Weird Cars Thread

[Juhazi]

I must raise my fur hat for the Russian engineers! https://gearjunkie.com/sherp-russian-atv This should become available in Alaska USA!

And they have a bike too, with Red Star Award!

 

[Ron Texas]

I snapped this in downtown Houston. The vehicle has a hydraulic transmission. It is in the sideways mode right now. Just pull up next to a parking spot, turn the wheels 90 degrees and head in. With 12 wheels it must be 4 times better than a three wheel thing.

 

[FrantzM]

 

[Ron Texas]

@FrantzM I remember these. It's hard to believe it actually made it into production.

 

[Ron Texas]

 

[Blumlein 88]

This isn't quite a car. Motorhome made by GM from 1968 to 1970. Designed by an aircraft designer it used lightweight monocoque construction. Most interestingly and strangely it had a Corvair drivetrain. The little 110 hp aircooled engine. A friend of a friend has one in running condition.
They were called an UltraVan. As large as it was the thing only weighed 4500 pounds.

More info here:
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/the-ultra-van-page/

https://bringatrailer.com/2016/01/11/factory-corvair-power-rare-1969-ultra-van-motorhome/

http://ultravan.club/dir/

 

[Boris Badinov]

View attachment 46657

"does this sheet metal make my butt look big?"

 

[Ron Texas]

@Blumlein 88 It seems more functional than weird to me. Kind of an aerodynamic RV. Then again, a Corvair drivetrain is weird to start with.

 

[Blumlein 88]

@Blumlein 88 It seems more functional than weird to me. Kind of an aerodynamic RV. Then again, a Corvair drivetrain is weird to start with.

The body was functional. And building such a thing with aircraft style monocoque construction was actually very smart. Contrast it with the 1968 Winnebago below. The monocoque gave an open floorplan, and yet was sturdy and light. So all that is actually kind of genius-like, but it was meant all along to have the Corvair engine with 2 speed automatic transmission. That is what made it weird. And a large part of why it didn't last. If they'd dropped in a 327 or 350 back there it might have made all such things end up like it instead of the unfortunate Winnebago. The first Winnebago motorhomes weren't built until 1966.

BTW, the fellow who has the Ultravan I've seen, has owned it a long time, put over 200,000 miles on it.

 

[esm]

Twin-engine Eagle Talon (1g DSM)

 

[mhardy6647]

This isn't quite a car. Motorhome made by GM from 1968 to 1970. Designed by an aircraft designer it used lightweight monocoque construction. Most interestingly and strangely it had a Corvair drivetrain. The little 110 hp aircooled engine. A friend of a friend has one in running condition.
They were called an UltraVan. As large as it was the thing only weighed 4500 pounds.

More info here:
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/the-ultra-van-page/

https://bringatrailer.com/2016/01/11/factory-corvair-power-rare-1969-ultra-van-motorhome/

http://ultravan.club/dir/
View attachment 46666

Puts one to mind of R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion, dunnit?

Modern Replica

By Starysatyr - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32840885
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_car

Back cover of Warner Bros'. Grateful Dead "Greatest Hits" album Skeletons from the Closet

 

[Ron Texas]

@Blumlein 88 that Winnebago is so nasty looking. It belongs here.

 

[Blumlein 88]

@Blumlein 88 that Winnebago is so nasty looking. It belongs here.

Just comes to mind the styling of the early Winnebago and the Tesla Cybertruck may have something in common. BTW, surely that Cybertruck belongs here.

 

[Ron Texas]

@Blumlein 88 the Cybertruck is a must have addition for this collection.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Tatra made some weird cars.

 

[Martin]

Splicing a ’59 VW Bus with an early Airstream trailer and a Subaru

 

[Blumlein 88]

A different kind of weird. 1962 Pontiac Tempest.

These firstly had a weird engine. To save money, GM literally used one half of a 389 Pontiac V8 for a big displacement 4 cylinder. Which naturally had vibration problems. Here is the engine. That is a 4 cylinder.

Further weird because they put a transaxle in the rear which was connected to the engine via a flexible shaft in a torque tube. It drooped in an arc beneath the floor so no transmission hump in the interior. Was the thickness of your thumb. You had no universal joints, and another reason they used it was the flex of it helped damp out the engine vibration. This did give the car 50/50 weight distribution. And yes some versions of this 4 cylinder had a 4 barrel carb.

Another odd note some few could be ordered with an all aluminum 215 cubic inch Buick V8 which was very light weight at the time being only 317 lbs. In 1965 Range Rover purchased rights to the engine, and used it from 1967 until 2005.

 

[mhardy6647]

That 2.5 L 4 cyl GM engine was around for a long, long time -- the Iron Duke.
(EDIT: Derp, I guess the Iron Duke was completely different -- no matter, I still have a good story to tell! )

I'll skip the details, but we had a hand-me-down '84 (AMC-era) Jeep Wagoneer (which, at that point, was a version of the then-new Cherokee 4 dr design with fancier trim). The poor thing was equipped with the aforementioned 4-cyl and a 5 speed manual transmission. It could barely get out of its own way. We replaced it with a Ford Explorer (1993 model, with a V6 and A/T) which was larger, more powerful, much nicer -- and got better mileage

 

[MRC01]

Mazda Cosmo, a 3-rotor Wankel from the 1960s.

Well it started as a 2-rotor then later Mazda made it a 3-rotor. It's the only 3-rotor production Wankel.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cu...a13135113/you-must-buy-this-1968-mazda-cosmo/

 

[Martin]

I grew up riding in a 1962 Pontiac Tempest station wagon with the 4-cylinder engine. I remember walking away from it dieseling away in parking lots on hot summer days.

My contribution: The Volkswagen 411 (I learned to drive in one)

Martin