Audacious Automobiles: The 5 Strangest Cars Ever Made

With 268.8 million vehicles in the United States alone as of 2016, the car is one of the most common items in the modern world. Though their history dates back to strange steam-powered monstrosities of the 1700s, the first somewhat modern automobile can be dated back to around 1885.

Even though Carl Benz’s three-wheeled Benz Patent Motor Car vaguely resembles a modern-day automobile, it’s far from what we commonly recognize today as a road-worthy car. The journey from that point to the fairly standard fare of today has been, shall we say, weird.

While there are still vehicles of all shapes and sizes in the modern world, we’ve basically figured out what works, and cars are designed for efficiency above all. But it wasn’t always that way. There was a time when companies were taking wild chances with car designs.

Here are five of the strangest cars ever developed.

1942 Oeuf Electrique

Quite literally “the electric egg,” this weird vehicle is exactly what the name would lead you to imagine. With it’s three wheels, curved canopy, and small bench seat, it was just large enough to sit two people and probably wouldn’t fair well on most modern roadways.

That said, the Oeuf was ahead of its time in other ways. Developed by French painter Paul Arzens, the egg was battery powered, preempting the electric trend of today by many decades. The Oeuf’s windshield was also plexiglass, which was quite the high tech feature for the time.

2001 BMW GINA Light Visionary Model

Created by BMW designer Chris Bangle, this strange vehicle is perhaps best suited to a role as a superhero’s car. This isn’t because of impressive speed or gadgets, but rather because the car is quite literally covered in polyurethane-coated spandex.

Ostensibly, the spandex is supposed to shift in order to meet the aerodynamic needs of the car, but it seems like it’s just asking to become the next Batmobile.

1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt

The Thunderbolt was one of the last cars to feature the smooth curves of the Art Deco period before futuristic angles became the dominant preference in car design. Beyond that, it had a few design features that would later become standard fare, including power windows, a retractable hard top, and button-operated pop-open headlights.

1959 Cadillac Cyclone

This is another vehicle to feature what was considered an out-there technology for the time that would later become standard issue.

Where the headlights would normally be, the Cyclone had two cones that contained a radar system. This was for its crash avoidance system, which is the counterpart to modern day adaptive cruise control. The car would signal approaching objects with flashing lights and beeps, and could even automatically apply the brakes.

1953 General Motors Firebird 1 XP-21

Last but not least, the XP-21 was quite literally modeled after a jet fighter. Not only did it possess a tail fin and a bubble canopy cockpit, it also generated 370 horsepower, which was unheard of for the time. Usually, car shipping is a super useful service, but this one they could just fly to you.

Strangest Cars In an Even Stranger Land

Sadly, the days of wild experimentation in cars is long gone. The strangest cars the world has ever seen are relics of the past. But that doesn’t mean the world has gotten any more boring.

With technology at an all-time peak, the world gets stranger every day. If these cars of yesteryear intrigued you, wait until you see what the future has in store. The weirdness has only begun!

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