

[ENZEEVIDS]

always loved the iso from when i was a boy, so handsome!!

[paulelliott]

i miss the days when men of means and ambition just decided "hey, lets make a sports / race car" and just went ahead and did it. They were beautiful to look at, and i love cars with "proper" dials and gauges instead of all the electronic gizmo's in modern cars.I just love the purity of those older classics i guess.

[danieleverywhere]

why all those unnecessary effects?
it is distracting only

[cliffbrookshire]

Inaccurate engine pics, GM did not offer that intake manifold and/or TPI at that

[andrewhaigh]

Oops - at 3;50, the lovely Bitter looks AMAZINGLY like a Ferrari Daytona!

[professortiki]

"Reliability that only American engineers could provide..." LOL.

[artlandmarknyc]

"he transitioned" in 2024 means a whole other thing 😉👍😁😱😱

[walmartdog]

I saw a BITTER at a wholesale auto auction In Indianapolis in the late 70s or early 80s.

[AndyFromBeaverton]

4:08 Back when it was unimaginable that gas would be $1.00 or more.

[mby_dk]

Such a travesty! The information and the images in the section about the ISO Grifo are all over the place. Half of them are either inconsistent or completely out of place!

[jessiedazzle]

The following applies to all your videos: Great subject matter BUT annoying lack of coherence between narration and images.