The styling was a loose copy of the AWX-3, which was a still born project due to the Megatech takeover and later infringed by former company owner Wiegert after he initiated lawsuits and patented the designs to avoid them being reused.

The new owners, Megatech, hired designer Peter Stevens to create a more civilised and modern recreation of the AWX-3.

This differed from the twin-turbocharged Rodeck V8 engine in the W8 and the AWX-3, as they were considered to be too costly for series production of the new model.

[6] One of the M12 pre-production cars was converted to motorsport specification by the factory, but did not perform successfully due to mechanical problems.

[8] In a retrospective, CarThrottle described the M12 as a "botch job" and noted, "would-be customers found it hard to justify spending $189,000 on a canoe-bodied car that was slower, uglier and of lesser build-quality than [the Lamborghini Diablo].