Some cars follow the rules. These six did not. In this video, we explore six of the most unusual, ambitious, and ultimately doomed automobiles ever built. From plywood chassis to sixteen-cylinder engines powered by a music producer, these machines were created by people who had no business building cars—and yet they did it anyway.
Frank Costin was an aircraft engineer who spent his career designing racing cars before deciding to build his own machine. The Costin Amigo was so light it weighed less than fifteen hundred pounds, with a chassis made entirely of plywood bonded with aerospace-grade adhesive. Despite winning races and proving its incredible handling, the car was too expensive and too unusual to attract buyers. Only eight or nine were ever built, but owners reported that at one hundred miles per hour, you could drive it with both hands off the wheel.
Vauxhall's XVR showed up at the Geneva Motor Show in 1966 and shocked everyone. Standing just forty inches tall with gullwing doors and split windshields that moved with the doors, it was designed by a young American named Wayne Cherry in just five months. GM killed the project, but one prototype survived hidden in the ceiling of the design studio for decades before being discovered and restored.
The Cizeta-Moroder V16T was funded by Giorgio Moroder, the legendary music producer behind the Top Gun soundtrack. It featured a custom sixteen-cylinder engine that was five feet wide and four stacked pop-up headlights per side. The partnership between the two partners fell apart over disagreements about production, and only around ten cars were built before the Japanese economic collapse ended demand.
Robert Jankel left fashion to build the Panther 6, a six-wheeled luxury car with a turbocharged Cadillac engine and a television in the dashboard. It cost more than the most expensive Ferrari of its time, but tire supplier Pirelli refused to make more tires for the car, and Panther Westwinds went bankrupt. Only one factory car was ever completed.
Jean Tastevin's Monica 560 was supposed to replace France's luxury car scene after Facel Vega shut down. Production took over a decade, the oil crisis destroyed demand, and only eight or ten were finished. Finally, Vern Schuppan's 962CR was a racing legend turned road car that bankrupted its creator when Japanese investors pulled out. Thirty years later, it still cannot find a buyer.6 Insane Cars That Broke Every Rule In The Book!
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