Hi guys!

I love to collect automotive articles on rare prototype or production cars that usually flies below everyone's radar. Quirky cars that manufacturer thought it was a good idea at the time. So I've decided to start a thread solely dedicated to weird cars that I found on the internet and share it to all you gearhead folks.

I've set up some rules on what the article should be:

1. The car has to be made or commissioned by the manufacturer. I may consider boutique coachbuilders, but not straight up slapping bodykits & call it a day by tuning companies.

2. Pictures must be accompanied with some information. Pictures have a thousand words but they have a thousand questions if there's no explanation behind it.

3. Information must be cited & credited to the original source. This is not a make believe thread.

I'll be doing the write-up based on the info I find in Google search. The frequency of article posting will be IRREGULAR at best due to rarity of the models. I do this whenever I'm free.

If you find any inaccuracies or grammatical error.



A new article will be up in a few hours or less.

1997 FERRARI F40 YAMAHA AMI




A chibi Ferrari F40....there's no other way to put it really. There aren't much information about it other than it was based on Daihatsu Mira/Opti & possibly sold exclusively in Japan. Yamaha may have heavy involvement in automotive industry but you'll almost never see Yamaha badge on a car anywhere.



So...what the hell is this thing?

Well...it's a front engined, front wheel drive 1997 Yamaha AMi that comes in Red or Black with 2 choice of 659cc engine either 12-valve 55ps or 6-valve 42ps. Apparently this car had a limited sales to 600 units only.



I don't know Japanese language, but I assumed that the car comes with 3 trims where the top of the line gets a quadpipe exhaust & white wheels as in the brochure while normal gets a single pipe exhaust & normal alloy wheels.



I don't whether it's a homage to Ferrari F40 or they're just being weird. Who knew.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/yamaha-a...ery-49835.html#
http://www.banovsky.com/archive/yamaha-ami
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/you-....102203/page-44
http://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/113.../blog/34882378/

Sweet.

1982..or...1987 VOLVO 24...er...3?...Sedan...or Coupe...I don't know what to call this...




There are 2 stories to this, in which 1 of them sounds absurd & other probably made sense...i think.

Story 1

There was manufacturing error at Volvo's Belgium plant mixing 242 & 244 in which they ended up making 30 units of these hybrids. Since they were fully functional vehicles, Volvo thought it was a good idea to sell it to Estonia rather than turn it to waste.

Story 2

The owner of this particular car claimed that the cars were custom made specially for the Swedish Police force by the Volvo Special Vehicles division in very limited units. Assuming that the apprehended criminal has only one way access & prevent them from escaping the other door.

Whether there's some truth in it or not, I find the latter story made more sense than the 1st one.

http://jalopnik.com/5148730/ultra-rare-or-...w.google.com%2F
http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/94167
http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.ph...er-The-1982-243

1936 Mercedes Benz 170H



I know what you're thinking.

It's not a Volkswagen Beetle. It looks like a Volkswagen Beetle, but I'm telling you it's not a bloody Volkswagen Beetle. This car came out first 2 years before 1st Beetle did....ok Mr Porsche may have something to do with this during when he was working for Daimler in the 20s.



Headed by Hans Nibel, the Mercedes Benz 170H is the succesor of the unpopular Mercedes Benz 130 due to awkward handling thanks to extremely unbalance heavy rear axle. Now you would think the succesor have much needed improvement over the predecessor. It does...except for less trunk space & louder. Handling improved...slightly but it didn't help the sales.

The production ended in 1939.

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/...e-77-rearengine
http://www.rmsothebys.com/lf13/london/lots...-saloon/1062322
http://www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=85866

Totally not refuting that at all even though I posted a picture of a person holding a brochure & brochure contents.

Totally real.

This post has been edited by alpha0201: Sep 10 2015, 04:15 PM

1956 Volvo P1900 "Volvo Sport"



The 1956 Volvo P1900 isn't exactly Volvo proudest moment. The car was inspired by Chevrolet Corvette C1 when Assar Gabrielsson, former CEO & founder of Volvo went to USA & wanted to build something similar. The car construction were basically fiberglass body, tublar steel chassis & parts from Volvo PV444.

During the prototype testing, the car suffers quality build issues, ranging from cracked body, heavy vibrations, fluttering hood, water seeping into the trunk, premature brake fade...etc. Before the car even completed it's testing, the car were sold to the public as it was with little modification in later production that doesn't address the issue.

Then later when Gunnar Engellau took over Assar Gabrielsson's position, he took delivery of the car and took it for a drive. When he came back, he immediately ceased the P1900 production. He said, “The car vibrated so much that I thought the doors would fall off.”

Only 68 Volvo P1900 were built. On the bright side they started the P1800 development & end up becoming Volvo successful model.




http://www.volvoadventures.com/1900.html
https://www.motorbase.com/vehicle/profile/volvo-p1900/
http://oppositelock.kinja.com/cars-you-did...w.google.com%2F

It does come in multiple trims and 2 engine options. Plus the car being a replica is a bit far fetched for what it is.

Usually Japanese cars that are sold in their home country has pretty amazing or sometimes insane customization options directly from the manufacturer.

1942 L'Oeuf Electrique



L'Oeuf Electrique, which is in French, The Electric Egg built by French industrial designer Paul Arzen, is an electric powered (later petrol powered) car. The car is masterfully hand crafted aluminium body & plexi glass.



At the time, France was occupied by Nazi. They imposed restriction on fuel in order to supply for their army in which petrol weren't available for civilian use. So Arzen installed an electric motor & lots of batteries, bringing the weight to 300++kg from the initial weight of 60kg. The car was capable of travelling up to 100km in range, with a top speed up to 70kph.



Then later after the war, he replaced the electric motor with a Peugeot sourced 5.5hp 125cc engine. I wasn't able to find a solid info on the range & weight of the car after removing those batteries. I'm gonna assume the car is whole lot lighter than 300++kg.



The survived today & appeared in many exhibitions & museums around the world in original unrestored condition.



http://www.carstyling.ru/en/entry/Paul_Arz...gg/images/7641/
http://www.mister-cars.com/Article/Arzens-...ubble-Car/1272/
http://jalopnik.com/the-amazing-electric-e...w.google.com%2F
http://losorigenes.net/marcas/arzens/arzens.html
http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html#nabble-td4675345
http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/loeuf...-de-paul-arzens

Yes, Sultan Brunei 's car can be considered. But the car isn't belong to Sultan Brunei.

That car is (was) owned by some rich british build by Mumbai based design firm, DC Design. I'm not even sure if Rolls Royce themselves have any involvement.

1958 Sir Vival



Walter C. Jerome had a vision. To create a vehicle that would be a pioneer in innovation in vehicle safety technology. Unfortunately, his vision doesn't goes beyond tasteful appearance. The car seems to match the name which sound like a bad pun.

Sir Vival. Get it?...no...ok....



Hold on!

Before you judge the car by its look, this car has pretty clever engineering.



Having 2 seperate sections looks very odd, but in the case of frontal collision, the car would split apart, leaving passensers & drive with lower risk of injury & let the front section absorb the kinetic energy. 360 glass to ensure maximum visibility for the driver & a whole lot more safety innvation that you can view them in the link below.



The car was presented in couple of high profile world fair & appeared in magazines such as Motor Trend, Mechanix Illustration & Life magazine. Unfortunately, the look doesn't really help convincing people to buy one & the fact it cost $10,000. That's a lot of moolah in the 50s for a car.

That's pretty much killed his dream.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.my/2010/12/try...me-strange.html
http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/meet-...ar-future-wasnt

1969 Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3 Pininfarina Coupe



I'm sure you're wondering why this car is in this thread. It doesn't look weird at all. You're right. It doesn't. But the car have a weird history.

You see, neither Mercedes Benz nor Pininfarina wanted to acknowledge this car's existence. What the hell happen?



An anonymous Dutch customer wanted a coupe version of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3. Mercedes Benz declined his request. He purchased the sedan & sent it to Pininfarina design facility in Turin. Wheelbase and overall length remain unchanged while body receive extensive redesign. The end result is brilliant.



The owner of course, loved it. Same cannot be said with the rest of his family because the car make them sick due to oddly placed ventilation system where the exhaust fume entered the cabin. No one in the family wanted to inherit the car, so it was sold.

Now back to why both Mercedes Benz Pininfarina ignored this car. It's quite understandable why Mercedes Benz did what they did as they don't do special one-off vehicle for customer. As for Pininfarina, this get very interesting.

Pininfarina had a contract with Rolls Royce to produce the Carmague Coupe which later released in 1975. What does it have to do with the Mercedes Benz that they did?




The styling of the Carmaque Coupe has remarkable similarity with the Mercedes Benz. I think I can see why they swept it under the rug.

http://jalopnik.com/pininfarina-and-merced...kqnbJxnyozIeA.2
http://www.mercedesheritage.com/2013/07/on...ininfarina-6-3/
https://drive-my.com/en/test-drive/item/176...rina-coupe.html

200? Lada 2107M Classic 2



I'm not sure whether you remember the Lada Riva/Lada Nova/VAZ-2107 (Pic below). It is one of the longest production run vehicle along side with the VW Beetle & still in production in Egypt.



The car was spotted in Lada's Warehouse somewhere in Russia. I don't have any details about this car, apart from Lada had the intention to remodernize their ancient relic of the Soviet Union to remind the people that this car will drive you to the glorious future of the Father Land...ok that made no sense...sorry.



I'm not entire sure if Lada ever going to put it into production. I kinda like it to be honest.

http://englishrussia.com/2007/02/26/new-lada/
http://club.caradisiac.com/whealer/speedst...pt-5413181.html
http://www.retrothing.com/2007/02/a_classic_lada_.html

1956 Fuldamobil S-6



This german squee-mobile originally designed by Norbert Stevenson, a freelance newspaper journalist who took just one semester in mechanical engineering degree to avoid being drafted back to the front line of Nazi army. He approach couple of company to present his automotive designs, but none of them accepted him. You have to remember that a lot of people trying to get back on their feet after the devestation of war.



His cousin, Karl Schmitt, a wealthy Bosch wholesaler, saw this opportunity to sell cheap motorised vehicle. Most of his wealth acquired from the massive electric generator sales & maintenance for the allied forces that was stationed in Germany. So they immediately began to fine tune the vehicle design.



Schmitt, being a businessman, need to reduce hand labour time, approached Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke (VDM) specialised in metal work for aluminium panels with a simple criteria, "as long as they're round, curved shapes".

The Fuldamobil S-6 sits 2 person powered by 10hp single cylinder 2 stroke engine that can propel up to 80kph. The earlier prototype had chassis made out of wood then later tubular steel.



There were 123 units built with most of them built under license around the world.

http://microcarmuseum.com/tour/fuldamobils-6.html
http://www.3wheelers.com/fuldam.html
http://www.banovsky.com/archive/fuldamobil
http://oppositelock.kinja.com/fuldamobil-m...orld-1663057653

1995 Mitsubishi Chariot Resort Runner GT



This little know limited production MPV is powered by Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3 powertrain detuned to 230ps made exclusively for Japanese market. I have no additional info on this particular vehicle. The only thing I know, the russian seems to be pretty fond of this MPV.

Evo powered MPV? Why not? It's fun to share midlife crisis with your family.

http://www.mitsubishi-chariot.info/specs/1...gh_roof_modif2/
http://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/1995..._runner_gt.html

1932 Helicron



Built in France after the 1st world war, whoever build this thought being powered by a propeller is the most efficient way to move around. Since there were an abundance of airplane engines, why not.



There is only one in its existence which was found in a barn. The car is restored from the ground up, except for the engine. Since there are no info on what engine was used to power the properller, they used an engine from a Citroen GS.



Oddly enough this car passed its saftety inspection & totally road legal. You are certainly don't want to be in-front of this vehicle.

http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/...m/helicron-1932
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z11262/Helicron-No-1.aspx

1970 l’Automodule aka Pussycar Automodule



Oh France. You & your quirky cars. Plus it's called Pussycar. Designed by Jean Pierre Ponthieu, this vehicle is built specifically for advertising purpose. Powered by a unknown 2 stroke 250cc engine & capable of travelling up to 45kph.



The vehicle is drivable of course but it can perform tricks, such as making the car rotate in circles, driving sideways & doing wheelies with its rather complex hydraulic system.




http://jalopnik.com/5506420/in-the-future-...l-pull-wheelies
http://www.slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/...uly/pssycar.htm
http://one360.eu/blog/archives/2346

absorb impact literally. 5/5 star NCAP.

Would do it again.

1923 Persu Streamliner



Developed by Romanian engineer, Aurel Persu, was considered one of the earliest streamlined vehicle ever built (German had dibs with Rumpler Tropfenwagen the 1st streamline vehicle but that'll be in another article).

Persu spent huge chunk of his life researching the aerodynamic shape of a vehicle before he settled with rain drop shape in which he believed to be the least air resistance shape of all. So he opted to build a rain drop shaped vehicle.



He described his vehicle as “Aerodynamically-shaped automobile with the wheels mounted inside the aerodynamic body”, which was interesting because at the time, every other vehicle wheels were either exposed or covered with bicycle fenders.



Persu obtained patent application for his vehicle design in 1924 by the German government. Note that he build this vehicle out of in his own pocket & help from couple of engineers most notably Ferdinand Porsche by providing 1.4L 20ps engine.

To put his creation to the test, he drove back & forth between Germany & Romania over the years with mileage of about 120,000km with the top speed of 80kph.



Of course, this attract a lot of attention from large manufacturers whom they approached him to buy his patent. Persu didn't think they would most likely put them into mass production, so he decided to turn it down.




Now the vehicle is remained for public viewing in Romanian Dimitrie Leonida Technical Museum in Bucharest, Romania unrestored.

http://www.dwrenched.com/2014/03/dwrenched-special.html
http://www.autoevolution.com/news/persu-th...-car-31151.html
http://www.diseno-art.com/news_content/201...su-streamliner/

I couldn't tell the difference between 242 & 262.

I've seen 262c though, with its odd low roof. Gold colour driving around Kota Kinabalu.