The Most Odd-Looking Vintage Muscle Cars Ever Made

Noor Muhammad|Classic|5 Nov 2024

There is a saying that goes, "Whatever is new now will be old one day, and whatever is old today was once new." The designers of the cars you are about to see did not intend these to be called weird, strange, or odd, but here we are.

From innovative designs that were new for the time of their release to just being outlandish and unfit in any era, here are the strangest-looking cars of the old times.

1948 Norman Timbs Special

Marcus Andulus/Flickr

This is the definition of a true one-off custom car. Conceived, designed, and created by engineer Norman Timbs, this car is regarded as one of the most desirable collector's cars.

Norman did not only come up with the most radical-looking design, but his creation also had some functional aspects. This was the first car to use negative pressure, or ground effect, that kept it glued to the ground no matter how aggressively it was driven. Sadly, the car was burnt along with its current owner's home in 2018 but is luckily undergoing a full restoration.

Flatmobile

Jun Masuda/Flickr

Created by the British custom car designer Perry Watkins, the Flatmobile is inspired by the Batmobile. The car is based, at least in terms of powertrain, on the 1963 Hillman Imp and has the same 875cc engine.

What it has more than that car, however, is a home-built jet engine based on the Holset 685 turbocharger from a Volvo FL10 truck. While that small engine can only take the Flatmobile to 70mph, the jet engine can help it break 100, and yes, it does throw 20-foot flames out the back.

El Camino

Emre Hanoglu/Flickr

The El Camino has lately got the rank of a legend in classic cars. It was created in 1959, an era when everyone wanted a muscle car and a pickup truck but couldn't afford both. Well, Chevy gave THIS solution with party in the front and business in the back.

To be honest, the El Camino was not a great muscle car or a super useful pickup truck, but it was a novel thing for that time and is something that no one has managed to pull off since then.

Wikov 35 Kapka

Glencserpictures/Flickr

Based out of Prostějov, Wikov was a Czechoslovakian machinery manufacturer that built cars and trucks between 1925 and 1937. The 35 Kapka was created in 1935 to experiment with streamlining and aerodynamic efficiency. The car was modeled after a teardrop, the most aerodynamic naturally occurring thing,

The 1743cc engine made 35 horsepower, and it was offered in a four-seater phaeton, four- or six-seater limousine, open tourer, cabriolet, or a landaulet body. Even though the press praised the car for its design, customers were not impressed with the lack of power and less-than-stellar efficiency. Only 6 of these were ever made.

1970 Ferrari-Pininfarina Modulo

Ferrari_Modulo_front-right_Museo_Ferrari

Wikimedia Commons

The year was 1970, and two of the top design houses from Italy, Pininfarina, and Bertone, were undergoing a competition to come up with the most radical design for the new Ferrari. This was the winning design by Paolo Martin from Pininfarina. You have to give it to Martin for designing a car that still looks like something from the future, half a century after it came to be.

The Modulo was not just futuristic by its looks. The V12 under the skin pulled out of the decorated 512S had enough power to rip a hole through spacetime and violate the laws of Physics with its sheer power.

1953 General Motors Firebird 1 XP-21

David Nagerski/Flickr

This car had more in common with a jet aircraft than just body styling. The Firebird 1 XP-21 was designed with one purpose; to test a new kind of engine. This was the Whirlfire Turbo Power gas turbine engine.

If you can't already guess, the car was excessively impractical, partly because you can only carry so much jet fuel in something that moves on land and partly because it expelled exhaust gases at 1,250 degrees out the back. Only one guy, Emmett Conklin, the head of Turbine research at GM, was certified to drive this thing.

Vanguard-Sebring CitiCar

Hotcars

The 1970s fuel crisis was bad, but not bad enough to come up with THIS, the Vanguard-Sebring CitiCar. Created by a Florida-based automaker named Vanguard-Sebring, this electric car had a top speed of 30mph and could go 40 miles on a single charge.

Being able to move around without gas is cool and all but imagine being in a crash in this thing. No wonder the Department of Transportation was not very keen on this one.

Mayan Magnum

Autorevolution

Dean Charles was an air force veteran, a sci-fi author, and an aerospace engineer. He was also a very sensible guy because after creating this thing, he was noted saying, "Beautiful is an adjective that will never apply to this GT."

Well, Charles was not looking at the apparent beauty and probably the 'inner' beauty (aerodynamic efficiency) of the car when he came up with this rather distinctive design. If you want to buy this beauty, it is still up for sale on Bring a Trailer, and the highest bid so far is $11,750.

1956 Buick Centurion

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Oliver/Flickr

I bet you were only noticing the panoramic (in the mist literal sense) glass roof of this car and did not pay attention to the fact that there are no rearview mirrors. Well, that's because this concept car debuted the rearview camera.

Yes, no kidding! They rigged a television camera to a screen in the view of the driver to show real-time images of what was behind the car. Still, the idea of making the entire thing out of glass was not welcomed, and the Centurion remained just a concept.

1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero

Wikimedia Commons

Ultimate Wedge, Mobile Ramp, and Tipping Hazard are some of the names given to this car from the early 1970s, which took the wedge-shaped design language of that era to a whole new level. It measured just under 33 inches high at the highest point.

You can be forgiven for thinking that this car had some great power plant, but that is a delusion. The Stratos HF Zero had a 1584-cc V4 making 115 horsepower, which gave it pretty lame motivation.

Studebaker Manta Ray

Methylbromine/Flickr

The one-of-a-kind Studebaker Manta Ray was created thanks to the vision and hard work of a couple of employees from a North American company's guided missile and jet aircraft division.

Glen Hire and Vernon Antoine, inspired by GM's La Sabre concept and the jet aircraft design ideas of the time, invested more than 4,000 hours into developing this car, focusing on, you guessed it, aerodynamics and efficiency, as one can judge from the line of work, these gentlemen were in.

Peel P50

Vectron X4E/Flickr

It appears if you disregard functionality, safety, and practicality, there is no limit to product design. Peel P50, the only car to be made in the Isle of Man, holds, to this day, the World Record for the smallest production car.

For some strange reason, Peel Engineering's official website still states that they are proud to have made this thing... and even stranger is the fact that the P50 is still street-legal in the UK.

Buick LeSabre

Wikimedia Commons

It was 1949. Humanity as a whole was obsessed with the newly discovered flying, and they wanted to design everything like airplanes, especially cars. LeSabre did not only have visible hints of aircraft design but the materials too.

We are talking about the first wrap-around windshield, the use of 'space-age' materials like aluminum and magnesium, and even an aviation-inspired name from the F86 Sabre jet fighter. One good thing that Harley Earl, the designer, did was to power this car with a 335hp V8 instead of a turbine engine, which was impractical at best and a safety hazard at worst.

1955 Chrysler Streamline X Gilda

Myeeeky/Flickr

Chrysler commissioned the Gilda as a way to showcase the limits of 1950s styling and performance, but it was designed by Giovanni Savonuzzi, an Italian engineer and aerodynamicist who worked for Ghia Coach Work.

Savonuzzi, known for his admiration of everything beautiful, did not only come up with the design for this car but also the name Gilda for it. The Gilda was intended to have a turbine engine, but that never came to pass, and, in fact, no engine could be finalized, and this car never drove an inch.

Messerschmitt KR200

Jungle Jack/Flickr

Messerschmitt, the German aircraft manufacturer, was prohibited from making planes in the 1950s, so they turned their attention towards other things, including the Messerschmitt KR200.

Even though this car had just 10 horsepower, it could hit 90km/h, thanks to one less wheel than what cars have and a lightweight chassis. It was actually a successful model, with more than 12,000 units sold in the first year.

1966 Rolls Royce FAB 1

Wikimedia Commons

The 1966 Rolls Royce FAB 1 was originally created for the TV series Thunderbirds to chauffer Lady Penelope around. The unit used in filming was a scale model that could only fit puppets inside it.

A full-size version was created to transport Gerry Anderson, the author of Thunderbirds, and his wife Sylvia to the premiere of Thunderbirds, but it broke down on the way. This version has survived to this date and is kept in the Entertainment Vehicle Section of the Dezer Collection Museum in Miami.

1964 Tasco

Gordon M. Buehrig was the designer of the Auburn 851 Speedster, Cord 810/812, and many other iconic cars of the 1950s and 1960s, so when he proposed the idea of a plane-inspired car, it was instantly approved by investors.

It is another story why this car never entered production, but it had one great feature. It was not only inspired by aircraft aerodynamics, but the cockpit also looked like a propeller plane cockpit. It turned out it was not something many people wanted from a car.

C3 Corvette Station Wagon

Corvette

When you are a successful musician from the 1970s, there is nothing you cannot have commissioned for yourself, not even a wagon based on the most successful sports car of the time.

This car was commissioned by a rock band drummer who wanted to carry his drums in his C3 Corvette. The first iteration was based on the 1972 Vette and created by Chuck Miller, later the idea was adopted and refined by John Greenwood (not the 18th century dentist).

1932 Ford Speedster

Ford

Henry Ford's son and successor, Edsel, was obsessed with custom cars, particularly roadsters. He commissioned E.T. "Bob" Gregorie, who then worked with Lincoln as a designer to come up with a speedster based on the Model 18.

There is no authentic account of where the car was between the time when Edsel passed away and 2016, when it was auctioned to the Ford House in Michigan for $770,000 after restoration.

Austin-Healey Sprite

K Madesn/Flickr

Austin-Haley was a joint venture of two UK-based automakers, the Austin Division of British Motor Corporation and Donald Haley Motors. The Sprite debuted in 1953, made mainly from parts already available at British Motors.

It came with a 943cc, 43hp engine, a four-speed manual transmission, and one of the first monocoque chassis in the world. Still, the engine was quite a weak one, and there was no hope for this car, especially given the fact that it was positioned as a roadster.

BMW Z1

Alias Teague/Flickr

When you look at it, the BMW Z1 appears to be a pretty standard European Roadster from the early 1990s. However, it is not until you look at the doors, specifically the way they open and close, that you notice this is a very unusual car.

The doors do not open outwards or even upwards and are not even gullwing style. The doors on this car disappear into the sill when you want to open them, and you can drive it at any speed without the doors in sight.

1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne

The C-25 is the epitome of Gabrielle Voisin's design as an engineer and creator. He made this prototype to showcase the innovations like a sliding roof that closed right onto the front windshield, a radial engine, and immense weight reduction measures.

The body panels of the C-25 were so thin that they had to be supported from the inside to maintain the shape, and weight was reduced even from the headlight surrounds. Aimed at the elite of the elite and equipped with the latest tech, the C-25 was not mass-produced, and only a handful of units were made to order.

Plymouth Prowler

Wikimedia Commons

Chrysler intended to give the Plymouth brand a new spark of life with the Prowler in 1993, but the only thing distinctive about it was the styling. Everything else was borrowed from some Chrysler vehicle. The styling itself was an acquired taste, one not everyone could appreciate.

While you might think a thing that looks like that is bound to have a screaming big block V8 under the hood, the only engine option the Prowler offered was a V6 with 200hp. The interior styling also did not go with the aesthetic of the car, and the Prowler could never shine as Plymouth wanted it to.

Volkswagen Thing

William Rubano/Flickr

Volkswagen Thing, officially the Type 181, was made as a military transport vehicle for the West German army in 1971, but honestly, even being a military vehicle is not enough of an excuse for looking this ugly. I mean, they could have gotten inspiration from the G-Wagon.

The Thing did not only look ugly, but the performance was also subpar. It had the mechanical components of a VW Beetle, giving it unimpressive mobility and unexciting driving characteristics.

Toyota 2000 GT

Klaus/Flickr

Made between 1967 and 1970, the 2000GT is often regarded as the only Japanese muscle car. It was designed by Toyota in collaboration with Yamaha and was meant to be a halo car for Toyota in its initial days.

The 2000GT was powered by a 2.3L I6 that was good for 150hp. That might not look like much by today's standards, but it was a big deal back then when the American muscle struggled to squeeze that much out of V8s double that size in displacement.

Alfa Romeo Disco Volante

Klemantaski Collection/Getty Images

This car belongs to an era when automakers designed the mechanical parts of a car, and the bodywork was designed by coachbuilders. This particular body was designed by Carrozzeria Touring, an Italian Coachbuilder.

Disco Volante, meaning 'flying saucer,' was designed to participate in motorsports events, but they did not actually race. This design, however, inspired the 6C 3000CM, one of the most successful racing cars to come from Alfa in the 1950s.

1963 Chevrolet Impala RPO Z11

Chevrolet

You meant business like no one else if you owned one of these back in the 1960s. The Impala was the most powerful, biggest, and most classy muscle car of the entire decade.

This car might look out of place in this day and age and might even be the polar opposite of the family sedan Impala we all know today, but if you tell an old timer the name Impala, this is the car they will be thinking about.

Citroen DS

Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images

The Citroen DS was an executive car made by French automaker Citroen between 1955 and 1975. It was as executive as a car with front-wheel drive, 1.9 liters of engine displacement, and looks like THAT can get.

Some people even went so far as to say that this car belonged to the future and was created a little too early to be appreciated by the market. It appears the market is still not ready for such a masterpiece.

Lotus Europa

Heritage Images/Getty Images

The Europa was a two-seater mid-engined GT coupe made by the Lotus between 1966 and 1975. It was based on the same steel tube space frame structure as the Lotus Elan but came with aerodynamic, engine, and suspension improvements.

It was one of the first cars to implement twin-cam technology. Its small 1.5L twin-cam engine could put out 115 horsepower and had four-wheel independent suspension to improve handling and ride quality.

Stout Scarab

Malc Edwards/Flickr

This vehicle has an award to its name that no other can claim. It was this car in the 1930s that started the minivan era. The Scarab is regarded as the first-ever minivan in the world, and rightfully so.

The streamlined shape, the distinctive headlamps, multiple passenger windows, and the overall aesthetic of a stretched car give the Scarab a look that is not found in many vehicles. It's up to you to like it or hate it.

Heinkel Kabine

Juanrfa/Flickr

Heinkel, just like Messerschmitt, was prohibited from making aircraft and was forced to focus on other things. Their first production was a motorcycle that did not sell very well, and they used the same engine to make this microcar.

The Kabine was small and odd looking, but it was regarded as one of the most efficient microcars thanks to its reduced weight and the tiny fuel-efficient 200cc engine. It was faster and more agile than other comparable cars.

Tatra T77

David van Mill/Flickr

This is the car that started the race for the most streamlined body, the first car to be designed on the scientific principles of aerodynamics and tested in a wind tunnel to make sure it performed as advertised.

The T77 might look strange, but it is one of the most aerodynamic cars to this date. It has a drag coefficient of just 0.36 which puts it alongside the Ferrari Testarossa, a sports car that came out a full 50 years after the T77.

1935 Bugatti Coupe

Bugatti

Officially called the Type 57 Aérolithe, this Coupe from the 1930s was the most sensational car of the decade when it came out. You can think of it exactly like the Bugatti Chiron in this day and age, a symbol of extravagance and excess only the elite can afford.

That long hood has a straight-8 engine, and the front has the same iconic horseshoe grille that is still the trademark of the Bugatti brand.

4-Door Corvette Sedan

Corvette

No, that car was not created in Photoshop by a render artist but in a workshop by the company called California Custom Coach in the late 1970s. It was created for the people who wanted the sportiness of the Corvette and the practicality of a 4-door sedan.

The company made only six examples of this because, apparently, not a lot of people want a V-8 powered 4-door sedan based on a racecar. Two of these are believed to be in existence to this day, and one got listed for sale for $200,000 at NBS Auto Showroom in 2018.

Jaguar E-Type

Gerado Franco/Flickr

The British automaker Jaguar means success: the success of the owner of the car in their life and the success of Jaguar on the race tracks and testing circuits. When the E-Type came out in the 1960s, it was applauded for everything great that it had.

The streamlined design with all its curves and angles is a treat for the eyes, even today, but you do not see a lot of cars looking like this on the streets, do you?

Zündapp Janus

Eduardo Lopes/Flickr

Zündapp Janus was one of the cars resulting from the post-WWII restrictions on the German aerospace industry, but this one had a twist. Zündapp was not an aircraft manufacturer but a motorcycle maker.

By the 1950s, the motorcycle business was not going very well, and in 1956 Claudius Dornier, the aircraft manufacturer, and Zundapp came together to create the Janus, which was supposed to be the peoples' car and make personal transport available to all.

Shelby 427 Cobra Super Snake

Brian/Flickr

The Super Snake is undoubtedly one of the most impressive vehicles ever built. It is based on the Ford CSX 3015 and transformed by none other than the man, the myth, the legend Carol Shelby.

Only one OG Super Snake was made, and it was Mr. Shelby's personal car that he created an 800hp supercar in the mid-1960s and also took the same thing to the track when he felt like it.

1952 Dodge Coronet Diplomat

Christopher Ziemnowicz/Wikimedia Commons

The Coronet was Dodge's first postwar car that came out in 1950. There were a number of variants of the car, but the most interesting one was the Diplomat, remembered as the first hardtop coupe to come from Dodge.

It might have been a new design for the time it came out, but in hindsight, it was a pretty weird car that did not fit into the design language of that time and still felt out of place.

Plymouth Superbird

1970 Motor Trend 500 - NASCAR - Riverside

The Enthusiast Network/Getty Images

The 1970s was a wild time to be alive. Out of all the bell bottoms, the rise of disco, and technological advancements this decade brought, the coolest was the NASCAR scene.

The Superbird was concocted by combining the Plymouth Roadrunner and the Dodge Charger Daytona. That distinctive wedge-shaped look of the Superbird is thanks to a thing that was newly discovered back then, called aerodynamics. If you were alive in the 70s, there was not a better car to show up and pick your date in.

BMW Isetta

Classic Days - Festival of Culture & Motoring, Lifestyle

Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images

It was the time when all the German automakers were making tiny microcars, and BMW did not want to miss out on the action. BMW came up with this, a thing that weighed 200lb more than the nearest competitor and still had the best fuel consumption.

If you ignore the way this car looks, it is an achievement that in 1955 the Isetta could go 100 kilometers on just 3 liters of gas, becoming the first car that was able to do that.