From Concept to Reality: Unconventional Car Designs

Call them weird or be a little nicer and call them unconventional; some car designs are a bit out there and something we don’t expect to find on the roads.

The oddest of cars aren’t for everyone, but they show some serious creativity on the part of the automakers. Whether these cars became popular and the designs were adopted across the industry, or the style elements were mired with ridicule and disdain for what they are, these car designs bring about conversations that we continue to have even long after some have gone by the wayside.

Chevrolet El Camino

The Chevrolet El Camino combined the benefits of a pickup truck with a powerful coupe during the height of the muscle car era. This car meant that owners could bring home a washing machine or refrigerator one day and then take on some hot muscle machines at the drag strip the next day. This car showed up in 1958, and by 1964, it was powered by an incredible 300-horsepower V8 engine. This combination was popular and spread to other brands that copied with the El Camino brought to the market.

Pea Car

Yes, this little car looks as bad as it sounds. If you want to sell peas to the world because you’ve grown a farm full of them, this was a great choice, but otherwise, it seems to have been useless. The Pea Car featured one of the most unconventional car designs ever offered with a small, round shape. London-based Asylum built this little car with VW Beetle headlights and a small Honda engine. It could actually reach 60 mph and was good as a single-passenger vehicle for city driving.

Fiat Multipla

The Fiat Multipla is considered to be one of the most unusual cars in the market. This little Fiat has a strange shape with a crazy bulge just below the windshield where a high-positioned set of headlights reside. The weird look of this six-seat Fiat makes it look crazy. You might not expect this to be a car that is relatively modern, but it came about in 1999 and was produced until 2003 as one of the oddest cars offered in Europe.

Leyat Helica

The early days of automotive design were as bad as the wild west during expansion to the Pacific Ocean. The Leyat Helica was developed by French biplane designer Marcel Leyat in 1921. He believed cars were too heavy and not aerodynamic, which led him to give us a car powered by a massive turbine, which allowed it to look more like a wingless plane than a car. The entire vehicle weighed 550 pounds, and it had a top speed of 106 mph. Thirty models were built, and 23 were sold, but it was considered to be a widely unsafe vehicle to drive.

L’Oeuf Electrique

Imagine seeing a car that looked like a transparent egg powered by electricity in 1942. This interesting little car was easily one of the most unconventional car designs ever created. This car was created by Paul Arzens, and only one was made. During World War II, there was a gasoline shortage, which led him to build this little car with three wheels and an electric battery pack. This little car from 1942 offered 63 miles of EV driving and a top speed of 44 mph, which certainly put it ahead of its time.

Nissan Cube

If you want polarizing and odd, the Nissan Cube certainly gave us that. This small and boxy car was offered around the same time as the other toaster mobiles, which were the Honda Element, Kia Soul, and Scion xB. To date, the Soul is the only one that survived. The 2009 Nissan Cube offered the weirdness of strangely placed windows and a side-hinged rear door which wasn’t typically offered at this time.

Karlmann King

The most expensive SUV in the world is the Karlmann King. Of course, at some point, another vehicle will certainly take its place. If you’re looking for a massive vehicle that looks utterly bulletproof, this is the machine. It is easily one of the most unconventional car designs ever offered, with incredible luxury. This massive SUV looks like a combination of an F-117 stealth fighter and a supercar. The vehicle uses a Ford F-550 chassis and a massive 6.8-liter V10 engine with tons of amazing luxury elements built into it.

These seven vehicles are only a few examples of the most unconventional car designs to ever hit the road. Would you ever want to drive any of them?