The F1 Inspired Yamaha Supercar That Almost Made Production
Yamaha Motorsports manufactures almost everything with an engine, including ATVs, portable generators, and dirt bikes. But motorcycles are by far what the company is best known for. It's made historic bikes like the YZF series of sport bikes and, much like competitor Honda, has a full line of two-wheeled transportation ranging from a simple scooter to wild-eyed sport bikes for competition.
However, Yamaha has not had much of a history of making full cars, unlike Honda. But the company has contributed to automotive technology in quite a big way. It helped automakers like Ford in the past with developing a spicier engine choice for the Ford Taurus SHO back in the 1990s and had a large part in developing the Toyota 2000GT, but there has never been a Yamaha badged car on a large scale on the market. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Yamaha wanted to try manufacturing cars from scratch, but it didn't want to start small. Yamaha screamed out of the gate with a wild supercar with an otherworldly powerplant.
An F1 car with a license plate
Yamaha was an engine and parts supplier for Formula One from the 1980s until the 1990s and used that same tech to build a supercar. The result was the 1992 Yamaha OX99-11. It utilized a detuned Formula One 3.5-liter V12 engine that produced around 400 horsepower, an absolutely ridiculous figure for the time. But the power output was only part of the story. According to Motortrend, the engine had a redline of a staggering 10,000 RPM, more like a high-strung motorcycle than a supercar. For comparison, the turbocharged 2-liter four-cylinder in a Honda Civic Type-R redlines at only 7,000 rpm (via Honda)
Every bit of the car was unconventional. It had tandem seating like a fighter jet and had a massive spoiler on the front of the vehicle as opposed to the back, like most other racing-inspired cars. It was also incredibly light. According to Yamaha, it only weighed 1,000kg (2,204 pounds). The McLaren F1, another competing just-barely-road-legal racing car, weighed just over 2,500 pounds. The car was also completely handmade in the UK. Yamaha pulled out every conceivable stop to make this car.
But the OX99-11 was not meant to be. According to a press release from Yamaha, the global market was not in excellent shape when the company wanted to launch the car for the 1994 model year, forcing them to shelve the project.