10 Limited Edition Cars that Made an Impact

Limited edition cars come in a number of categories, ranging from the sticker packages of the 80s all the way up to the one-off ultra-luxury models priced in the millions.  Along the way, a number of these limited edition made an out-sized impact on the auto industry, extending their influence far beyond what their low production numbers would suggest.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of these automobiles featured hard hitting performance, and in some cases offered a preview of what would be coming next from the brand in question.  Sometimes, however, there was a bit of whimsy, heritage, or 'look at me' spirit behind a limited edition car that attracted everyone's attention for reasons other than horsepower. 

Let's take a quick look at 10 limited edition cars that have made an impact on the auto industry.

1.  BMW 1 Series M Coupe

The BMW 1 Series M Coupe, or 1M as it was also known, started out as a throwback to the kind of lightweight compact car that the German brand was once celebrated for.  What ended up happening was the canonization of the 1M as perhaps the best-driving BMW to have been built in the new millennium.  Credit goes to the 1 Series M Coupe's phenomenally responsive suspension system, its 335 horsepower, 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight six engine, its low-mass design, and its six-speed manual transmission.  Each of these features helped to maximize driver involvement and make you forget that the 1M was never truly an 'M' car but rather a side project from the same engineers who built the BMW M3 and the BMW M5.  Only 983 examples of 1 Series M Coupe were sold in North America, and exclusively during the 2011 model year.

2.  Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition

The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 has always been the motorsports-oriented edition of GM's high performance coupe, but the Carbon Limited Edition took things in an even more hardcore direction in 2011.  The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition added the carbon ceramic brakes, adaptive magnetic suspension system, and the carbon fiber body panels and aero kit that were previously restricted to the high-buck Corvette ZR1, creating a potent package for the track.  Under the hood, the Carbon Limited Edition maintained the standard Corvette Z06's 7.0-liter V-8, but this was hardly something to complain about as it produced 505 horsepower and was hitched to a six-speed manual transmission.  500 versions of this race-ready Corvette were built in total.

3.  Ford Mustang Cobra R

The Ford Mustang Cobra R is a limited edition car you may never have heard of, for even though the Mustang is a sales leader for the Blue Oval, only 300 Cobra Rs were ever built.  There's a definite reason for that, as the 2000 Ford Mustang Cobra R was a thinly-disguised, stripped-down race car that just happened to be barely street legal.  In addition to sound deadening and comfort features such as air conditioning being missing from the Cobra R's features list (in a bid to keep weight down), the coupe didn't even come with a back seat.  A huge fixed wing on the trunk was present and accounted for, however, as was a 5.4-liter V-8 engine under the hood (mated to a six-speed manual transmission).  With 385 horsepower on tap, the Cobra R was the most powerful Mustang sold up to that point.

4.  Lamborghini Veneno

The Lamborghini Veneno was built to celebrate the 50th year in business for the Italian powerhouse.  Anniversaries are a fairly common instigator in the limited edition car universe, but far harder to find are vehicles with the sheer visual impact and performance punch of the Lamborghini Veneno, which wore an ultra-extroverted design from a company not exactly known for building shrinking violets.  Looking a bit like the Batmobile - especially from behind - the Veneno barked 740 horsepower out of a 6.5-liter V-12 on its way to a top speed of 221 miles per hour.  A seven-speed single-clutch automated manual transmission and standard all-wheel drive are on hand to try to keep the Lamborghini under control, and only a handful were built at $4 million a pop.

5.  Mazda MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition

The Mazda MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition is also a commemorative limited edition car, although one that's more modest in nearly even sense of the word.  Built for the 2015 model year to presage the arrival of the completely redesigned Miata in 2016, the Mazda MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition offers Soul Red Metallic paint, a black retractable hardtop, special 17-inch rims, leather trim, and special badging along with a serial number to indicate just how rare the roadster is.  Only 100 of these Miatas were sold in the US, and they served to put an exclamation mark on just how successful the compact convertible has been in cementing Mazda's sporty reputation in America.

6.  Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer

Sometimes you want to go fast, and other times you simply want to bludgeon the speedometer to death with sheer brute force.  The Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer falls into the latter camp, an E-Class sedan gifted with a 355 horsepower, 5.5-liter V-8 that's also good for 388 lb-ft of torque.  Those numbers might no sound all that impressive today but back in the late 80s when the Hammer reigned supreme it was good enough to claim the title of the world's quickest four-door car.  As fast as a Ferrari Testarossa in its day, the Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer also had the handling to back up its ferocious acceleration (which could take it up to a 180-mph top speed).  Just under 30 of these super sedans were ever released into the wild.

7.  Scion Release Series

The Scion Release Series family of cars is far too broad to narrow down to just one.  How could we decide between the cube-like Scion xB RS 10.0, the aero-inspired Scion FR-S RS 1.0, or the stylish Scion tC RS 9.0?  Each of these models was given a unique personality from the extensive Scion accessories catalog, and was then made available for a limited time, and in small numbers.  As you might have been able to tell by the number after the RS designation, Scion has been at this game for a long time, but fans still get excited when a new Release Series model is announced.

8.  Aston Martin One-77

Aston Martin is no stranger to building world-class cars, but the One-77 is on a different level.  Only 77 editions of the Aston Martin One-77 have hit the streets since production began in 2012, and no, that number isn't a coincidence.  What makes the coupe so special?  How about its 750 horsepower, 7.3-liter 12-cylinder engine, or its 220-mph top speed, or maybe its height-adjustable suspension system and carbon ceramic brakes?  The One-77's chassis also happens to have carbon fiber monocoque, which is the holy grail at the intersection of lightness and strength in automotive design.  With a price tag of $1.4 million, it's a wonder Aston Martin didn't name it the One-144 and double down on demand for this supercar.

9.  Nissan Juke-R

What happens when you take the smallest crossover in the Nissan fleet and then stuff the most powerful engine in the automaker's portfolio?  You end up with the Nissan Juke-R, one of the craziest, quickest, and perhaps scariest SUVs on the planet.  The all-wheel drive Juke R's 3.8-liter, GT-R-sourced twin-turbo V-6 grinds 485 horsepower from its 3.8-liters of displacement, allowing the six-cylinder crossover to hit 60-mph in under four seconds.  Enormous fender flares, huge tires, and a dramatically revamped chassis keep the Juke-R under some semblance of control, but it's no wonder that this vehicle was built in such a limited edition (21 examples), as it offers one of the more violent rides of the last decade.

Photo by Megan Green

10.  Volkswagen R32

Long before we had the Golf R gracing American shores there was the Volkswagen Golf R32.  Produced between 2002 and 2005, the Golf R32 introduced a U.S. audience to the concept of an all-wheel drive version of the hatchback, and it also dropped a 3.2-liter V-6 between the front fenders where it produced 237 horsepower and 236 lb-ft of torque.  A six-speed manual was the only gearbox offered with the R32 on this side of the Atlantic, and while the car wasn't all that much faster than the already-quick GTI it became a cult classic, with the 5,000 models sold during its entire production run helping to convince Volkswagen to keep refining the all-wheel drive hatchback concept at the core of the car.