Driving by nature can be dangerous, but when an automaker adds power and sells a car as a sports car you quickly find out that there is more to the danger than you thought. Most of us don’t want to feel as if we’re taking our own life with any disregard when we step into our car to head out for the day or to go to the track and these cars weren’t meant to make us feel any less safe than any others, but they certainly have been considered to be some of the most dangerous cars on the road for a variety of reasons.
Dodge Viper – The Viper has been made without traction control or electronic stability control, both of which are needed in most modern day sports cars to ensure the safety of you and your passengers. These features help keep you from crashing due to an overcorrection, but the Viper has been built to be an extremely raw challenge to your abilities to drive. The other challenge to the drive is the massive V10 engine that offers you more horsepower than the average driver should ever have. If you choose the Viper make sure you’re ready; this is one car that will cost you quickly if you don’t know how to drive it.
AC-Shelby 427 Cobra – This car comes from an older generation than the Viper and is dangerous for most of the same reasons, but adds more to the equation. This car offers brakes that can only be described as from the Neanderthal days of automobiles, open bodywork, inadequate seat belts and a lack of airbags. This is a car that comes from a time when safety wasn’t considered a major concern because there weren’t nearly the number of drivers on the road as there are now. As amazing as this car is to admire and drive you need to add a few safety features to this car in order to have it ready to ride on today’s roads.
Early Porsche 911s – The 911 is a car that has been giving us joy with its signature looks and feel for over fifty years. In some of the original designs the engine was so far back it had most of the weight behind the rear wheels which, as we now know, is a horrible idea. This setup causes the rear end to get loos and then the entire car to swing around the main weighted area where the engine was seated. These cars take a lot of skill to master on a track, but they sure are fun to look at and drive.
Muscle Cars of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s – There was only one purpose in a muscle car of this era and that was to be the fastest car through a quarter-mile. The Detroit automakers developed massive and powerful engines well ahead of the proper components to control these massive blocks of steel. Many of these cars used drub brakes and didn’t have adequate springs to keep the car stable, but they could run fast and many of them could be worked on easily enough even by teenagers, making them extremely popular at the time and still admired today.
Volkswagen Beetle – While this is a car that doesn’t look menacing at all and was built with an engine that might easily be changed out with your push lawnmower the Beetle is one of the most dangerous cars that was ever built. Much of this comes from the fact the older Bugs had a swing axle suspension that could flip the car over on its roof if pushed too hard. While this suspension was the demise of the Chevrolet Corvair when Ralph Nader went after it, his crusade didn’t work on the Beetle because peopled loved this car, but it actually is a car that can be dangerous to drive, especially older models.
This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning a commission is given should you decide to make a purchase through these links, at no cost to you. All products shown are researched and tested to give an accurate review for you.