Sorry Porsche fans, there is in fact a such thing as an ugly Porsche. Sure, it doesn't wear the brand's iconic crest emblem, nor did it never made production. In fact, the C88 wasn't even destined for the U.S. or Europe in the first place. So why is it even considered a Porsche? Blame Porsche's Engineering Services team, who developed this ungainly subcompact for the Chinese market within an impossibly short time window of just four months. The concept came after China challenged 20 foreign brands to create an affordable "people's car" to sell in its country, with the winner being produced in collaboration with domestic automaker FAW. Porsche debuted its entry at the 1994 Beijing Auto Show, and at the time it believed it could sell nearly half a million units per year.

Cosmetically, the C88 doesn't even try to look like a Porsche. Instead, it resembles the other bubbly small cars of the day, like the Ford Ka or Mazda 121. Despite its curvy theme, the rounded headlights found on every Porsche model since the brand's inception are nowhere to be found, with the headlights found on the C88 instead taking on a more irregular shape. Most of the concept's small dimensions are covered in black plastic cladding, and its spartan steel wheels are likely the smallest to ever adorn a Porsche. Overall, the C88's design is fairly simple, and its basic styling principles were even reused by Chinese production cars in the years that followed.

The C88's performance matched Porsche's sporty reputation just as well as its styling. In other words, it didn't match at all. Porsche used a 1.1-liter 4-cylinder engine for the C88, making for a 0-60 crawl of 16 seconds, though somehow it was capable of reaching 100 mph. The concept was equipped with a standard 5-speed manual, though Porsche was also going to offer an optional 4-speed automatic. The latter transmission would have come exclusively with a slightly larger 1.6-liter engine. Although the 'C' in its name literally stood for China (along with Cheap, Clean, and Comfort), Porsche had ambitious plans to export the C88 beyond the People's Republic.

In place of the iconic Porsche badge, a notable absence we mentioned earlier, the C88 wears its own unique logo that to us resembles a fidget spinner, though it was actually a reference to China's one-child policy. The exclusive badge indicates that if it did reach production, the C88 might not have been branded as a Porsche. It's only associated with Porsche because its own engineering sector developed the car, and chances are the company might have wanted to spin the C88 off into its own brand. This is further supported by the fact that Porsche actually developed a trio of concepts, but only one of which debuted as a working physical prototype.

In the end, the C88 never reached production. But it's not even because Porsche failed to win China's competition. It's actually because the competition was canceled altogether in 1995. This may be due to the market's loss of interest in cheap econoboxes such as the C88, as evidenced by the plethora of tech-laden EVs that travel Chinese roads today. But regardless of the reasons, China's decision to end the program left the Western manufacturers like Porsche completely in the dark. After the program's cancellation, Porsche attempted to sell the C88 to a multitude of companies from India, but to no avail. Eventually, Porsche decided to display the C88 as a one-off concept at its museum located in Stuttgart, Germany, which is where you'll still find it to this day.