Craziest Cars That Actually Exist

Crazy cars have been part of the automotive market from the beginning. Automakers push the envelope and have come up with some of the craziest cars in history.

Some of the strange cars are those that began things for popular models, while other oddities were just too far off to come back and give the world anything useful. Some might say those cars were ahead of their time, but since their time has never come, they were ahead of our time as well. Some of these strange cars sold well, others never caught on, but all give us something interesting to talk about.

Ford Model T

Wait! How can one of the best-selling cars in history be a crazy model? Hear us out on this one. The Model T didn’t start out as a popular model. When it first arrived, the 1909 Model T didn’t have front brakes, shocks, a water pump, or a driver’s door. Henry Ford took a minimalist approach, and you can imagine the rough ride for this car on those early roads. The three-pedal layout wasn’t traditional either. The left pedal was the forward gearshift, the center pedal for reverse, and the right pedal for the brake. The accelerator was on the steering column. This car was just weird to drive, but it was sold without many changes for nearly two decades.

Chevrolet El Camino

Is it a car or a truck? Does it have muscle car qualities or truck-like performance? It’s hard to know what the Chevrolet El Camino is and was, but it became pretty popular in the market. This was one of the craziest cars ever made at the time, and the first model didn’t start well. The 1958 version was axed after only two years, but the name was brought back in 1964 to give us the El Camino we’ve come to know and love.

General Motors Firebird 1 XP-21

What does it look like when a car company turns a jet fighter into a car? The GM Firebird 1 XP-21 is the result. Although this car never got sold, it was built as a concept model that was an actual jet fighter on four wheels. The car looks like an airplane, and it uses a turbine engine, which GM was toying with at the time, to produce 26,000 rpm and 370 horsepower.

BMW Isetta

BMW created a bubble on wheels and it strangely became a popular car. This Isetta was produced in 1955, and it has a single front opening door, which makes it even stranger. This is easily one of the craziest cars ever made, but it is also a car that survives in some models today. Even stranger than this little three-wheeled car is the fact that it sold more than 161,000 units, and today, a fully restored version can fetch as much as $40,000. That’s crazy.

Subaru Brat

The Subaru Brat came along while the car/truck combos from Chevy and Ford were popular. This little car brought a much shorter wheelbase, a tiny cabin, and a pair of rear-facing seats in the bed. This was at a time when it wasn’t considered unsafe or illegal to have passengers ride in the open bed of a truck. The Brat was powered by a small engine and became popular among car enthusiasts as a strange car that others wouldn’t own.

Toyota Sera

At first glance, you might not think of the Toyota Sera as one of the craziest cars to ever hit the road. Of course, that’s before the doors open. The 1980s and 1990s were a time when butterfly doors were popular and this little Toyota brought a bit of fun to the mix. The Sera was ahead of its time with a glass canopy to make it feel airy and open. This tiny car never had much power, but it brought the personality that made many young car enthusiasts swoon over it.

Ferrari 512S Modulo

Even Ferrari made some strange cars. What makes the 512S Modula strange is the spaceship-like appearance that’s still futuristic today. This car was built in 1970, and it’s still well ahead of its time. This low-slung car shields the wheels and has a large opening canopy to allow the passenger to step inside. There’s no denying the wind-cutting aerodynamics of this machine, but it never quite caught on. Surprisingly enough, one model was sold to an American car enthusiast, but not until 2014.

1959 Cadillac Cyclone

The Cadillac Cyclone is one of the craziest cars for its advanced technology and strange shape. This car looks like it should have been the Batmobile of the original television series. This car features a pair of black cones at the front where the headlights should have been. These cones housed the radar system for the crash avoidance system, which is what we know of as adaptive cruise control today. This car sent warnings to the driver if it sensed an approaching object, and it could automatically apply the brakes. That’s some seriously advanced tech for 1959.

Leyat Helica

Marcel Leyat created this car because he thought the components used in cars were too heavy, making them terrible on the road. His solution was a propeller-driven wingless car that looked like a helicopter with the propeller on the front. The car uses an 18-horsepower motorcycle engine, and the body was made of lightweight plywood. This car actually drove fast, with one recording a top speed of 106 mph in 1927. Only 30 of these cars were ever built, and 23 sold, but the idea of a front-mounted propeller-driven car never quite caught on.

Amphicar

When making a list of the strangest cars in history, it’s hard to leave the Amphicar off any list. This car was created in 1961 for those that wanted to continue the drive into the waters of a lake or pond. This vehicle was half car and half boat but not very good at being either one. If you didn’t mind going very slowly, this could be a good vehicle for a slow day, but it was pretty awful otherwise. Thankfully, production ended two years after it began, but it took three more years before all models of this vehicle were finally sold.