These Are the Weirdest One-Off Cars Ever Built

“The Sir Vival, currently undergoing restoration at the Lane Museum in Nashville.”

A car with a pivot in the middle sounds like a great idea, I can’t think why it never took off.

Suggested by: earthbound-misfit-i

“The Aston Martin Cygnet V8. Basically it’s the fancy cousin of the Toyota/Scion iQ, that got a 4.7 liter V8 engine swap from a Vantage S. It was commissioned by Aston as a one-off.

“It also had the front and rear subframe from a Vantage S, along with the 19 inch wheels, brakes, track width, suspension, and the 7 speed automated manual transmission swapped in as well.

“It made 430hp, did 0-60 in around 4 seconds or so, top speed was 170mph, and it weights about 3000 lbs.”

Forget luxury SUVs and other such monstrosities, these are the kinds of cars supercar makers should really be building to future-proof themselves. The V8 Cygnet is the perfect car.

Suggested by: Phillip Franklin (Facebook)

“What if a 1971 Pontiac Firebird and a Ferrari Daytona had a baby? It’s an insane question, but GM came up with this answer:

“It has a Ferrari V12 engine, as well as some Italian styling cues on a Firebird body.”

This looks a bit like if DALL-E Mini tried to design a Firebird, and I love it with all my heart.

Suggested by: larktdude

“BMW 750 with a V16 and trunk mounted radiator. Goldfisch.”

If you’ve ever looked at BMW’s 7 Series and thought “needs more,” then this is the car for you. This one-off was made by shoehorning an enormous engine into BMW’s luxury sedan, sadly it never saw mass-production.

Suggested by: rjjablo

“The Phantom Corsair. I’ve always thought it looked like its designers were inspired by a horseshoe crab.”

This 1930s spook-mobile is quite something. With seating for six and just two doors, it was designed by Rust Heinz and assembled by a team of California coachbuilders.

Suggested by: Joe Atkinson (Facebook)

“Lamborghini has to make this list, so I will nominate perhaps the weirdest one of them all: Egoista

“As for probably the coolest one-off Lambo ever to be sold to a customer, I’d have to nominate the Aventador J.”

I mean, what the heck is this meant to be? It looks like a set from Lego’s Mars Mission series.

Suggested by: featherlite

“Some of the recent one-off Ferraris just look really off lately.

“They take an already good looking base and throw odd parts onto them to make them different. The last one is by far the worst.

“This one belongs to Eric Clapton.”

If you’re as rich and famous as Eric Clapton and you call up Maranello for a custom Ferrari, would you be disappointed if this was the result they wheeled out for you?

Suggested by: fijist

“Golf W12 has gotta be up there, and it was so close to making it to production.”

File this one away with the Cygnet under perfect cars that need no alterations.

Suggested by: Willow McAndrew (Facebook)

“Shelby Daytona Type 65 ‘Super Coupe’ (Chassis CSB3054) with the 427ci. It had a completely redesigned body by original designer Pete Brock. As the front had to be extended to accommodate the 427 block. And, since that changed the dynamics of car, he had to reshape the whole thing.

“It was supposed to be ready for Le Mans 1965, but they didn’t get it finished in time. In fact, it wasn’t fully ‘completed’ until years later. It sat unfinished at Shelby American, as the GT40 program took over everything, until the car changed hands several times before falling in the lap of Craig Sutherland. He immediately tasked Mike Dopudja to finish its build in consultation with Pete Brock. And so, 15 years after the project was originally conceived, it was finally finished in 1981.

“2300lbs with 500HP. Estimated top speed: 205.

“This would have been a Cobra, that could have not only whooped the Ferrari GTOs easily, but also the 330 P3 Prototypes!”

If you were to pay a living wage that covered 15 years of work to make this car, what exorbitant amount would it need to sell for to turn a profit?

Suggested by: Knyte

“The Cadillac Sixteen. 1,000 HP / 1,000 lb/ft 13.6l V16.”

This is exactly the kind of car a future Formula 1 team should be making. Cadillac, please make more crazy stuff like this.

Suggested by: lastminutebastrd

“Mazda Furai. Triple rotor mid engine beauty.

“Too gorgeous for this world unfortunately 😔”

If Top Gear had never existed, we wouldn’t have to put up with Jeremy Clarkson’s bile, and this car would still exist.

Suggested by: Islander Steve (Facebook)

“Anything by George Barris has to make the list. Random vehicles from Barris.com below. I can keep going. Even in his later years, Barris made some weird stuff. Like the GTO roadster from about 10 years ago.”

For anyone not in the know, George Barris was a legendary car builder responsible for incredible creations like the original Batmobile.

Suggested by: yeardley68

“The BMW M3 Pickup.

“When Australian Car Culture and German Car Culture have a one night stand.”

This is the only acceptable pickup, all others should be destroyed.

Suggested by: thedriveress

“Youabian Puma has to be in the conversation. It’s mostly just... unpleasant to look at, but it’s also huge and trainwreck like so it’s hard not to look at it. Also, apparently it came with free letters threatening legal action of some sort if you expressed displeasure with its appearances.

“I never got one though, so maybe I need to have a bigger audience 🤔

“BTW, does anyone know if that legal action was ever brought forward?”

This utterly ridiculous car was apparently “conceptualized for those individuals who dare to be different than the ordinary.”

And that legal action? Well, that came about when some guy that used to work here called the car ugly.

Suggested by: Christopher Wright-Thwing (Facebook)

“The Maybach Exelero. The stated purpose for it was to test tires for Fulda, but it was just an insane Batmobile. Ended up in a Jay-Z video, a few animes, a German action show.”

This $8 million, one-off from Maybach is wonderful. Built back in 2005, the car boasted a twin-turbo V12 that churned out 700 hp and could power the car up to 218mph. Nice

Suggested by: TadKosciuszko