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.
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.
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.
King Midget that belonged to a friend of my sister.
My brother had a Simca that we had to push down the hill to get started—circa 1970.
It was a 1958 Thames van imported from England. A fairly roomy bus with a tiny engine.
IIRC this van was imported a year or so before the VW microbus hit the streets here.
It was a 1956 Cadillac Series 62 4-Door Sedan DeVille.
In terms of functionality, it was just what a young man needed. Roomy, comfortable, dependable and a cavernous back seat.
It did have one quirky feature.
It was covered in Gray Velvetex.
Yes - my car was "furry."
During the intervening years, I have been met with general skepticism and outright disbelief when I have described this car.
But I note with some satisfaction that what goes around comes around and what was old is now new again.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum...
I was 17 and our next door neighbor (WWII Army Veteran, POW) let me drive his 1959 pink Edsel convertible to take his daughter to the prom. I didn’t love the color, but it was a nice cruiser and she was a cutie. The girl, that is.
 Link 1 - Weirdest Cars (Not Melania's Car) (youtube link) |
 Link 2 - Weirdest Cars (Chasing Your Tail) (Google link) |
(Hope they bring a few smiles to you good people.) :-)
Lotus Europa. A good friend had one and to keep the driver rock steady for racing, the pedals had to be adjusted, not the seat.
I can still close my eyes and feel my husband’s Corvette’s shift knob. Horrible car in New England. The hood was so long that going up a slight hill on a curve made you totally blind. I had a Fiat Spyder and he and I would race on California mountain roads. He’d get me on the straightaways, but I could get him on the curves. Amazing we’re both still alive.
The car I had with my first husband was an MGB. He learned to race it with a book. He was a high energy physicist. The book said you learned to corner by taking city corners at higher speed than you’d expect. Of course, it also took the corners by breaking the back end loose. Thus the Fiat. Rock steady on curves. The MGB was hard to start in winter, so he would put a grill under it and cook it. Wheel base was narrow for Chicago streets, so in snow you had to drive with one wheel on the bump and one in the rut.
An original Morgan
never drove a weird car (although we briefly had a 3 cylinder Saab once) but saw some vids on youtube about three wheeled vehicles that were pretty weird (and unsafe to drive) awhile back the single wheel was in the back if i remember right- the car would topple over on sharp turns