Posted on 09/15/2017 9:14:09 PM PDT by 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.
Car Ping.
A friend of mine in high school had a 1953 Kaiser. He kept a chunk of concrete curbing in the trunk to make it look lowered. The back of the sedan opened up to form a sort of station wagon. The car had overdrive such that he could get sixty mph out of first gear.
Postwar German “tricycle” pickup truck. Think the British Reliant Robin, but as a trucklet.
When I was three I drove a Studebaker President down the driveway.
I didn’t drive one, but the weirdest vehicles I’ve encountered were old Russian two cylinder trucks in (previously) North Vietnam. Noisy as hell and top speed probably about 8 miles per hour. Little things.
Ping.
The other side of the "weird coin" - De Tomaso Pantera. It actually has some of the same bad characteristics as the DeLorean, but wrapped in a more classic exotic-car design (and with a heaping helping of Ford Cleveland V8 power).
The weirdest car for me, was the cop car that swerved off the road and totaled itself on the curb while taking me to jail on false charges.
Just saying, that was weird.
I think something like that was featured in one of the Pink Panther films of the '70s.
Something tells me that there is a helluva backstory there.
Before I knew about or could afford snow tires, my almost-first-car was a (rear wheel drive) Triumph Spitfire with a floor that was rusting away, which I drove in Quebec year-round. The holes in the floor were perfect for getting rid of cigarettes, for getting just enough snow on my loafers and for that carbon monoxide “mellow” that was part of the zeitgeist. This was before “drifting” was a “thing:” When mastering 180s from black ice to the mushy stuff was a matter of life and death, and when EVERYTHING was beautiful.
The Pantera, to me, had an air of Badassery about it.
Hillman Mynx (my first car - cost $75). Four speed on the column: first gear up and away from you; second gear straight down; third gear up and TOWARDS you; fourth gear straight down.
Weird, yes.
When I got to Japan in 1958 there were a lot of “tricycle” pickup trucks being used there. I think the switch to traditional four wheels was when they wanted to export pickups.
Yep, a very weird and crazy one for me. It's a campfire story for a couple beers. I got the cop so pissed off he crashed his patrol car.
Luckily, I've always been stronger than anything life can throw at me.
I knew a guy who had an old 1970s Subaru that was like that (i.e. Swiss cheese floorboard).
King Midget that belonged to a friend of my sister.
Yep, it was sort of the 427 Cobra of Italian exotic cars.
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