- Hey y'all, today I
want to discuss something that really grinds my gears
and downright gets my goat. The fact that there are tons and tons of sick cars sold practically
everywhere else in the world that were never available in the US. I'm talking turbocharged,
four-wheel drive hatchbacks, station wagons that make
all kinds of V8 noises, race-ready super cars and even trucks. Trucks! We freaking love trucks in America. So why did some of our
favorite car companies neglect to make some of our favorite
cars available to us? Today I'm gonna explore
10 of the best cars we never got in America, as
well as some of the reasons why we never got them. So, wash your hands and lock your doors, this is my brand new show
because we was bored. This is D-List. - [Narrator] Number 10. - First stop, we got
the Holden Maloo R8 LSA. A 6.2 liter, supercharged,
V8-powered truck with a muscle car front that we didn't get in America. Now this bright green,
sheep rustling machine produces 583 horsepower. And did I mention? It's got a freaking truck bed. So, surely it would be
available in the US. Correct? - [Narrator] Access denied. - So, why didn't we get it? Chickens. The Chicken Tax is a 25%
import tariff imposed way back in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as a retaliation to
France and West Germany placing their own tariff
on US exported chickens. Now the Chicken Tax applied
to foreign-produced trucks as well as potato starch,
dextrin, and brandy. Now that same year, the tax was lifted on everything but the trucks. And the Truck Tax remains to this day. So that is one of the reasons
that you don't own a Holden. But the biggest reason
you can't own a Holden is because their owners, GM, have decided that after 160 years, they will
be retiring the Holden brand in 2020 and ceasing all production. That's right. Holden is owned by an American company and has been since like the '30s, but still, we didn't ever get any. Okay yeah, I know, technically
we did get some Holdens with American badges on
them like the Pontiac G8. But, they didn't have that sick badge and none of them had a truck bed. But brace yourselves guys and gals because this isn't even the
only American car on this list. - [Narrator] Number nine, Ford RS200. - Now this one, this
one really stinks Ford. Our very own Ford, Detroit's favorite son, produced the RS200, a road going version of their legendary
mid-80s Group B rally car that you could buy and drive on the street as long as you didn't live in America. Now this car was what's known
as a homologation special. Essentially, a race car
made legal for road use and sold in extremely limited numbers in order to convince the
racing governing bodies that the car is a production car and not a race car
developed purely for racing. Although, I want to make it very clear. That is exactly what all of them were. Now much like the rally car version that it homologated, this little boy toy had a mid-engine, all-wheel
drive configuration, and retained many of the same
ultra cool, ultra strong, lightweight race car parts. It was conceived and
built by Ford in the UK, and was powered by a 1.8 liter, turbocharged four cylinder engine that came from legendary tuners. Cosworth. Now in base form, it
produced 250 horsepower, but here's the thing. You can order it from the factory with a bunch of the
technically, not exactly, strictly Go Rally stuff in it which reportedly brought the power up to over 350 horsepower in the '80s. Look at how small this thing is. That's certified bonkers. Certified bonkers. It had a 5 speed manual transmission and not one, not two, but three
limited slip differentials. One up front, one at the
rear, and one in the middle. Now I'm not a science man. So I'm not sure if that's
not enough or too many. But, it does sound very cool. Only 146 of these cars were ever made. Some have been imported
all over the world. And honestly, a lot of them have crashed. But while I'm on the subject, allow me to reel off a few more
homologation specials which we, unlucky Americans, did not get. - [Narrator] Number 8, Lancia Stratos. - Now the Lancia Stratos
was arguably the first car ever designed specifically
to be a rally car in a race on mixed surfaces. This terrifying, to-drive
hatchback was homologated in crazy low numbers
to allow it to compete in the World Rally Championship in 1970s. Designed by legendary
designer Marcello Gandini. during his time in Italian
styling house Bertone. It was powered by a 2.4
liter Ferrari V6 poured from the Dino which produced 190 horsepower, and can
launch the car from zero to 60 on practically any surface in 6.8 seconds. Which, let me tell you, was fast for the '70s. Fun fact. At one point, the Stratos was the shortest production
car in the world. Now let me tell you. In terms of racing, the Lancia
was a phenomenal success. I mean, how could it not be? Everything it was racing
against, was basically a heavily-modified economy car. But this boy was especially built to race on gravel, dirt, tarmac, and as a result, it cleaned the F up. Winning the World Rally
Championships in 1974, '75 and '76. Step off Doctor Disrespect. Because this is the three-time. Now the Stratos is truly, truly one of the greatest race cars of all time. And not to mention a design
icon just like Nolan. 500 cars were made, all sold in Europe, and ever since we kicked England's butt in 1776, America ain't part of Europe. So yeah, we did not get them. Another rally car we didn't get is-- - [Narrator] Number
seven, Renault 5 Turbo. - Another icon of world
rally for over a decade. The Renault 5 started out as
a plucky, gutless little car for French peasants and farm workers. But then one day with the
rallying on the brains, some crazy SOB decided to cut a whole in the floor and mounted
turbocharged 1.4 liter engine in the middle of the car. Most mid-engine cars don't look like this. I mean, who was that guy? To find out, check out our
Up To Speed episode, right. Renault were supposed to build 400 of these homologation specials in order to qualify the car to race, but demand was so fierce that they ended up
building close to 2,000, and guess what, we got
aversion in the States. Of course it didn't have a turbo, the engine was in the front,
and it only made 51 horsepower. So, whomp, whomp. Which brings me to the next reason some cars don't make
it into American soil. And that has to do with marketing. Now during a car's development,
the marketing department of the manufacturer will
take the temperature of the car market in different countries, and decide if there's enough interest to cover their investment in said market. Now there were no 5 Turbo, and other really fast awesome cars like it are expensive to make. So if Renault was gonna sell
the Renault 5 Turbo here, they'd have to sell a lot more of the base Renault 5s
just to cover the cost. Now in America, the R5
was known as Le Car. And it did not do very well at all. We didn't buy Le Car, therefore we didn't get Renault 5 Turbo. Basically, it's our own damn fault. - [Narrator] Number six, Porsche 993 GT2. - Now the 993 variant of the Porsche 911 is, in my opinion, the best looking 911. And it was the last air-cooled model before things got a little watery. We got the Carrera S and Turbo S models. Although, the GT2 was the
top dog performance-wise. Arguably, the pinnacle of
air-cooled Porsche performance. It was a version of the 993
Turbo derived from racing, and the FIA's GT2 category. Basically, it's the pinnacle
of where sports cars can race. The FIA had placed a virtual
ban on all all-wheel drive due to Audi's dominance
across all platforms with the introduction of
Quattro all-wheel drive. And so, 993 GT2 was a
rear-engined, rear-wheel drive car that weighed 2,855 pounds and produced an absolutely belly button
tingling 444 horsepower. Now the 993 GT2 is probably
my favorite Porsche, but they're a little bit
out of my price range. Our next car is what I have
deemed my attainable dream car. I want one so bad. It's an Audi with a five cylinder engine, which I love, I got one going in my Golf, that's covered in Porsche parts. - [Narrator] Number five, Audi RS2 Avant. - Audi's made a lot of fast wagons. But the car that started
their fast wagon legacy was the tough, little boxy boy with a sweet performance creds which sadly, we never got over in America. The 1994 Audi RS2 Avant was the first Audi to carry the RS badge. What's even cooler than that? It was jointly developed
and built by Porsche. A ton of parts on this car
came directly from a 911. All right? Now look at a Porsche 964, okay? Now look at an Audi RS2. They got the same wheels,
they got the same mirrors, they got the same weird
wrap around turn signals. The break calipers even say
Porsche on it for crap sakes. I love this car so much that
I wish it was my daughter. The engine is a 2.2 liter, inline 5 from which Audi produce 311 horsepower and 308 pound-feet of torque. All of which was set down to the ground via the legendary rally
derived Audi Quattro all-wheel drive system. It's like they took all my
favorite things from Audi. Five cylinder motors, turbos,
all-wheel drive, hatchbacks, and all of my favorite
things from the 993 Porsche. The mirrors, the wheels, the
brakes, and the side markers. Now this car would do
zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.8 seconds. And had it not unfast top
speed of 166 miles per. It's zero to 62 because
it was probably measured in kilometers, zero to 100. Now this truly was the
first fast Euro wagon, and kicked off the trend for all the awesome fast family
hollers that we have today. I'm talking about M5,
Volvo V70R, Cadillac CTS-V. None of those boys would even
exist without the Audi RS2. I want one so bad, you guys. Speaking of turbocharged
cars with all-wheel drive, you knew it was coming. - [Narrator] Number four,
Nissan Skyline GT-R. - Now I wasn't even gonna
include a Skyline on this list. Because I feel like we talk
about them so much on Donut. Also, there's a ton of generations, and I like all of them for
very different reasons. But I decided to include the R33 GT-R because as of January 2020,
you can now legally import them in the US. It is such a '90s Jdm Poster car, and was powered by twin
turbocharged 2.6 liter, inline 6 which produced 276
horsepower at 6,800 RPM. Now that engine was carried over from the arguably more influential R32, but the R33 was more
aerodynamic and faster. Do you guys remember when
you're playing PlayStation and you saw a Skyline for the first time and you we're like, "Why
is this Maximus so fast?" Didn't make any freaking sense. Because they were never sold here. But why? Well, this brings me to the main reason that the R33 GT-R and
most of the other cars on this list don't make it here. Regulations. Basically, 99.9% of the countries in the world make their cars
to a safety standard made up by the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe. Now US has its very own set of rules. And that's why we have worse
taillights, uglier bumpers, stricter emission standards. But it goes deeper than just emissions. We're not out here trying
to save the world, okay? Now some people say these
different regulations could be a form of a
non-tariff trade barrier. Basically, US is making
it financially ineffective for foreign automakers
to import their cars so that we'll just buy American cars. So if a car company wants
to bring a car here, they got to know that they're
gonna sell a ton of them. And sadly, that doesn't often happen for high performance, low
volume production cars like the GT-R family. So basically, at the end of the
day, we didn't get the GT-Rs or mostly other cars on this
list because of politics. But sometimes, a company
has already federalized, say, the sedan version
of a car and they neglect to give us the arguably
cooler wagon version. Just out of pure spite. Such as the case-- - [Narrator] With number
three, BMW E61 M5 Touring. - Now BMW deciding not
to make a wagon variant of their current or previous M5, this is the last fast M5
wagon that you can own. It's powered by naturally-aspirated V10, and a 7 speed manual transmission, developed import by the
BMW Sauber Formula 1 Team. And during its production run, it was the fastest wagon in the world with the ability to top
out at 190 miles per hour if you ordered it with
the M performance package from the factory. Now America got around 8,800 M5s during the five years
this generation was made. But they were all sedans. Also known as E60s and none of them had the rad 7 speed manual transmission. We even got a base 5 series wagon here just without any M stuff. So you got this fun stuff,
and you got the wagon part, why don't just put them together for us? It's frustrating. Just over 1,000 E61 M5 wagons were built. And this one really annoys me because they brought over the sedan, okay? Our next car answers the question, "What do you buy if you think "that the Ferrari Enzo is really tight "but it's just not fancy enough for you?" Well you get yourself-- - [Narrator] Number two, Maserati MC12. - Yes, this is a simultaneously more fancy and more race car version of Ferrari Enzo, and somehow, it's only the
second fanciest car on the list. The fanciest is the next one. But first, the MC12. One of the most underappreciated
homologation specials of all time, the Maserati
MC12 was like I said a redesigned version of
the legendary Ferrari Enzo. It was made explicitly for the purpose of returning Maserati
to the podium in racing some 40 years after the
last meaningful campaigns with the legendary Tipo 61 Birdcages. Now at that time, Ferrari and Maserati were both owned by Fiat, and the decision was made for Ferrari to share the Enzo road
car platform with Maserati to help their bros out. Maserati and their designer,
American, Frank Stephenson, were allowed to change the bodywork and dimensions of the car,
but they weren't allowed to touch the 6 liter,
naturally-aspirated Ferrari V12 engine which had been limited by Ferrari in order to ensure that the Enzo would always just be slightly superior. That's such a Ferrari move. The Maserati still made 621 horsepower, only 29 shy of the Enzo's 650. And interestingly,
lapped one second quicker round the Nurburgring than
the Ferrari during testing. And though the €600,000 price tag dictated that on the inside, the
Maserati be luxuriously anointed with Alcantara® and leather
pretty much everywhere, these things were incredibly powerful and had a reputation
for being hard to manage on the open road. I mean, because duh. The MC12 was totally dominant in FIA GT. Basically, again, that's where cars based on amazing road cars go to race. It won 40 races, 16 titles, two
constructors' championships, and six drivers' championships. When I die, this is the car I want. I'm gonna be up in heaven with
Tupac, and Carroll Shelby, and we all have Maseratis
and we're drag racing just from light to light in heaven Paris. We all just got babes on our arms, or going to David Bowie's house for party. But we're responsible
though, so after the party, we're gonna leave out
MC12s at Bowie's house, and have my chauffer pick me up in the fanciest car the
planet has ever seen and the number ne car on this list. - [Narrator] Number one, Toyota Century. - That's right, you
didn't see that coming. The fanciest car in the
world is a freaking Yota boy. Our D-List is crowned by what I think is one of the coolest cars ever produced and sold outside of the United States. Period. This is a car so cool, so exclusive, that Toyota literally chooses
who they want to sell it to. A car so timeless, it is
owned by Japanese royalty. A car so luxuriously appointed, it would be embarrassing
to be seen driving it when you could be being driven in it. There have been three
generations of the Century. The first was a V8 powered sedan, and that was offered from
1967 all the way through 1997. That's 30 years. That's longer than Nolan. Then from '97 to 2007, the Century took on significant updates
including a total redesign and most importantly, a V12 engine. That's right, a Japanese V12. This was an engine so significant
and important to Toyota that not even Lexus was
allowed to borrow it and use in any of their vehicles. The newest Century is
powered by a V8 again, but this time it has the
Lexus LS Hybrid system, and the price begins at
a cool 19,844,370 yen. In dollars, that's about 180,000 bucks. It's classy, it's classy. Pure freaking class. Now where a Rolls Royce fandoms interior is lined with a skin of 17 Scottish cattle who've never been bitten by a mosquito or even seen a barb wire fence for fears that they could
mark their perfect hides. The Century's interiors
laden with miles and miles of soft, breathable, not
squeaky when you're sweaty wool. The car is hand-painted and
there's only four people in the world who Toyota
deemed skilled enough to apply the seven coats of lacquer which comprised the form, the
Century's mirror-like sheen. The hood ornament. A celestial rooster named Ho-o. Oh, hello Ho-o. Hello James. Well, thank you for stopping by today. No problem, James. And it takes 45 days to carve. The interior wood paneling
is sanded for 15 hours to ensure the perfect fit and finish. All panels are assembled and
finished completely by hand. This car is a work of art, guys. Less than 10% of Century
owners will ever sit behind the wheel of their
car according to Toyota. Which is why so much time and
effort is spent making sure that the interior is a
symphony of form and function. Think Rolls Royce but classier. Now recently, someone asked Toyota if they ever plan to sell
the most luxurious vehicle outside of Japan. And Toyota engineer, Masato
Tanabe, answered "No. "No." That's cool. That's cool, that's cool,
that's cool, that's cool. A total of 27 Centuries
have ever been sold to people outside of Japan. And I'm talking new,
not like second market. Some of them were to Germany, some of them were to Australians, a couple British ones, and some
in the United Arab Emirates. But legend has it, if you live
anywhere near Plano, Texas, and you're very very lucky and treat your mother very well, you might catch a glimpse of Ho-o on the front of a Toyota Century which has been imported
under special immunity in order to chauffer
visiting Toyota executives from the airport to
Toyota North America HQ. Okay, that was the first
episode of the D-List. Every week, me and my boy, Max, and the rest of the Donut crew are gonna bring you a list. Basically, it's a list of car stuff that we're gonna bring you every week while we're all stuck in our
garages and living rooms, and definitely, definitely
after we're all allowed to get back to normal, there's a lot of new stuff coming from Donut. We are not slowing down. Make sure you don't miss any of that. Make sure you hit that subscribe button, and follow us across all
social media @donutmedia. Follow me on Instagram and
Twitter @jamespumphrey. We got some new merch
up, go to donutmedia.com. Boost Creeps shirts are alive. They're, honestly, the
coolest shirt we've ever made. I love you.
