Weirdest Car

Y'all | 15 Spetember 2017 | Me, myself, and I

[Army Air Corps]

Calling all motorheads: what is the weirdest, most oddball car, truck, or van that you have ever driven? The "weirdness" can be anything from exterior design, to mechanical features, to the interior. Have at it, FRiends.

[Axenolith]

The “Ridge Runner”.
A Grandfather on moms side creation that was conceived in the late 1940’s and built out in the 50’s. It’s been altered occasionally up until the 2000’s mainly with convenience features like gun and chainsaw racks.

At the root it’s a 1946 4 cylinder air cooled Wisconsin haybailer motor that’s chain and gear connected into 2 welded together Pontiac transmissions so it has about 13 or so forward gears and 4 or 5 reverse. The power is delivered to Pontiac rear ends front and back with cable steering in the front so it has a turning radius somewhere between a battleship and a heavy cruiser.

The driver and front passenger seats are from the Renault (that’s pronounced Ren-Alt in the south) Dauphine that Grandpap had before he was rear ended by a lady in a 57 Cadillac. Think stomping a beer can with a mouse in it, but he came out relatively unscathed.

Another junkyard Renault seat can mount in front of the engine, and sitting in it you rest your feet on the earth moving blade made of boilerplate and you hang on via right and left brass handholds that were the door handles from some church in the D.C. area.

A school bus seat will slot into the channel iron frame in back, and a platform behind that. Fully seated out it will carry 5 seated guys and two more standing on platform holding ropes, or 5 guys and 2 or 3 dead deer on the platform.

The blade for earth moving is raised and lowered through a Ford power steering unit running pressure into old shock absorbers as hydraulic pistons. The lever to raise and lower it is the lever that used to dispense chocolate onto Ho Ho’s in a Hostess bakery.

It has a big sprocket on the front of the motor shaft that you take a long bar with a “Y” at end spanned by chain, loop over, and push down hard to start. It’s kick proof, specifically designed as such from seeing people get their arms broken by early vehicle crank starters.

It hasn’t run since about 2010/11, a couple years before he passed away. It needs a magneto, and probably a thorough going over and de squirreling from sitting.

There is a metal plaque in the center of the main after engine cross member, it reads “Notice! Not insured, ride at your own risk!” :-)

[zot]

1939 Chrysler Saratoga 4-door sedan. I drove it in 1953. Black with brown fenders and running boards. 8.8 inch tires on 16 inch rims. Straight-eight engine about 6 feet long. Four-on-the floor with a thumb-switch that gave another whole range of gears (total of 6 forward and 2 reverse). Pull-knob under the dashboard for free-wheeling (no engine braking). Speedometer went to 150 mph. It was still accelerating at 120 mph when I realized it was going to take a LONG way to stop and chickened out. My brother tried to make a racer out of it and finally sold it for parts.

[Army Air Corps]

Truly a custom job!

[dsc]

“Was it a planned movement?”

It was what I intended to do. As I recall, the adults seemed a little agitated.

[John Milner]

As a 16 YO male with a brand new driver’s license I was game to drive anything. And that’s what I got to drive my first trip into town the following Saturday.

It was 1971. My father, who accumulated much questionable automobile junque had picked up a sorta nice looking 1963 Mercury Comet Caliete hardtop. Just a 6 cylinder but it did have the 4 speed and buckets and a 4 on the floor. Of course the 2nd gear was out, so you drove 1st, then 3rd, then 4th. No sweat!

Sadly, a month or so earlier he had been badly rear-ended and the trunk and taillight panel were badly V-ed. The trunk didn’t latch but it would stay down just because of the way it caught behind the bent trim of the taillight panel.

Evidently the collision also damaged something in the differential. When you went around a corner the differential would emit this very LOUD “CLUNK” and everyone within a half a block would look.

Drove it into town and back. Didn’t even care. A month or so later the differential clunked it’s last clunk and the Comet was no longer drivable.

The only other good story is the 1960 VW Beetle I was given to drive. One very cold Christmas driving to an Aunt and Uncle’s home with a couple younger brothers I distinctly remember scraping the frost off the INSIDE of the windshield as our breath moisture condensed and froze on the inside. Those cars had basically no heater. Except in the summer when the heat blasted out.

[Swordmaker]

My oddest car was "Kermit," my Green Frog, a 1968 Renault R16 I got When I was 20. I was firmly convinced that car would go from Sacramento to San Francisco on the fumes left in an empty gas tank. It was also one of the few front wheel drive cars produced at the time and driving it was hella fun. I once came done the road from Ice House Reservoir, a road for which the term hair-pin turns had to have been coined, most of which are posted at under 25MPH caution signs, and never got below 55 in Kermit because I never had to worry about what the back end was doing; I just pointed the front and accelerated through the turns! FUN! Also young and stupid.

Had to let Kermit go when Renault abandoned the US market and I had to order parts from France. . . If I couldn't find them in a wrecking yard.

It was the most comfortable car I ever owned. . . Leather plush seating like an overstuffed living room chair, but very odd, backwards controls. The radio was in the center console, under the arm rest. Turn signal stalk was on the left of the steering column, and the headlights were the first I had ever seen on the steering column. The French had a weird way of doing things. It was also considered the first "hatchback" car, in fact the word had not yet been coined so the auto press had trouble describing what the car was when the model was introduced for lack of a term to describe the R16.

[Army Air Corps]

A moment of silence for the passing of dear ol’ Kermit.

[RegulatorCountry]

Aesthetic judgments are a subjective matter. Many Americans would agree with you because it was and remains unconventional. But, auto enthusiasts the world over hold the DS (pronounced as the French would pronounce it, is also the word for “goddess” and they’re known as such) in very high esteem. People pay good money to go over to France for a tour in a chauffeured DS Pallas. They’re famously stout and versatile cars, as attested by the survival of Charles de Gaulle who was able to flee an attempted assassination in a DS at high speed with the tires shot out Yes, they’re weird to our eyes, but these cars are held in very high esteem and are a major automotive landmark as far as technical innovation. I’ll own one, one day, as I mentioned. I think they’re beautiful.

[Alas Babylon!]

We used to have these all over Southern Italy. I was flying down a quiet farm road one day in my F-150, doing about 80 MPH. There was one in the dip below the road grade I didn't see until ALMOST too late!

The Piaggio Ape, pronounced "App Ay".

[Bob434]

[[hands and knees on the floor crying out to God for mercy” level.]]

Exactly-

[[God help anyone who had it worse.]]

There are some really sad cases out there- much much worse than anything I’ve experienced

[Bob434]

Holy Cow- Now that is pain to the max

[Bob434]

thanks- My condition causes the stones I guess- plus eating the wrong things i found made it happen farm ore often- Salt in snack crackers and chips was a big culprit for me- (but oddly i can eat all the table salt i want)

[Bob434]

Oh I dunno about that- I think childbirth is pretty painful- but i do kid my sister and tell her “You women have no idea what pain is all about” Lol!

[Swordmaker]

For about 3 years n the mid 70’s I owned a Honda civic - 2 cylinder. It looks like a roller skate on wheels, had 2 cylinders. It was great on gas. I bought I from a young guy from Detroit who said he had paid 1800 new for it and when he bought it they were offering a buy one get one free deal.

In 1970 my dad bought my mom a used Red 67 Datsun 411 station wagon. It had a "SSS" added beneath the 411 emblem. In '74 when the added-on air conditioner failed, my dad decided to trade it in on a new "used" Datsun B210 sedan for mom. When they went to the Sacramento Datsun, the owner of the dealership went nuts over the '67 411. . . and offered my parents and even swap, their used '67 for a brand new, fully loaded '74 B210 sedan!

It turned out that, unknown to my dad, even though he'd been servicing and repairing that station wagon himself for years (and my dad was no slouch as a mechanic having been an aircraft mechanic) that "SSS" designation added to any Datsun insignia meant that the engine and transmission in that car were a special rally-built sports car engine and transmission combo, made by hand to far exceed the normal specifications of the engines put in regular Datsuns. Moreover, while all "SSS" designated Datsuns were usually special ordered sedans, sold for serious road rally racers, and extremely rare, the rarest of all were those built as station wagons for long distance rallies. There had been only about 5% of the SSS designated cars built as wagons.

So, my folks came home with a brand new Datsun B210 and kept their money in the bank, and instead of the $700 to $1000 trade in they expected for mom's old buggy, it paid for the new car!

It was the only new car my dad ever bought in his life! He was too thrifty to put up with the first fifty feet depreciation you experience when you turn a new car into a used car by driving it off the lot after buying it.

' The dealer restored their old wagon, put a rally stripe on it, and had it on the showroom floor for several months with a "Not For Sale" sign on it, until apparently some collector waved a wad of cash under his nose and whisked it away.

[usconservative]

Wait till you get your first kidney stone- you’ll be dropped by something smaller than a grain of rice lol

I've had four major lower back surgeries. I've no idea which is more painful, I can tell you I don't want to find out!

Actually, I'm still not sure which is more painful: the reason I needed those lower back surgeries in the first place (collapsed vertebrae, bad disc's, spinal injuries..) or the surgery itself. Yikes!

[Axenolith]

I had 2 -510’s and 2- B210’s back during college (at one time all together with the 70-1/2 camaro, 84 Trans AM and a 70 Plymouth Fury).

I delivered pizzas in the 510 wagon and the 4 door B210, the wagon I got from a guy that built 510’s for racing, it looked like crap and it was hilarious to hang with Detroit ponies on the windy back roads with its pirellis and 2 inch exhaust. I’d spray painted “Dirty Ole’ Datsun” on the sides. You could get a quick carb clean out by just taking the air cleaner off and putting your hand over the intake, you could see the gasoline boil in the glass sided carburetor float bowl when you did that :-)

I paid $100 for the 4 door B210, drove it 30k slinging ‘Za and sold it for 200. Last I saw it it had taken a terrible beating under new owner doing the same thing but it still purred along.

[gogeo]

OMG...a three door?

[DennisR]

You mean they made two of them??? Ha!

[Bob434]

yep- back pain is another terrible pain- I had problem with mine where i would ‘throw my back out’ - not sure what would happen, (probably just pinched nerve or pulled muscle or something) but it would be very painful- hard to get out of bed without help- but i can’t imagine crushed vertebra- just a ‘thrown back’ was plenty painful enough for me-

[Yaelle]

A vintage Wolseley.

My personal favorite was the MG Midget.