Designing a purpose-built competition car without paying attention to aerodynamics is unthinkable today.
The Lagonda was an unusual Aston Martin in that it was a saloon rather than a sports car, but that’s not what people talked about when it first appeared.
The Type K was a technically advanced car in production form, but its appearance was not out of the ordinary for a model introduced in 1922.
With its open two-seater body and components borrowed from other BMC models, the first-generation Sprite was at first glance as conventional a mid-century British sports car as could be imagined.
Assuming a car has doors at all, they are almost always hinged at the front, or more rarely at the back. Gullwing and scissor types also appear occasionally.
There are cars, and then there is the Citroën 2CV. Designed before the Second World War and still in production as late as 1990, it was intended to answer the needs of low-income motorists.
Looking back, it seems astonishing that the only cars Citroën produced for several years were the 2CV (and its derivatives) and the DS.
Well, then you’d need the Multipla derivative. Mechanically identical to the saloon, it had a third row of seats mounted in front of the other two.
Ford went a step too far with this when it created the Consul Classic. Its dramatic appearance was probably the main reason for poor sales.
Not normally associated with eccentricity, Isuzu displayed the VehiCROSS as a concept in 1993 and put it into production with minimal changes four years later.