Weird wonders. Cars that make you go, "hmm"

Sometimes, you’ll look at a car and say to yourself, “what the deuce?!”

Anyone who believes car shows are all ’57 Chevys and ’69 Camaros aren’t really paying attention. Sure, you’re going to see the old stand-bys, but most every gathering of vintage iron is going to have at least one completely off-the-wall, extraordinarily unusual ride. Bizarre? Perhaps. Creative? Definitely.

Today, we celebrate that alternative world. These are cars that you would never think you want, but you just can’t help but be attracted to them. These are the freaks—microcars, radical rats, shorties, home-built haulers—cars that are wonderfully comfortable in their own skins. They are nerdmobiles, but they’re too cool to know it.

There’s a car in here that was built out of a freezer. There’s a bus that looks like a giant wiener. There’s a Hemi-powered Big Wheel. And there’s a car that immortalizes The King. Rational thought was on the back-burner. This was a shock and awe campaign.

Some of them are genuine works of art. The “Dwarf Mercury” is an amazing half-scale clone of a ’49 Merc, perfect in every detail and completely jaw-dropping in its execution. The Chopper Hearse is exactly what you need to take that easy ride to the sky. And the Racine Roadster is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

So how can we harness the power of these fabulous freaks all in one place? Well, I went ahead and perused the HMC archives to amass a collection of photos, complete with captions, of several standout weird wonders. Some of them I really like. Some of them I really do not. And I believe that is the reaction you will have too. Because when someone puts something on display that is truly out of the ordinary, a neutral reaction is nearly impossible.

Enjoy the slideshow! Click the dialogue balloon in the bottom left corner for captions.