SR20-Swapped MG MGB, REO Speedwagon Fire Truck, Turbo K-Swapped AE86 Corolla: The Dopest Cars I Found for Sale Online

This was the car that established this week’s theme. I saw this swap, and instantly decided that we needed to do an “All Weird, All The Time” installment of Dopest. This SR20-swapped MGB is a perfect fit for that theme, because seriously: Who does this?

Here we have what appears to be an immaculately restored MGB, perfect inside and out, that’s had its four-cylinder replaced with a redtop SR20 out of an S13 Silvia or 180SX. The seller claims 320 horsepower, and that it’s too much for the chassis — they recommend the next owner turn down the boost with a tune. Before you do that, though, can I drive it at full power? I just wanna try.

This has to be the weirdest Lotus, right? From its body-hugging chrome bumper and Alpine-looking lights to the flat tail section and brown paint, this is an absurd combination of features. Why is the Europa the way that it is? Scientists have long wondered.

“Why,” however, matters less than “what” for our purposes. And what the Europa is, is fantastically odd. Truly an automotive peak of oddity, a heretofore unseen level of strange emanating from this little coupe. I’m so glad it exists, and I do not want to own it.

I know, I know, the first image that pops into your head for the phrase “station wagon” doesn’t seem like it’s really all that weird. You’re a Jalop, after all. You think about the Volvo 240 wagon at least twice a day and thrice on weekends. What’s so odd about it?

I posit that wagons, as a whole, are weird. They weren’t always — in fact they once were the norm — but in today’s crossover-heavy market, they’re an oddity. Wagons (particularly from certain Scandinavian automakers) are purchased by folks who want something a little different; whether they care about the handling benefits or simply don’t want to be yet another anonymous crossover in the Montessori parking lot. Be weird. Buy a wagon.

Every WRX is more normal than the last, and we’re far enough divorced from these stinkeye hatches that we can all finally acknowledge they’re a little weird. This one, however, is weirder than most — and it’s not because of the JDM engine or bright blue wrap. No, this WRX is weird because it has one simple mod that too many Rex owners overlook: Hub centering rings.

So often, I see WRXes on wheels grabbed from Facebook Marketplace, mounted on the cheapest 5x100 to 5x114.3 converters money can buy. These, by contrast, appear to be properly set up wheels that are properly centered on the wheel hubs. A rare level of attention to detail in the Subie world.

This is about the least-weird way to modify a midsize adventure bike. Cases out back, crash bars up front, a tall windscreen and semi-knobby tires. But this, the F800GS, is just a weird bike to its core. With all the love in my heart: This is a dweeb bike for dweebs.

Look at those mismatched headlights, that beak. This is a motorcycle that got shoved into lockers in high school, probably by an Africa Twin, and had to stay locked in there until the teachers noticed. It took them almost the full day, once, and by the time they let it out the F800 had yelled itself hoarse. At least, I assume that’s why the engines are all so clattery. It’s an automotive sore throat.

Little boxy cars have never quite caught on in the United States. Whether it was the styling, the marketing, or the pricing, these efficient uses of automotive space just never succeeded. The xB, the Cube, the original Soul, all dead or evolved to the tastes of fickle American consumers.

But this little Scion lived on. In fact it was loved on, the wrap betraying an enthusiasm for the car that few xBs ever experienced. Sure, the seller implies that the paint beneath is trashed, but I’m taking it as a sign of respect. Making a weird car even weirder is the best mod a person can do.

The seller of this Roadstercycle claims it’s one of three in the world, which I think meets the criteria for weirdness almost by default. They claim one of these trikes was made from a Harley, which now resides in a museum in Vietnam, while one was based on a Yamaha VMax with a two-up seat. This, a single-seater VMax, is the third.

That’s weird, and that’s before we get into the whole everything about this bike. The wheels, the lugs, the traverse engine with a shaft drive, the fact that there appears to be a parachute on the back. I’m so intrigued.

Fine, yes, an E46 is not weird. I concede. What’s weird about this one is the Craigslist ad, which reads more like it was written about a Corvette than a nineties BMW. There’s an assembly date, delivery date, full list of options that through their combination make the car a unique one of one specialty. It’s the stuff we’re used to seeing from boomers in cargo shorts, here on a car that’s often seen lapping Englishtown sideways.

This, to be clear, is not an example of good weird. This is bad weird, the kind of weird that inflates values and asks Bring a Trailer money for Craigslist cars. Not all weird is good, unfortunately, but all weird is weird.

The Firebird, too, is inherently weird. It’s kind of a not-Camaro, always in the shadow of its more famous brother. No matter how many movies star a Trans Am, how many famous liveries it gets, it’s always just not the Camaro. One of those cars still exists, for now, and the other doesn’t.

This one’s not particularly weird in its modification style, and its wheels are unfortunately all too normal in their design. Folks, stop putting these thin five-spokes on your restomods. They’re bad wheels. Leave it.

Much like the E46 above, there’s nothing inherently weird about a Tacoma. But this one is weird, weirder than that BMW, and not just because of its Craigslist copy. No, this Taco is a weird one because of its condition: It’s so clean.

It’s not showroom fresh, sure, but a Tacoma shouldn’t be. It should have a few dings, a few scrapes, some mud tucked up inside the fenders. This has that character, but not the actual damage that so often accompanies it. If that’s not weird, I don’t know what is.

Did you know REO Speedwagon was a vehicle before it was a band? I didn’t, until today. REO, sure, that’s a known entry into the automotive world, but the Speedwagon model was a total unknown to me. It’s real!

Were these employed by the eponymous Foundation? They certainly owned fire trucks, maybe they used these too in their weird unclear global machinations. If the Speedwagon foundation is that weird, nebulous, and absurd, this fire truck too must fit the week’s theme.

A Datsun 510, in Dopest, is not weird. You all know me by now, I’m a sucker for Datsuns. But most of the cars I throw in here are generously fixer-uppers, and less generously one might call them “trash garbage fit only for the scrapyard.” This 510, however, is different. It’s weirdly put-together.

The seller claims this 510 is a real, actual barn find. It apparently sat for five years, and as such needs its fluids changed and aged-out rubber replaced. But once that’s done, most of the rest of the car is there — sure, the seats have some rips and tears, but that’s not the end of the world. It’s a Datsun in weirdly good shape. That’s my excuse.

As much as I love kei cars, I admit that in the U.S. they come off a bit odd. They’re tiny, slow, and have their steering wheels on the wrong side. They’re not meant for here, this world of wide-open freeways and massive, hulking pickup trucks. They’re weird. But that’s what makes them good.

Do we all want those oversized, lumbering pickups deciding what our roads look like? Should those set the tone? Wouldn’t it be nicer to have some more oddities around, some unique vehicles that have room to breath outside the shadow of yet another Super Duty dually? Give us more weird. Give us more kei cars.

I swear I’ve built this exact car in Forza. Turbo, K-series, hachiroku chassis. But this one has a few advantages over my simulated drifter, beginning with one big one: It’s real. It’s a real car you could own and drive.

Photo: Craigslist

Of course, this entire setup is weird. A 4AGE in this chassis is normal, a K-series is weird. A K-series naturally aspirated is normal, throwing a big turbo on it is weirder. This throws all that together — turbo, K-series, hachiroku. Wonderfully, beautifully weird.

I’ve saved the weirdest for last here. This R1200GS Adventure, an ADV bike from the factory, is now wearing 17-inch wheels front and rear. That’s very weird, and it’s not even really a sumo.

See, a supermoto is usually essentially a dirt bike on 17" spoked wheels. You keep the light weight, the torquey engine, the long-travel suspension, but add the nimble handling of 17s and street tires. But this GS doesn’t have spokes, it doesn’t have that torquey single, and it weighs about as much as six actual sumos. This is a GS sport tourer, effectively, but it remains a wild choice for a build.