{"id":2047470,"date":"2026-07-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2047470"},"modified":"2026-07-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:00:00","slug":"a-bulbous-wart-why-the-1-1-litre-porsche-c88-was-an-epic-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2047470","title":{"rendered":"‘A bulbous wart’: why the 1.1-litre Porsche C88 was an Epic Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Porsche. For the past seven decades, the name has represented engineering excellence. Even Stuttgart\u2019s most workaday offers have always been imbued with genuine dynamic depth, the sense they were created by folk with a pathological obsession for mechanical integrity and driving excitement.<\/p>\n

Then again, the C88.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Yes, this bulbous wart you see before you is indeed a Porsche. Specifically it\u2019s 1994\u2019s C88, a prototype that mercifully never made it beyond that phase.<\/p>\n

In Porsche\u2019s defence, the C88 was fishing in unfamiliar waters. In the early \u201990s, China\u2019s ruling party decided it was about time their country had its own people\u2019s car: a Chinese answer to the VW Beetle or Citroen 2CV. It invited Western carmakers to submit their proposals, the winning design to be built as a joint venture with a Chinese state-owned firm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Porsche \u2013 perhaps briefly forgetting it was, y\u2019know, Porsche \u2013 was one of the manufacturers to answer the call. Sometimes it\u2019s OK to leave those calls unanswered, lads.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get Epic Fail wrong. Epic Fail loves a cheap and cheerful car. An econobox shot through with Porsche\u2019s legendary attention to detail could have been a great thing. The C88 was not a great thing. It was a budget three-box that rode on 15in steel wheels, eschewing any Porsche styling cues in favour of a bold new \u2018suppressing trapped wind\u2019 aesthetic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The jacked ride height was aimed at taming China\u2019s potholed roads, while the 48bhp, 1.1-litre 4cyl engine was aimed at taming any driver excitement. Porsche boasted the design was done in four months. Quite what took it so long is unclear.<\/p>\n

China abruptly cancelled the people\u2019s car project in 1995. Some suggested it had been a devious scheme to extract ideas from Europe\u2019s finest auto designers and engineers for free. If so, China apparently looked at the C88 and decided even \u2018free\u2019 wasn\u2019t cheap enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Porsche. For the past seven decades, the name has represented engineering excellence. Even Stuttgart\u2019s most workaday offers have always been imbued with genuine dynamic depth, the sense they were created by folk with a pathological obsession for mechanical integrity and driving excitement. Then again, the C88. Yes, this bulbous wart you see before you is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2047470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2047470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2047470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2047470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2047470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}