10 Rubbish Motorsport-Inspired Special Edition Cars

When car companies get involved in motorsport, they often like to shout about it, especially if they do well. In most cases, they’ll trot out a special edition car with links, however tenuous, to their motorsport programmes, and occasionally this will spawn something brilliant. The Renault Clio Williams. The Mercedes CLK DTM. The Mitsubishi Evo Tommi Mäkinen Edition.

For every brilliant road car that feels like it has genuine ties to the race track, however, there are usually several ‘special editions’ that are nothing more than cynical cash grabs, mere body kits and paintjobs that aren’t fooling a soul into thinking you’re driving a racing car for the road. Here are 10 times car companies gave us rubbish motorsport-inspired special editions.

Infiniti FX Vettel Edition

In the early 2010s, when Red Bull was enjoying its first dominant streak in F1, it was sponsored by Nissan’s luxury wing, Infiniti. With Sebastian Vettel racking up four consecutive championships, he was one of the most marketable racing drivers on earth, which surely left Infiniti’s accountants rubbing their hands together.

The result was the FX Vettel, a run of 150 versions of the bulky FX50 SUV that was supposedly “the realisation of Sebastian Vettel's wish for an FX with even more focus and ability than standard.” In other words, ‘We developed this, and Seb glanced at some pictures of it and said, ‘yeah, sure.’’

In fairness, it did feature genuine performance tweaks: power from the 5.0-litre V8 was lifted from 390 to 414bhp, and the 155mph limiter was binned off. However, the rear spoiler and F1-style rain light were garish, and in the UK, it cost a ludicrous £105k – some £47k more than a regular FX50 which, frankly, wasn’t a very good car.

Fiat Stilo Schumacher

And speaking of highly marketable F1 drivers lending their names to underwhelming performance cars… oh dear. The Fiat Stilo was a pretty miserable crack at a family hatch, and the 168bhp Abarth version was an even more miserable crack at a ‘hot’ hatch, despite its unusual use of a 2.4-litre five-cylinder engine.

But wait! In 2005, when Michael Schumacher was coming off one of the most dominant streaks in F1 history, Ferrari was still mostly owned by Fiat. Surely a version of the Stilo with Schumi’s name on it could have been a proper hot hatch, and not just a cynical marketing exercise?

Ha, nice try. It was a Stilo Abarth, but red. There was a UK-only ‘Schumacher GP’ version, which had a special suspension tune from none other than Prodrive, but that wasn’t enough to rescue it.

Alpine A110 R Fernando Alonso

There’s nothing wrong with the Alpine A110 R as a car. It’s pretty flipping excellent, actually. But there’s quite a lot wrong with the execution of the A110 R Fernando Alonso edition. It did have subtly tweaked suspension, signed off by Alonso himself, with a track-only ride height accessed by ‘a few quick and easy steps’ (read: much swearing).

Besides that, however, it was a case of it simply being painted in the same blue as Alpine’s 2022 F1 car and having Alonso’s logo plastered all over the interior. Laser-cut into the sun visor was a quote that apparently represents Nando’s philosophy, the oddly Eric Cantona-esque “There is more than one path to the top of the mountain.”

The biggest issue with the A110 R Alonso, though, was that it was unveiled in November 2022 – three months after Alonso had announced he’d be departing Alpine for Aston Martin for 2023. Awks.

Citroen C4 by Loeb

No, not the Sebastian Loeb Edition. The Citroen C4 by Loeb. Although exactly what the then-triple World Rally Champion had to do with this 2007 special edition is beyond us. He certainly didn’t have anything to do with its setup, because it was mechanically identical to the regular 2.0-litre VTS version of the C4.

That wasn’t a bad car in itself, but it was no rip-roaring hot hatch, and you’d hope a version that not only bore the name of your company’s mega-successful rally driver, but was supposedly ‘by’ him, would offer a bit more than some tacky graphics and a numbered plaque.

Mercedes A45 World Champion Edition

Or the Mercedes-AMG A45 Petronas 2015 World Champion Edition, to give it its full name. Again, the standard A45 AMG was a perfectly fine car, especially when fitted with the Dynamic Plus Package that this one got as standard.

But the A45 Petronas AMG Petronas 2015 Petronas World Petronas Champion Edition was just… a whole lot of nothing. Built to commemorate Merc’s 2015 F1 success (did the name not give it away?), it was just a normal A45 with some not particularly attractive pale blue accents that were essentially free advertising for an oil company. Only 30 were made, and there’s a reason you’ve forgotten about it.

Aston Martin DBX707 AMR24

Another example of a perfectly good car being turned into a low-effort cash-grab, the DBX707 AMR24 arrived in 2024 as an F1-inspired special edition of Aston’s hugely impressive SUV.

Nothing was changed about the car’s suspension setup, or its 607bhp twin-turbo V8 (not that it needed any more power), or any other facet of its mechanical makeup. But look! It’s the same colours as Aston’s 2024 F1 car! A colour scheme you could probably get Aston’s Q division to recreate for you anyway! But this one also has a numbered plaque!

MG6 BTCC Edition

The MG6 was the first all-new car offered by MG when it returned to Britain under its new Chinese ownership and it was, frankly, rubbish. But it did see some success in the British Touring Car Championship.

In fact, Jason Plato taking it to third in the championship in 2012, its debut season, was enough for MG to bring out a BTCC-inspired special edition. So, more power? Suspension honed by the touring car team? Erm, no. It had a subtle bodykit, a black roof and wheels, and some little decals adorning the bodywork. Mechanically, it was identical to the normal 1.8-litre turbocharged MG6, which managed 62mph in 8.4 seconds and a 120mph top speed.

Chevrolet Cruze CS

On the highly specific subject of fairly dismal small family cars doing well in the BTCC and spawning an ill-advised roadgoing special edition, allow us to introduce you to the Chevrolet Cruze CS.

This was actually a £1595 option pack for the normal Cruze that saw it fitted with a bodykit, lowered suspension and some very racy-looking white 18-inch wheels, all inspired by the Cruze that won the BTCC in 2010 (once again driven by Plato, who seemed to be magnetised to cars fielded by underdog brands around this time). So, did these changes turn the otherwise pretty abysmal Cruze into an unsung performance hero? No. Next.

Renault Megane World Series

Once a key feeder series by Formula 1, the World Series by Renault featured a field of snorty V8-powered open-wheelers that weren’t that much slower than the machinery found in the really big leagues. So, any road car inspired by this championship must have been pretty serious, right?

Erm, yeah, about that. This is the Megane World Series, which may have looked sporty with its chunky bodykit, centre-exit exhaust and World Series badging, but was in fact nothing more than a visual overhaul for the standard Megane. Engines? Either a 108bhp petrol, or a 105bhp diesel. The Clio got the same treatment with a range of equally non-sporty engines.

Abarth F595

When this 2021 special edition of the regular 595 was launched, Abarth proudly proclaimed that it had the engine from a Formula 4 racing car. And yes, technically, it does. That’s because the cars in the Italian Formula 4 Championship use the same 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder that Abarth’s hotted-up Fiat 500s had been using since 2008.

In addition to the usual visual tweaks – in this case, lots of blue – the F595 did actually get a retuned version of Abarth’s delightfully rorty Record Monza exhaust. The F4 link, though, was tenuous as they get, and nobody saw this as anything other than yet another special edition designed to drag out the life of the ancient Abarth 500.