2009’s best – worst? – tuner cars

2009 was, for good or evil, a vintage year for tuners. Massive bodykits, massive turbos, massive wheels, massive misjudgements: they arrived in their droves and we mocked them. Well, most of them. A few - a very select few - suggested that tuners might be learning a modicum of restraint. Most, however, were just horrible. Especially the Cayennes. So many Cayennes.

Click through our gallery for our 15 favourite - or least favourite, or something - tuned cars from 2009. In advance, our apologies to your eyes and sense of decency.

A massively tuned version of Merc's sort-of-off-roader that's capable of - ready? Sure? OK then - 211mph.

Thanks to a pair of bigger turbos and a few other tweaks, Enco has cranked the power up to around 700bhp and 627lb ft of torque.

Fancy a 214mph RS6 Avant, anyone? Then give MTM a call.

Bored of your Murcielago? Want it to look a bit more, erm, voluptuous?

We've seen a few tuned Panameras before, but never as extreme as this.

They call it the Largo, which sounds like a primary school insult for the wheezing lad who can't do cross-country.

Boss Christian Abt says the R8 is "not just intended to exist on paper, but also be available on the road", which we'd always assumed was a minimum requirement for a car.
 

Is this the most hideous car ever created? It just might be.

German tuner Manhart - and we are far too grown-up to make a joke about that name - has wedged a 5.0-litre, 550bhp BMW-sourced V10 into the BMW Z4.
 

We can't help applauding the sheer lunacy of taking a near-perfect supercar and trying to double its power.

You're looking at a 200mph convertible. When the roof's down, quite what happens to your face at that speed remains unclear.

Ever wondered what the offspring of an Imperial Storm Trooper and an Apple Mac mouse might look like?
 

The Z700 is to the standard ZR1 what the GT3 is to a 911: a pared-down, power-crazed version of itself.
 

Tuning firms have a habit of ruining things. Sometimes, though - just sometimes - they make a pretty good fist of things.

The Romanian tuning house has opted for a fetching widebody kit in a delicate shade of purple we like to call "Haemorrhoid Heliotrope".