Hanging in there

 A freestyle motocross rider participating in the EICMA exhibition motorcycle fair near Milan, Italy earlier this month.

Banana for scale

 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

One off

 

Ghia Selene

Ghia Selene 1

Ghia Selene II

The Ghia Selenes were designed by Tom Tjaarda. The Selene I was introduced at the 1959 Turin Motor Show. It was designed to carry two people in the front and four in the rear. It had a large rear area for an engine but one was never fitted. The Selene II had a central steering position for the driver in the front and seating for four behind.

Gutbrod Superior

The Superior was built by Gutbrod in Germany from 1950 to 1954. 6860 cabriolets (steel tops with a sliding fabric roof) and 866 estates (wagons) were built in that time.  They were powered by a two stroke engine using a three speed transmission with front wheel drive. More information is available here.

1952 Fiat 8V

The 8V was produced from 1952 through 1954 and only 114 cars were produced in that time. Although production stopped in 1954 the cars continued to win the 2 liter GT championship class every year until 1959.

The Edsel might have evolved into something like this

 

Custom

 

The Cosmic Cruiser

 The Cosmic Cruiser began in 1974 when Ivan Benic cut a Chevrolet van in half. Three years later it had evolved into a 34 foot long 10,400 pound eight wheeled cruiser. Read the story and watch a couple of videos at Autoevolution.

1953 Ardex

 

Ardex was a French company that was involved in the automobile industry from 1934 until 1958.

This particular effort had a body of vinyl covered plywood. Definitive information on the Ardex vehicles is limited. A bit of addition information is available at Microcarfan.

Promotional display

Western R.V. Country is an RV dealership in Alberta, Canada

 

Odd towing arrangement

 

Rat rod trucker

 The truck was built by Ira Ricardo Forbes and you can see his YouTube channel here.

1941 Chrysler Thumderbolt

The 1941 Thunderbolt was a concept car that was built by the coachbuilders LaBaron Incorporated. It was introduced at the 1940 New York Auto Show. Five Thunderbolts were produced. The body was aluminum on a steel frame. The engine produced 143 horsepower and the transmission was a semi-automatic fluid drive three speed.

Overloaded

 

1995 Chrysler Atlantic

 

The Atlantic Concept was inspired by French cars from the 1930's especially the 1939 Bugatti Type 57 SC. The straight eight engine was a 4.0 liter producing 325hp from combining two Chrysler Neon four cylinder blocks.

Econom Teddy

The company Hanomag was founded by Hellmuth Butenuth in Spandau, Germany. It struggled to compete against the companies that had been in production before WWII.

Trucks were first in production and they were mostly vehicles rebuilt from used commercial vehicles and parts due to the lack of supplies. 

In 1949 a car called the Econom Teddy was developed. Plans were to produce both sedans and convertibles. There was not sufficient public interest in the the car. The car was built in small numbers until June of 1950.

Snowbird headed South

 

Mini Shorty

 

Apparently this Mini began life in 1968 as a Morris Mini 1000 and underwent a number of modifications to wind up as this Mini Shorty. It sold on an online auction in 2021. Read more about the car at carandclassic.com

Wood power

 A wood gas generator in use during WWII to conserve petroleum resources for the war effort. FEMA has information on constructing a similar device should the need arise in the future. See the PDF here.

Dually

 

1951 Hoffmann

The three wheeled Hoffmann was built by Michael Hoffmann who was a shop foreman in Munich, Germany. It was the only one built and is housed in the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. The car was not user friendly. You can read about the drawbacks in its design here.
 

1936 Mercedes Benz 170H

The 170H was inspired by Porsche's work on powering vehicles with rear mounted engines. It featured a 1.7 liter four cylinder engine. The fact that the engine was rear mounted gave the car very different handling characteristics than they were accustomed to.

The 170H was not a commercial success but it helped lay the groundwork for the Volkswagen Beetle that would be introduced in the following decade.
 

1959 Dodge Custom Royal coupe

 

Headed West

 

Protester

 

1984 Zoe Zipper

The Zipper was introduced in Japan in 1982 and was a available in the US the following year. It was offered as a hardtop or a convertible. The cost of the hardtop was $3785.

It was powered by a 50cc Honda motorcycle engine producing 5 hp. Top speed was 45mph and achieved 120mpg on regular gasoline. It could accommodate only one person. Additional information on Zoe Motors is available here.

1940's communication

 

1995 Marcos Mantara LM600 GT1

The Mantara was built specifically to the rules of FIA GT2 rules. It competed in the British GT2 Championship, BPR Global GT Series and the FIA GT Championship between 1995 and 1997.

This is perhaps an example of a race car design that does not transition to a good looking street car.

1949 Gomolzig Thaifun Stromlinienwagen

   

Herbert Gomolzig designed and built this rather sophisticated vehicle when most of post war German auto design/production was focused on simpler and smaller cars. The Thaifun was built on a BMW chassis and was probably powered by a four cylinder BMW engine. A little more information can be found here.