Unicorn cars you've owned

I think that I've had some and still have one Unicorn.

'68 Camaro SS/RS.  396 / 4 speed.  It had a bench seat and a fold down rear seat.

'81 Citation X11. Bought new off the showroom floor. V6 - 4 speed.  '81 was not an X11 in name only like the '80 Xll.

85 GLH.  Black with the 5 speed.  Bought new off the lot.

Five Triumph Stags, Three actually ran and drove - some.  Only 2871 were exported to the US.

TR250 - actually had two.  The first one that was totaled and then the one that I still have now.  Got it 1980.   Only 8484 were built.

My 1992 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser. Most of the small run of OCCs are '91s—Olds produced fewer than 5,000 in '92.  The camel interior was also pretty rare. 

My 1991 Mercedes 350SDL. Mercedes produced only 875 350SDLs in '91, and most have been sidelined by the troublesome nature of the 3.5's connecting rods. Mine has an earlier 3 liter block with a later 3.5 head making it the best of both worlds. 

Slippery said:

1989 Celica All-Trac

This one was becoming a unicorn when I owned it 1987 Audi 5000 Quattro Turbo manual. Cool car with locking diffs. 

This one I wanted so bad when I was younger...

The only Unicorn I've had is the Lotus Europa I currently own.  It's an early S2, so has the same body styling as the last of the Series 1 cars (low nose, no signal nacelles, no door handles, single wiper), but has the removable chassis.  They made roughly 415 of them, so not as rare as the S1, but still rare compared to modern vehicles.

Other than that, dear old dad has had a few, an MG YT (1 of 877), MGA Twin Cam (1 of 2111), Healey 3000 Mk1 BN7 (1 of 2825), an MG PA (1 of 1937).  

NickD said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

Yeah, going down to a car-sized tire got it really close. Then it was on Ford diesel Super Duty front coil springs that were chopped in half on the front and chopped factory coil springs in the rear with castoff OEM Mustang wheels, and he shaved the roof rails off (technically roof rails are where you start the measuring for the SCCA). It was really funny and it was legal and never showed any inclination of flipping. But it just scared the daylights out of people who visited the region or the older, grumpier safety stewards. I remember being at an out-of-region event with our region Solo head and him getting chewed out by the Solo head of the region we were visiting, and the owner and I damn near got our heads torn off by a safety steward the time it ripped the caliper bracket threads out of the spindle and dumped the caliper on the track. Then the next year he replaced it with a slightly less controversial vehicle, a 1998 Ram SS/T, the Indy Pace Truck that was a 2WD standard cab, short bed with a 5.9L. And now this year he is running a $400 Crown Vic P71 with no title

I like your friend. 

Did anybody say "Unicorn"?

My ZJ has seen some rallycross action (one of my local regions is no SUVs / trucks, the other pretty much says "if it looks like it can get around the course safely, we're good, just don't be stupid").  

TVR Grantura Mk 3 (70 made)

Lamborghini Islero S (100 made)

Jensen CV8 Mk 2 (250 made)

MGA Mk 2 coupe  (521 made) and Pontiac Solstice coupe (1200 made)

Jensen Interceptor Mk 3 (2477)

MGC convertible (4,542 made)

A few others with more built, but that will do it for now.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Mine was a Jaguar XK 140 MC. 
What made it special was it was an OTS  ( open Touring Sport) ( convertible to non British)  but most XK140s like that were properly called Drop heads.  That is they had the wood grained dash , wind up windows and non cutaway doors with door handles on the outside. Also little jump seats in the rear.  ( for all their legless friends ) 

 The OTS had cutaway doors and no exterior door handles. ( you reached inside to pull a cord in the side pockets). Side curtains. Aluminum hood, trunklid, and doors.  Dual exhaust. C type head. High lift camshafts. And 2" HD8's SU's. Oh and 16" Chrome wire wheels.  Plus mine had a Laycock DeNormville overdrive. 

My whole current fleet is unusual.

B8 Audi S4, with a 6MT, and an unusual conglomeration of options that might make it 1 of 1 (Alu-Optics, Sport Diff, ADS, Alcantara)

Ford Flex Titanium (1 year only very limited trim option with different grill, lights, tailgate, etc) with the EcoBoost AWD drivetrain

986 Porsche Boxsdter S, but what makes it weitd is it literally has just 1 option (cruise control) despite being a first-year S model. It's really light

Porsche 944 S2 coupe with the sport shocks and LSD

Slippery said:

1989 Celica All-Trac

This one was becoming a unicorn when I owned it 1987 Audi 5000 Quattro Turbo manual. Cool car with locking diffs. 

Picture of the Celica next to my '87 GTI 16v:

Noticed a unicorn in my picture. Peugeot 505 in the background. 

I have had a bunch....Taraschi F Jr., Taraschi made 64 cars total of all models, BMC Mk2 F jr. ,Lola 324 FSV aircooled, Rytune Scorpion F Jr, one of 14. More common things are the Turner 950S my handle refers to, Turner made around 700 cars total, and I daily drove an Elva Courier Mk2 for a while, in a favorite GRM photo location below.

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

First ones that pop into my head. 

90 Isuzu impulse RS 

85 Glh omni 

66.5 mustang 

The only unicorn - in the proper sense of the word - that I've owned (and still do) is my 2009 128i M-Sport. I can't find US sales numbers on these, but they don't come up for sale often, and especially not spec'd out for the enthusiast: manual transmission, manual leather seats, no I-Drive. The only indulgence is the sunroof. Black Sapphire Metallic over Terracotta leather, which I think is a pretty unusual combination as well.

Sheer attrition has made my 74 2002 and 89 Saab 900S evolutionary unicorns, like minor subspecies of Galapagos tortoise.

My father owns an odd one. He has a 1969 Pontiac LeMans Sport Coupe in Matador Red with a black vinyl top and red interior. What makes it unique is that it has the 350 2-barrel Pontiac engine, but backed by a TH400. Most 350 2-barrels were backed by the TH350, the TH400 was a higher-priced extra. He bought it off his friend, who was a real Pontiac nut and had determined that there were less than 50 1969 LeMans with a 350 2-barrel and a TH400. The guy that ordered it also went nuts with the option checklist: bucket seats, floor console, floor shift, power steering, power brakes, front disc brakes, limited slip differential, Rallye II wheels. All that makes it most likely a 1-of-1 car, and a very strange beast. 

Probably nothing.

Maybe a 91 Accord coupe with a manual

69 Firebird convertible with a solid roller 350 HO was pretty hard to find according to the pontiac collector I sold it to.

GM seems to be pumping out these 1LEs like crazy so Im sure it isnt rare.

My 1961 Pontiac Bonneville.  It's a factory tripower, factory 4 speed car.  The engine is what they called a 425A Trophy; it's a step above the regular tripower engine for that year with a four bolt main block, cast iron headers and a hotter cam.  All that stuff was very uncommon for a Bonneville, guys who wanted a hot car back then would normally have gone for a smaller and lighter Ventura or Catalina.  In addition, it was ordered from the factory painted in 1959 colors (the color code on the trim tag says 'Special') so in that respect it's a one of one car. 

I've had a few in the past.  The ones that come to mind are:

'67 Cougar XR7 GT S Code with a 390 4 speed.

'70 Boss 302 in Green

Does a Suzuki Swift GTi count?  Bought one new in '89, they were rare even then.

'79 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce Velocissima  (Pic not my car, but just like it)

Hmmm, not sure if all/any are unicorn but they are at the least kind of:

1991 Integra LE with a dealer installed white leather (panda) interior.

1997 Grand Cherokee Orvis Edition

2014 Charger R/T Hemi AWD

1965 21 window deluxe VW bus

Then maybe only due to the (potential) story: my 1971 Opel GT that I am 99% sure I owned 30 years ago and repurchased last year. I am not sure I've told the whole story here and have yet to be able to definitively prove it.

If we're counting options like paint colors then my Miata is pretty unicorn-y. One of 1519, one year only, but the color is the only thing that's different about them.

These aren't exactly common either - hard to know exactly how many were made but there were only like 10k Eurovans sold here total with the VR6.

Most of my Challenge cars would qualify. 
 

- I've owned 4 Subaru SVXii. One was a manual. 

- Wide body efi Yugo (+ 2 other Yugos)

- Subaru Justy

- 323 GTX

- 4 Lotus Europas

- Lotus Elite

- Bugeye Sprite

- 2 split window 1966 VW buses

- 2 Corvairs.  1 was a beautiful rust free convertible- should have kept that

- Diesel Miata

- Rabbit GTI

- LSX powered E28

- 1960 El Camino (only 14,000 ever produced, most are gone)

- Turbo manual Dodge Caravan

- Dodge Spirit RT

- GLH Omni

- Vista Cruiser wagon

- Model As weren't unicorns, but my 1931 Tudor is now pretty rare (a rust-free unmolested all original survivor which can be daily driven)

- My JCW MINI probably counts 

Yep. I like weird E36 M3. 
 

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

What's the name of the color on your 2 door Suburban wagon?

By far the rarest car I've owned has to be my old 1987 Shelby Dodge CSX, #115 of 750 built. I bought it from a GRM member on here a decade ago for super cheap, wrenched on it for a while, got it running again, and sold it to a Turbo Dodge friend so I could focus on my other projects. That friend unfortunately passed away soon after he got the car, and his family ended up selling it to another Turbo Dodge guy in CT. Last I knew, it was up for sale again. Hope someone gets it and restores it.

Other than that, I've had some other "unicornish" rides:

-2012 Mazda 3 2.5S Touring Hatch in Crystal White Pearl Mica with a 6-speed manual: Paint was an extra cost option, and not many of the 2.5L cars had manual transmissions that year. Most people opted for the Skyactiv cars that debuted later in the model year. When the transmission went, there wasn't another unit available used or even rebuilt in the country. A pedestrian car optioned rarely.

-1979 10th Anniversary Trans Am W72: The W72 cars were the ones with the Pontiac 400 and the 4-speed manual. Pontiac intended on making 10,000 of them, but they allowed people to order the 400/4-speed combo on other models by mistake (supposedly) and they ran out of drivetrains. Only 1,817 were built. Not to be confused with my other Trans Am; sold this one a decade ago.

-1992 Ford F150 Flareside 4x4 Nite: The Nite package makes this one very rare. It was an appearance package only available in 1991 and 1992 across the F150 and Bronco lines. Any body style F150 could be had with the package, but the Flareside was probably the rarest. Ours also had no A/C, manual locks, and crank windows but had the 5.0L V8, which was odd. My dads bought it used in '94, and I took custody of it a couple different times in its life until I discovered the leaf spring perches went missing. That one got sold.
 

My dad owned a few:

1959 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce

Fiat Abarth 1300OT (850 coupe based)

AMC Hornet SC/360 4 speed

1986 Omni GLHS

1995 Plymouth Neon ACR sedan Nitro Yellow Green (one of 15)

Porsche 914 LE black/yellow