Venturi 400 GT
You are excused if you don’t know about Venturi, a small French car company active in the ’90s. Using components from other car companies and producing its bodies and chassis, Venturi produced several beautiful and fast cars, raced a lot, and left its mark in the history of obscure supercars with its magnificent 400 GT model from the mid-’90s. Visually similar to the Ferrari F40, the Venturi 400 GT also used a twin-turbocharged engine. But in Venturi’s case, it was a 3.0-liter Peugeot V6, which was enhanced to produce 400 horsepower in street trim (via Hagerty).
In racing trim, it was capable of over 600 hp. With all that firepower, the 400 GT could accelerate to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds and go over 180 mph, which was faster than Porsches or Ferraris of the day. Venturi participated in many races, including Le Mans, and even had its racing series where wealthy amateurs could race their Venturis in match races. Unfortunately, the cruel financial reality caught up with Venturi’s big ambitions, and the company was closed first in 1997 and then again in 2000. Venturi withdrew from racing before that and managed to produce less than 100 examples of the fantastic 400 GT, which has since been lost in corridors of time.