The torque steer on those things is unbelievable, they are really unsafe but a lot of fun. I drove one that had 'only' 160 HP according to the owner and it was incredible. Cars like that will get you shrinkwrapped but you will be smiling...
Classic Mini that meet with an bad end really do look like that, it is unfortunately very descriptive. Issigonis created an icon, and John Cooper improved substantially on it. Incidentally, one of Cooper's creations, the 'Twini' nearly killed him:
I've driven a lot of weird and interesting cars but none quite that scary. It felt borderline out of control all the time and I was happy to return it to the owner with all the parts still attached.
The 'worst' mini I owned was a souped up Innocenti bored out to the max, it was still fairly safe to drive but I would not let non experienced mini drivers others drive it, too many surprise factors. We drove that thing through Scotland (my eldest and me) and it was a trip to remember.
Another interesting one - that I didn't drive but the son of the owner did - was a TR with a massive Ford special products V8 shoehorned into it. If you live in eastern Canada and you're overtaken by something small and wicked fast with 'BAD TR' as the license plate, that was it. Getting in the passenger seat of that thing was an interesting experience, the engine took up half the footwell, and the clutch had so little throw that you couldn't really tell when it was depressed and when it wasn't. It certainly moved though.
Capri 2.8i is a practical classic. You could drive it every day. Convert it to run on LPG, and you could drive it in most city centres, blast right through that Low Emission Zone, wafting out warm carbon dioxide and water vapour and (at least in theory) cleaning up some of the oily sulphurous stink of diesel bus engines.
Porsche 911 Turbo is not just dangerous, it's actively trying to kill you. The engine is at the wrong end so it doesn't handle (if you throw a dart feathers-first at the dart board, it'll try to flip round in the air so the heavy end is at the front), and the turbo lag and very "peaky" cam gives you a throttle response of <STOMP> nothing, nothing, faint whistling, WWWAAAAAAAAH WE'RE BACKWARDS THROUGH THE HEDGE.
