Cars That Never Made It (Part 2)

For every car that makes it to the mainstream market, countless other bizarre experiments never see the light of day. Join Scott and Ben as they explore some of the strangest, most innovative or (in some cases) just plain doomed cars that never made it to the showroom.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from how Stuff Works dot com. I welcome
card stuff. I'm Scott and I'm Ben, and we are
here with our super producer Null the idea Man Brown.
Uh that's appropriate for this podcast when you say I

(00:22):
believe so. Yeah, and most importantly you're here, which makes
this car stack. But most importantly you're here. Oh, I
was talking to the audience. Now it's soccer. It is. Well,
you gestured towards me. I guess you're just reward of
the outcausital audience here, right. Yeah, I'll be honest with everyone.
I'm a little bit loopy because I just got out

(00:43):
of the dentist earlier. So he's a pain killed. Maybe
you know, I didn't ask, but whatever they gave me
when I was in the office. Man, it might be
a weird episode today, but we have an announcement before
we start, right, Yes, we do. Yeah, we've got we've
got something that we talked about this uh frequently at
this point A few times we talked about this um

(01:04):
our friend, our old friend, Glenn Beck. And yeah, yeah,
the Glenn Beck, not the radio not the radio host guy. Yeah,
not the not the celebrity guy talking about the real
Glenn one that listens to our show. So just before
you know, Glenn participates in one of his rallies, because
he participates in these all the time, a couple of
times a year. Really. Um. He sends in some information

(01:26):
about the about the rally, the upcoming rally, and what
it's all about, who it's for, etcetera, hoping that maybe
some car stuff listeners will you know, stop by his
his page, you know, maybe donate a little bit, maybe
just get some information, maybe participate in the next rally.
That'd be really cool because I went out, you know,
recently the last rally that yeah, yeah, I was in
the Athens area. I guess they stayed in Athens, but

(01:47):
they went to a dragstrip um at Landed Ragway and
I spent the evening there with Glenn and some of
the guys from the rally, and man, what fun that
was the last huge adrenaline rush. So um, he's participating
in an other ones. So we'll talk about it just
here for just a moment. And it's the Ohio Valley
seven hundred again. It's run by Rally North American, and
I'll give you all the the site information in just

(02:08):
a moment, but it's happening very very soon. It's happening
from October nine through the eleventh. It's a two day event.
So here's what Glenn says. This one is for the
Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio and the mission of the
Epilepsy Foundation is to promote epilepsy awareness and research and
to provide support for epilepsy sufferers and their caregivers. Uh.
This this rally is a memory of Cody Converse, a

(02:31):
young man with lots of promises suddenly lost his life
to due to the effects of epilepsy um and then
he's got a link here to his own donation page
for Team Limber. We talked about Team Limber Mustang many times. Yeah,
long time listeners will recognize the Team Limber must Yeah,
and I will. I'll try to coordinate this so the
day that the day this episode releases, I'll put this

(02:52):
link on our Facebook page and that way you can
get to it, and it will be just ahead of
the rally, and you're able to donate if you feel
like it, do whatever you feel right. I'm gonna make
my donation, but we'll put it on our Twitter as well.
Weird car stuff hs W at both of those. Yeah,
we'll do that. And the goal of this year is
eighty thousand dollars and it sounds like a lot of money,
but they have already this this charity, this or the

(03:14):
brother of this association, the Rally North America has already
to date UM raised something like forty dollars for that
for that foundation alone, and overall Rally North America UM
events have raised something like four hundred and fifty thousand
dollars for all these different events. The last one they
tried to raise I think it's a hundred and twenty
five thousand, and I think they got right up to

(03:35):
the goal. I don't know if they they made the
one like a hundred twenties something like that. They got
really really close. So some big numbers. This is this event,
this rally. If you're in the area, it's definitely worth
seeing these guys when they come through town if you're
not already part of the Rally UM. And these are
all All of the money they raised goes to charities. Yeah, yeah,
every every every, every bit of it, Yeah, every penny

(03:56):
of it is an accredited UM, you know, charity, so
that you can donate with confidence, I guess, and this
this two day rally, I'll tell you where it goes,
just so you have an idea if you want to
catch these guys at one of the locations, because it
again it's so worth it. Oh I mentioned the scavenger
hunt part. That's all we definitely will they They start
out in Mackinaw City in Michigan. That's the last city

(04:16):
in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. So right before the
bridge that connects the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Penzla.
That's where they're gonna begin in some marine up there,
and that's an early morning start, and then they head
down to Muskegon, Michigan and uh On. So on day
two that's where they start. And then they finish in Xenia, Ohio,
which is um I think it's just outside of Date
in Ohio kind of in the I guess would be

(04:38):
the south west side of the state. UM. So it's
it's again the shorter rally, but definitely worth it. I
think they're gonna goes um to a um a local dragstrip. Again,
so if you can catch them somewhere in the Zenia
area at the at the drag strip, you might want
to do that. It's it's definitely worth seeing. It's kill
Care Raceway, right, kill Care Raceway. That's the one. I
didn't have it in my notes here, but Kypen and

(05:00):
uh yeah, this whole thing is kind of run like
a scavenger type thing. It's a scavenger type of rally,
so you know, they've got a list of things to get,
but it's all stuff they drive to. It's an automotive rally,
so um, you know that's the tie in with this
whole thing, and it's kind of tell you Ben. The
cars to participate in this rally are so cool looking.
I mean, they've got them done up with you know,
the numbers and the sponsorships and all that. They look

(05:22):
like race cars on the street, and a lot of
them are, um not muscle cars, but I'm thinking of
like like pony cars, a lot of pony cars and
sports cars and you know some I think some of
them are rental cars as a matter of fact, because
why I abuse your own car, right, what do you
say when you're renting the car? I guess you would
say nothing, you don't see any It's well but yeah, yeah,

(05:43):
you're right, But like like Glen's car, I mean the
team line or mustang he's he's had that for a
long time and it's kind of his baby. Um, it's
just it's a really great event. It's a lot of
fun to be around these people. And I'll tell you,
I'm gonna let you in on this, Ben, I think
I've already talked about this so week. It's not nothing
new to us. We're considering doing something with the rally

(06:04):
next year and I think there's one in the summer,
and we're talking about somehow being involved, you know, a
car stuff team maybe or a ride along or something.
We're gonna do something with it. We're not exactly sure
what level yet, but we're excited about it. So a
spoiler alert, everyone acts surprised. Yeah, and so if you
want more information about this, you can go to Raley
North America dot com and check that out. And again

(06:26):
I'll post, uh, you know, the donation page right to
the team limber page. So if you want to donate
to Glen's uh the Glen's team, please do so. And so,
without announcement, safe and happy driving to you, Mr Beck
and company. We are segueing into today's episode, which is

(06:46):
something we didn't expect we would end up doing No. No,
I didn't think so. We didn't think we're gonna get
to a second part of this whole thing, right. We
thought we're gonna wrap it up kind of quick, because
what are you gonna talk about with these cars? They
didn't really even make it anyways, they're kind of a
footnote in history. Yeah, we're talking about cars that never
made it. And Scott how he's naivea fair word. With

(07:06):
the best of intentions, we set out to record just
one episode, and we each had what we thought were
handful of interesting cars that never really made it, whether
they never made it past the concept stage, which or
what most of mine were, or whether they just never
really made it into the public eye. Yeah, a few
of these are kind of like, um, you know, one

(07:28):
off cars. Some a few a few cars that are
based on other vehicles, so they're like a kick car
version of another vehicle and very limited productions that no
one really knows about them. They're they're very scarce, they're
very uh, they're like hidden jewels really, because some of
these will turn up in museums. Some of them are
such oddities that you know, you may never ever get
to see them, you know, they they live in u

(07:49):
some of the secure little museum and tucked away in
some corner of the world. But um, mostly these are
just just fun cars to look at, punt cars to
talk about, right, And we have been enough to see
just a couple of these, one of which we mentioned previously,
which was the BMW. Yeah, that's right, we did. Uh.
We we're gonna go right back into it because we

(08:11):
didn't realize we're running out of time until we had
you know, like three minutes until it's way too late.
So we've got a well about half of our list
to go still, right, yeah, of us. Right, so do
you want to start or do you want me to start? Then?
Why don't you do the honors? Mr Benjamin? All right?
First up on my part two list, here is the
kind of strange one, the smart for Fun to concept

(08:33):
in two thousands six that was converted into a monster truck.
So smart car monster truck. Alright, Now, I think this
kind of made the rounds on the you know, on
the internet. It's uh again an oddity, it's a one
off type thing. But they used what here's what I
found in particularly interesting. They used a Unimog chassis for it.
And we have a show on the Unimogue which ran

(08:54):
so I think was right around the day. Here's May
of two thousand eleven. How Unimogs work. And uh, I
think that one is a it's a high speed stuff
show Ben and the early days, So be kind if
you listen to that. It's a little rough. But I
gotta tell you then, the look of this thing is
so unusual. I mean, it looks sooks like a cartoon.
Really it really is. Because I'm not saying that the

(09:18):
the Smart City Coupe is a bad car or something,
but I just don't know. It doesn't fit well. You know,
there was a whole bunch of cars that for a
long time, you know, people would take a like an
El Camino and they put it on a Blazer chassis
and then and then you know, put these giant wheels
on it. So they're kind of making their own little
monster truck that they could drive around town. And there's

(09:39):
a lot of versions of that. I know, we've seen purses,
we've seen cadillacs, we've seen smart cars like this one.
I've seen uh, you know, of course, pickup trucks. They'll
do that with as well, you know, small pickup trucks
like a Ford Ranger or something that that's kind of
funny at top, something like this. But when you put
a a smart car on top of a Unimog chassis,
I mean it looks comical, really very funny looking and

(10:01):
never ever intended for production, of course. But um, you know,
if you didn't catch this when it kind of made
the rounds in two thousand six or you know, seven
or eight, when everybody kind of heard of it, Um,
then it just kind of went away. You don't really
see this making the making the rounds on the blogs
anymore or anything like that. Uh, yeah, it's true. And
something like that always pops up. Someone always seems to

(10:23):
have a Unimog chassis or some uh a lot of
skill and spare time. When it comes to some mad science.
I always think about the jet engine beetle, remember that one.
That one is a great one, just for the sake
of how far can we take it? Yeah, somebody who
can weld, and then of course you know they just
take it to the extreme. Yeah, I'm gonna put a

(10:45):
jet engine in this tiny little car, or I'm gonna
put this smart vehicle on top of a unimonk chassis.
It's it's it's it's an interesting exercise either way, right right, Yeah, absolutely,
And I would say it's worth doing if you can
do it. Now. This I would say, the the Smart
for Fund two concept is an exercise in blending two

(11:06):
extreme opposites. Yeah. So it's all about extremes, and with
extremes in mind, I would like to take us to
what I consider an extreme in class. Scott, have you
heard of the Dosto Adventurer too? No? Have not. The
DeSoto adventure to my friend, is the kind of vehicle

(11:27):
that is the kind of vehicle that James Bond would
drive if you were in the US. It's European style
GT coop across within a big American cruiser. It's got
a gear body, so I got it. It's got a
Himy engine. Uh. And it's you know, it's like this

(11:47):
perfect marriage of Chrysler and Fiat. So it had it
had cow hide upholstery, machine turn chrome dash, a retractable
rear windshield, matched luggage. It came with matched luggage, you know, Ben,
I think I really like everything that comes out of
the Gear factory. Yeah. I just it always seems to
look good. There may be you know, an oddball here

(12:10):
there that I'm not crazy about, but it seems like
just about everything they produce out of that factory is
really good looking. Yeah. And it's what's strange about the
Theseudo Adventurer too, is that it's a one off, right,
So I don't know if it's quite fair to say
it never made it, but it's been bouncing back and
forth between collectors since it was built. Uh. The you

(12:30):
can read an article in Gelopnick about a guy who
found it at the Gateway Auto Museum when and it
was part of the collection of a guy named John
Hendrix who was who was executive at Discovery Channel. It's
kind of interesting. I like it when when a car
like that, a notable vehicle like that, is sold between museums,
you get a chance to see it in different parts

(12:50):
of the world. It was like, you know it so
maybe it lives in Sweden for a while, and you know,
I don't have much of a chance to see in
that right now, let's travel there, which is not in
the anytime in the near future. But like let's say
the Lane autom Museum picks it up here in Tennessee,
then I'll be able to get to go see that vehicle,
and then they might sell it over to the Peterson.
So if you're out in the California area, that l

(13:10):
a you're gonna get to see it. There. I like
that when they kind of traded around a little bits
it up. Oh and just for a point of order there,
Hendrix does not actually own the DeSoto. The other the
owner is displaying it in the museum. I see, So
it's on on loan, the collection on loan, right, you
know that kind of cool? Alright, Well, here I got
another one that this is an unusual vehicle. Um, kind

(13:33):
of a kick car. I guess this is a This
is called the Hustler and the Hustler Huntsman six. It's
from nineteen. It's a funny name. I get that. But
it is a strange, strange vehicle. So they sold about
five hundred of the east total. And you never guess it,
because I've never in my life scene one. Um, but
it is a most what they called a multi purpose vehicle.

(13:53):
I guess you couldn't call it a sport utility vehicle
back then, so multi purpose vehicle. It was designed by
a guy named William Hounds, and it's based on many mechanicals,
so it has a mini underpinning to this whole thing.
And when you see people standing next to it, you
get an idea of the size, but you don't you
don't see that when you just look at a photo
of it, you know how a field or something. Um.

(14:14):
The strangest one to me is possibly I think I
think this is the the Huntsman six that I'm looking
at here with the six wheels. That's got to be it.
Um strange, strange vehicle. I mean, it's kind of like
a mix of like three of these different vehicles. And
tell me if you see these in there. Of course
we know it's many under opinions, but it looks like
kind of like a golf cart, yeah, mini moke if

(14:36):
you know what that is. I think you do. And
a first or second generation range Rover kind of mixed in.
You know, I think that. I think putting the range
Rover in there is very kind you think, so the
same general shape okay, yeah, as far as like the
structure of it, sure, but those those are some tiny wheels, well,

(14:57):
yes they are. Yeah, And you know I'm looking at
the I'm just looking at the shape of the Huntsman
six UM. I think that that definitely has the back
end of the range Rover, but on a much scale
down yeah scale, I guess I don't have better say that.
The first thing I thought when I saw it was
golf cart. Oh yeah, that's true. It does look like that.
And you know, here's this, this is this is kind

(15:19):
of crazy. Ben found this out about it about them
because someone who had some knowledge of these vehicles had
written somewhere on some form that I that I was
reading about it. And uh, there were a lot of
variations of this. There was the Hustler four six, the
Huntsman that had both four and six wheel versions. Then
there was the Hellcat, the Sport, the Holiday, and the

(15:39):
and the fourth edition. I think there's even more than that.
And this is crazy. The Hustler Highlander version one that
had six wheels, which might be the one that's in
this photograph here, UM had a Jaguar V twelve engine
in it, so you can get a little yeah, I know,
it's like it's like a luxury addition version of the

(16:00):
Huntsman or the Hustler Huntsman. You're changing my mind about this,
because at first I thought this looks like, you know,
this is somewhere between a church van and a golf cart,
but that engine changes the equation. Yeah, so I guess
there is one. There's one out there, and I don't
know how many were built like this, but there's one
out there with a Jaguar V twelve engine and it's
and it is one of the six wheel vehicles. So

(16:22):
you can get that look with the Jaguar V twelve. Wow. Yeah, Okay,
maybe I will. I don't know what I'm doing this
weekend yet. My plans haven't solidified. Look into it. It It
might be worth your time. I just want to give
an honorable mention to one of the vehicles that I
think is, uh one of the ugliest vehicles I've ever seen. Really, Yeah,
the Dodge DOORA. Oh, you will recognize it as soon

(16:45):
as I show it to you. You like this one.
It's a beautiful car. Are you serious? You know what
this is? Okay, So this is a polarizing vehicle. This
is one that I don't like it all. I love
this vehicle. Why why do you love it? It's just
it has a I don't it has a classic look
to it. At nineteen sixties concept vehicle look to it
and I love that or early nineteen seventies, I don't

(17:06):
remember which. I think I've already posted that one to
our Facebook. Yeah you have. I would say though that
I would say that the front entryway, the way that opens,
that's cool. I just don't like the way it looks.
It looks like it's missing whatever it's supposed to attach to. Really, yeah,
it looks incomplete. That's the best way I could say.

(17:26):
It's like a cross between an old van, like a
nineteen sixties, right, and then a pickup truck. Yeah. Yeah,
but it's done seamlessly. It's like the same body that
goes all the way through the whole thing. And Yeah,
to me, that is a beautiful vehicle. I really do
like that one. You know it is it looks like
it's backwards. It looks like it's situated backwards because if
you look at it from this angle, imagine that there was,

(17:50):
you know, instead of a pickup right here, that there
was a there was a coupe seating, and then there
was a gigantic engine right here, and it drove that way.
That's what it looks like. There's something like almost a
flying shoe design about it. You know almost. I mean
you'd have to squint and step far back from the photograph.
But like a Corvette, you know that long long front

(18:12):
hood and then uh and then you know the whole
back end is where the people sit and you know
the fuel tanks and all that stuff. But um, yeah,
it kind of looks like a like a Corvette facing
the wrong way. Yes, I think that's what it is
on a fundamental level. And like who built this backwards car?
You know there's a few cars out there like that
that people think like it looks like it's it's facing

(18:33):
the wrong way. Like it's not so much like which
end is the front, It's like it just looks like
it's backwards, right, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and the course, and
you know, comparing that to Corvette, I understand, you know,
it doesn't have the same I'm saying the proportions are
about the same in the ratio, yeah two thirds of
it or to the back end of this thing, um,
whereas in a Corvette it's the opposite. So I can't
believe it. We haven't. We haven't really fallen out on

(18:55):
something since uh what flying cars. No, there's got to
be something that we've we've we've argued over Diora now
because that thing is a train wreck. Be well, you
know what, listeners should write in and tell us what
they think of the Diora, because um, I thought we'd
have to check, but I thought we got a decent
response about it on Facebook. Yeah, I think so. I

(19:18):
guess the question would be like, what kind of ugly
stick was it beaten with? Al Right, there packing the ballot,
So we're not going to get past this one, I
can see, okay. Anyway, it was invent It was introduced
as a concept vehicle at the nine seven Detroit Auto Rama,
based off a Dodge A one pick up, and it

(19:38):
was customized by this pair of brothers. They created a
front entry hatch, which we mentioned earlier. The engine is
under the truck bed and uh, a lot of people
seem to love the styling. What do you know? Well,
what do you know? What do you know? Well, fifty
percent of the people in this room loved the style exactly.

(20:01):
Weigh Well, no, it is not in the room. He's
not in the room. But you know he could come
in here and make it a two thirds majority one
way or the other. One way or the other way. Friend,
all right, I'm going to tell you about a Well,
this is a true hyper car. Remember when we did

(20:22):
the hypercar episode, Long long time, right, high stuff? Yeah,
I think it was high speed stuff. And we're talking
about cars that get in the one hundred miles per
gallon range. Right. This is one from back in nineteen
nine two and it was built by General Motors. It's
called the Ultra Light concept, and the Ultra Light Concept
it was actually used in the films. We'll tell you
about that in just a minute. But um, it's a

(20:43):
carbon fiber prototype. Again back in nineteen nine two that
was relatively unheard of. I mean, I know we had,
you know, the the compact vehicles that didn't yet have
all the weight that they do now. Some of those
were getting like, you know, sixty miles per gallon, you know,
in the in the late eighties. Yeah, but this is
one that that pushed it up to one hundred and

(21:03):
did that with of course, you can always mentioned carbon
fiber bodies and you know, um um plastic body working
all this stuff. You know that lowest the lowest weight possible.
That's how they went about building This one has kind
of a cool look. It's a futuristic look, and it
was used in the film Demolition Man as one of
the squad cars three Seashells. Do you remember Demolitian Man? Well, no,

(21:25):
I don't been Well if for our listeners who do
remember Demolition Man, I'm just gonna say Seashells, Sea Shells,
three Seashells. H Dennis Leary was in that film as well.
Really good memory. This was during the I was talking
about this recently because this was during the phase in
Dennis Leary's career where he would sometimes just appear in

(21:47):
other people's stuff and they would right into the story
the opportunity for him to go on a rant, and
so he goes on this rant that really impressed me
as a kid. Uh, and that it probably wasn't suppo
to listen to because it was just filled with curse works. Yeah,
you know what, I can remember some of that, like
he was famous for those rants or you know, I
still do that. I mean, I think he was in

(22:10):
a recent series not long ago, a few years ago
about firefighters, right yeah burn notice, Yeah, is that it? No,
I think it was a different one. I guess there
are a lot or maybe maybe it was that and
something else, But I thought he was played a firefighter,
and I think there were some uh Dennis lyric classic
Dennis learry rants in that as well. So, but you
see what he's known for. But the thing about the

(22:30):
Ultra Light is it brings us to another conversation that
I'd like to explore in the future, which is where
do those cars in sci fi movies come from? Because
you know, you see so many one offs who see
so many things that are more or less not working vehicles, right,

(22:51):
they're just kind of dummied up. But then you see
stuff like from Mad Max that where they use actual
craftsmanship to make these vehicles that work even though they're monstrous.
And I mean that in the best way. Oh sure, yeah,
I remember the okay, the you have to help me
with this, the real smooth concept vehicles from Audi. They
looked almost like a like a jelly bean. Oh, they

(23:12):
were on a track. What was that film with Will Smith? Right? Uh?
What was it? I Robot? It was I Robot, that's
the one. Yeah, I forgot the name of it, but
that's it. That's it. And they were on that the
track that you could hop in, hop on and off.
I seem to remember seeing a car from there. You know,
one of the mock up cars that had Audie badging
on it for sale on eBay or something like that.

(23:33):
You know, it's just a just a shell, a dummy shell,
but it looked really cool. I mean, it'd be a
great thing to put in the lobby of your your
business or something. But beyond that, you know, it's good
for nothing. Really. I mean, you can put in your carage,
you put on a trailer and take it the shows, maybe,
but that's about it. I don't even know if it
rolled really look like it just said on the ground,
Oh this car. I should mention this too. It was
used in the second season of sequest D s D

(23:56):
and in the movie Bicentennial Man as well, so it
got around. I don't know where it lives now. I
would bet, I would bet anything that this car is
in the GM Heritage Center right now. M yeah, I
wouldn't be surprised. Uh there. You know that places like
Ali Baba's Treasure Cave. Oh yeah, you know, yeah, you don't.
You don't ever get to see the whole thing. In fact,
if be invited into the Heritage Center to begin with,

(24:19):
and even when you're there, you don't see the whole collection. No,
there's they're they're like three people who can do that.
It's very very exclusive. Now I want to talk speaking exclusive,
I'd like to talk about another one off, the Pontiac
trans Am Experimental cam back. Yeah. I like CAMA Yeah
yeah yeah. So check this out. This is just from

(24:41):
two thousand and ten. But you see how they've got
the rear there. So the rear has the bay that
opens with um dull wing doors on either side and
uh it has a far far superior aerodynamics which you
is a better top speed, better MPG, but it also

(25:03):
has more storage space. This was based on eight five
trans am so you know what it looks like a
trans am wagon is what it looks like. It's gonna
like a trans am wagon. It's perfect. You know those
old Corvette wagons that we talked about in the first episode. Yeah,
it's it's very very similar in design. So cam back designs.
I've always loved that by that body style. It has
UH has a hundred and ninety horsepower UH and has

(25:25):
a three five cubic inch V eight. But there is
a catch. I was sold recently, by the way, but
there is a catch, Scott. If you drive it, you'll
have a great time as long as you're on a
closed course. The trans am can back has no ven
number and cannot be registered. Okay, so it's a non

(25:47):
street legal, is never intended for production, never indended to
be on the road. No, just a show car. It's
literally never gonna make it to the road. Well, that's
just like most of these cars and this right, you know,
the the motor Rama cars and all those. You know,
they a lot of times it's manufacturers and making them.
They don't bother registering them. Now, another one that is
on your list. This one's really interesting to me. Yeah,

(26:10):
I found this one interesting. I just love the shape
of this one. I think this one looks really cool.
It's uh, it's from the nineteen seventies, late nineteen seventies.
It's the Chrysler Cordoba the Oral and I hope I'm
saying that right, but we'll see. I guess maybe maybe
listeners all right, end with a correct, correct pronunciation. But
it's a concept that was designed by Elwood Ingle based

(26:31):
on the Seabody chassis with very thin A pillars. Now, okay,
there's a couple of reasons I picked this, Okay, a
couple of reasons, well, maybe three. One is that it
looks fantastic. I like, I likes it's got kind of
a shark nose front end um almost like um, you
know the Mako shark corvette head very similar if you
look at it carefully, like the top photo there. Um.

(26:52):
The other thing is that just mentioning in a pillars
right now puts me in your in your side, in
your corner because I'm having this is let's say, a
sidebar right here. I'm having a hell of a time
with my new vehicle and my wife's new vehicle seeing
people in parking lots because of the gigantic a pillars
and cars. Now, yeah, both of those. I know why

(27:15):
they're there. I understand. It's the rollover safety thing. It's
like it's a federally mandated thing that they're you know,
the crush uh um waits I guess of the you know,
if the rolls over, it's designed to hold up um. However,
they are so big and so obtrusive now, and I
find so many times when I'm in a parking lot
making a turn or trying to exit a parking space
or whatever, there's either a full vehicle depends on how

(27:40):
far away it is, or a person that happens to
be right in that spot where I can't see. And
as I moved the vehicle, it tracks with the person
and you get closer and closer, and you don't realize
that the person is thinking you're a jerk, because the
A pillers are just so gigantic now. And if you
look at the older cars, and I got in my
older card that's the third point, by the way, I

(28:00):
got in my my Newport that long ago and just
kind of stat in the seat, you know, just because
why not. And sat in the seat and I noticed
how thin the A pillars were on it. And I know,
you know, it would be awful if it rolled over, sure,
but it was almost a luxury to be able to
see so well out of that vehicle, you know, to
be able to say, and this one has exceptionally thin

(28:21):
A pillars. And I believe that you remember the Oh,
I want to say it was the Norseman. I think
they had a can't deliver design that had I want
to say that it had no A pillars. And then
the only place that the that the roof was attached
was at the back at the C pillar area or
the well, I guess it would be the the back
in the vehicle now becomes the A pillar. Right now,

(28:44):
it's the pillars the only pillar. Yeah, strange for the Norseman.
But but this one, this uh, this Cordoba from nine nine,
UM has such thin pillars. I thought that was a
cool thing to have. I know that it's dangerous. But
the other reason that I wanted to um point this
is Elwood Inkle with the guy that designed UM my
car once in my garage. He was the chief of

(29:07):
design from nineteen sixty one in nineteen seventy four, and
I think he retired in nineteen seventy three, but he
stuck around a consult until about nineteen seventy four. Now
they based it on the seabody that was UM. This
is kind of strange. It's the nineteen seventy nine concept.
This guy retired in nineteen seventy four, so it's kind

(29:28):
of strange how um, how that works out. He must
have come back in for consulting on this whole thing
and penned this one, but they didn't build it until
land or something like that. And just one last little
mention I want to say about this and why I'm
bringing this up is because not my car. My car
was like a you know, family vehicle. You know, it
wasn't anything special really. Um. He was known for designing

(29:49):
all of Chrysler's muscle cars. He was the guy that
was in the in office at that very critical time
Chrysler's history. So this this vehicle, even though it's way
out into the nineteen seventies, Um, it kind of has
a tie to that, that Chrysler muscle car history. You
could see it in the design. I mean, in by nine,
they weren't building stuff like that anymore. So it's kind
of a throwback to that. And I found this car

(30:10):
really really interesting. Yeah, I agree, and I'm glad you
showed it. I had not actually heard of this one beforehand.
And I want to see if you have heard of
this other one. You're ready, I'm ready, the Alpha Romeo
Bat five. Oh Ben, you know what? I saw the
Bat cars, all three of them, no way, and it's
like five, seven, and nine. Yeah, at the places in

(30:34):
Las Vegas, a place called the Auto Collections. I think,
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an old parking structure
that you know, they have the cars parked off on
the side. I've I've talked about this in the past.
You walk up the middle aisle, it's carpet and everything.
It's really nice and they changed it all the time.
It's for sale. I think this is part of a
special exhibit. Maybe they weren't for sale, but um, beautiful cars.
They have a really unique design, don't they. Yeah, and

(30:56):
it varies because that's that's one of the things that
they really spin a lot a time on. With the
Bat series, they were working with aerodynamic stability and creating
stuff that could use purely designed to eliminate drag coefficient
to maximize efficiency of energy. And what they came up with,

(31:19):
at least in the case of a BAT five, is
something that looks like a comic book supervillain would drive.
And that's why I love it. Yeah. Winged cars, right, Yeah,
they have wings, but the wings on the Bat but
the wings curl up and they have they have different
shapes to them. It's it's really a curved glass, I believe,
don't think beautiful designs. And and to see them all
in one place was really interesting And I didn't really

(31:39):
know exactly what I was looking at when I saw them.
I know I took a few probably grainy old you know,
hammera phone photos with a with an old flip phone
that I had or something, you know at the time,
because it was years and years ago. But man, that
is a cool that's a great pick man, you know.
Thank you. And although the Bat series didn't quote unquote
make it in that there are no production cars of them. Uh,

(32:01):
there is an update in two thousand and eight in Geneva,
but not At the Geneva Auto Show, Alfa Romeo introduced
a new one, the Bat eleven. Yeah have you have
you here? And you know what, just just for a reference, Oh,
that looks very similar. For reference, that would have been
right around the time when I saw them in Las Vegas.

(32:23):
So maybe they were out and making a tour or something,
or you know, on their way to the show. Maybe
that's connected. That's that's one of the that's one of
the cars that were I a supervillain, I would be driving,
and one of the older ones, right, yeah, yeah, the
Bat five for sure. So this eleven looks really cool.
Though the eleven looks cool. The eleven looks a little
bit more, I guess orthodox you know, it doesn't have

(32:45):
the same just strange bizarre emphasis on flow of air
you can see that it clearly takes some lessons learned
from the Bat five and seven and nine, but it
looks like they mainstream did a little bit, especially in
that front hood. And you know what, when I think

(33:06):
of when I think I want to see those bat vehicles,
I think of, um, this is very appropriate, I guess
when you see the the you know, like manta rays
when they're when they're in the water and their wings
curl up at Yeah, yeah, it's it's that kind of
shape and and it's clear and all three of those
and not so much in the last one that carried over.
There's something more like round about that. It still looks good.

(33:26):
That still looks good. But if I could pick one
and be the Bat five, yeah, and I would fight, uh,
you know super heroes, other super because you'd be the
bad guy. I'd be the bad guy. You can't be
you can't be a hero and drive a car like that. Scott,
That's true. I think like Batman. Batman has the batmobile. Yeah,
I don't feel sorry for him. Well, what I'm saying,

(33:48):
he's a good guy, right, Yeah, he is a good
guy up until recently when they made him the bad guy.
But i'd have to rename the car, then I think
I name it. We only use Falcon face punch. Well,
write in and let us know what you think is
a good name for a super villain vehicle akin face
punch Chance. All right, you know what I'm gonna choose

(34:09):
for my next one on another Chrysler And this is
I'll tell you why. It shows this in a moment.
It's called the the Chrysler Shake from nineteen seventy and
it's by Bertone and it is a this is so
unusual for Chrysler to do this. It's a beach buggy
prototype that's based on the rear engine Simca s now.
The Simca. I included a photo here of the Simca
just for reference. It's the French vehicle that was built

(34:31):
between nineteen and nineteen seventy one. And there's really nothing
all that remarkable about the the Simca in that photograph,
at least that one anyways. Um, it's just the underpinnings
of that vehicle. But they put a beach buggy body
on it, and it's a little bit like the Myers
Manx and that you know, it has that similar look,
but it's it's definitely different it's it's distinctively different from that.

(34:54):
And you'll have to see the photos to understand what
I mean. But I'll get a photo posted on our
Facebook sometime soon. But I just I love the shape
of this vehicle. It's really really cool and it's like
it's it's it's sort of it's longer than a beach buggy.
It's longer than a typical beach buggy would be. Yeah,
it's got a little longer wheelbase. It's a it's a
rear engine again, and it's got um uh, you know,

(35:14):
a chrome roll bar. It's got chrome air horns on
the top. It's got roll bars in the grab bars
on the side. Seating for two. It looks like maybe four.
It could be four, but the seats are made of
that material that's like the you know, the the old
lawn chair design with the woven webbing. Um. The seats
are kind of like that because it's got this beach theme,
I guess. But I think if you look at it

(35:35):
closely though the photos, I think that that is probably
more like seat belt material that they've used. So it's
not really really cheap, it's just it's a different look.
It's kind of a cool thing um again, just around
the metal frame, the shape of it. I just I
just love. It's very aggressive looking. It's got off road
tires kind of like an a TV would have today
because they're not very big. It's very small tires um
fold down wind shield or you know, flip down wind shields.

(35:58):
Just a it's a really cool looking v goal And
if you've never seen one, it's called the Chrysler Shake
again from Yeah, look it up. Tell us what you think.
I you know, I think it's even more interesting just
when you see it in comparison with the Simca itself. Yeah,
because it's such a dramatic difference from you know, from

(36:18):
the Simca to this vehicle. But that's what they used
for the base, and it's kind of like, you know,
the one that we just talked about, the Hustler six
and the Hustle four, how they used the mini underpinnings.
But it doesn't look anything like many. All right, Scott,
coming up next, I think we've got something that you
are going to really enjoy, my friends. Okay, you've hit
me with it, all right, it's the Lincoln Futurah. Yeah,

(36:40):
of course I love this one, I really do. Yeah,
it's got the it's got the odd canopy, it's all clear,
it's all like you can see everything, which is not
that practical on a hot day, clearly, sure. But it's
got some of those same stylized retrofuturistic cues. You know,
it's got the it's got the wing, Ben's coming out

(37:01):
at the back. It's got a genormous like just the
width of this thing. This is back when when GM
and the designers and the American public really was fascinated
with with the design of cars kind of mimicking rocketry,
you know, like airplanes and jets and and and rockets
and spaceships and all that and uh. And this one
definitely shows a lot of those characteristics in the design.

(37:23):
And that's not the most maybe interesting part of the
Lincoln future of it been. No, it's not. And this
is something that you know, we went through a phase
where we were all about these cars on the show too. Uh.
And there's a little bit of trivia here, but I
think you should do the honors. Well, I think most
of our listeners were probably already know this, but this

(37:45):
is the car that became the original Batmobile. Yeah, modified
in nineteen sixty six, by George Barriss, who we've discussed
on the show before. This was pot the car for
a dollar ye from GM, right, because is for let's see,
since fifty five it had really been just mothballs. It
was just put away somewhere. I mean, it's it didn't

(38:07):
look all that great when it came to George barrass
I mean it was I was definitely not in show
show condition by any means. So when he took it,
you know, he looked at that and there was another vehicle,
and if I I wish I could remember there were
two vehicles that he bought at the exact same time,
and he chose to make the future of the battleobile.
So it's interesting to think if he had chosen the
other vehicle. But I feel like I've posted something about it.

(38:28):
Yeah you have. Yeah, well we'll we'll get around to it. Uh.
So that that is one of my picks for cars
that I wish made it. Even though I know it's
kind of impractical. I I still would love my day
would be better in traffic if I saw some of
these vehicles on the road. And that's sort of my
I guess my methodology. Ye Oh, I love that vehicle.

(38:52):
I love everything about that design. I wish I wish
it had gone through into production exactly the way it was.
That would have been fantastic. There's a few other cars
like that too that had um airplane fuselage type. Looks
to the Cadillac that we saw when we went to
the High Museum with the Harley Earl cars and all that.
It's just there's some there's something about that era of
concept vehicles that it stands out. It's amazing. Um. All right,

(39:15):
I've got one more ben and then that's the end
of my list. All right, Well, let's have a drum roll.
This is the Citron Visa Lotus from two and this
is what Citron called their Genesis project, and it's a
homologation special. So it's a vehicle that was uh it

(39:39):
mimics the the rally car, the actual the actual the
race car because they're trying to get into the World
Rally Championship Group B series, you remember the famous group
the rally vehicles that we both love so much, UM,
And they had to build two prototypes of this vehicle,
and this is one of them that we're looking at
here in these photos. Um, they use the oh, this

(39:59):
is a crazy ben they use the the mid engine
rear wheel drive is Spree chassis. So the Lotus of Spree,
you know, the bigger James Bond beak, like that's the
one that turned into a submarine, that vehicle, um, and
then they paired that. But that one had the sixteen
valve two point two leader engine with um a Visa body.

(40:19):
So it's like a kind of a nondescript um you know,
uh hatchback liot body that they put on top of
those things. You can imagine how potent of vehicle this
is already. And they add, of course the aero skirts
and you know, all the air intakes and the box
wheel flares, and it looks really really cool. It's a
really interesting looking um hatchback design. Uh, sort of along

(40:40):
the lines of a Renault five veal, the Turbo five,
remember that one similar to that, not exactly you have
to see it to understand what I mean. But there
are only two that were ever built, and this is
the only one that exists today, the one that we're
looking at this photograph. And again I'll get a photo
of this up on our Facebook at some point, maybe
not right away. UM. So you know the reason it
was abandoned. Why do they Where did they stop building

(41:02):
this one? And this is again two. It wasn't necessarily
because the series ended or anything like that, because that
happened in six. So what happened was the competitors were
starting to switch to all wheel drive setups, so you know,
like Audi was in there with their quadro vehicle and
this one would never ever compete with it, and it
just wasn't going to stand up to the competition. So
they abandoned this whole project. And this was kind of

(41:23):
like a an orphan vehicle. I yeah, really, I mean, so,
you know, too bad. But at least one of them exists,
and it's um it's sit Ron's Heritage Center. That's where
it's on display right now. And if you are lucky
enough to see it, we would love to see some pictures,
especially if you can get under the hood. For sure.
I don't know, I don't know how you swing that

(41:44):
into music. You have to get under the hatch, I
guess the way in the back. Yeah, it's true. Yeah,
I should have said, hatch, what's gonna be up front? There?
Maybe some maybe the matching luggage set. Oh man, I
can't believe you said that in a group B rally car.
What do you think about that? I I I get
the idea of opulence and luxury, But this whole thing
about like matching luggage, I may surprise you with this one.

(42:06):
I'm all for it because if you buy a car
that is like a specific type of car, if you
buy a car that is like a like a Ferrari
or something like, Oh, I I know, I already know
what you're gonna say. It fits. Otherwise you you can't
find a piece of luggage that fits. And they design
that stuff so that it's it's it fits the exact
space that they have. You know, the dimensions are perfect
for it. Otherwise I would say it's a little bit

(42:29):
of you know, not a waste, but I mean it's
an extravagance. I suppose if you have you have a
big Bentley or a Rolls Royce or something, and you've
got lots of room, um, not necessarily any need to
buy matching the luggage other than just you know, appearance,
and that's kind of cool, But ye have something like
that at a very specific thing like sports car. I

(42:49):
say that yeah, if if you've got the opportunity to
go for it, what's your opinion, because I've probably changed
your view, right, No, that makes sense. It doesn't change
my view on It doesn't change my view on the
practice itself. I can see how, especially if we're talking
about a a high performance car that is very small
storage space but still wants to be seen as luxurious

(43:12):
as well as you know, high powered, I can see
how you would need to have some sort of custom
built thing that would fit the strange, awkward size of
your trunk or your boot or whatever you want to
call it. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly how I feel. Yeah,
that makes sense. But with that being said, then why
don't all cars do that? See? Why why can't we

(43:35):
automatically have for things like corollas you know, or an accord?
Why can't there just be a I'm gonna saying, some
super fancy leather uh luggage set, but some storage things
that are already built into the trunk. Or how about
this idea. I like what you're saying. I'm gonna spring
board off of that idea because I'm an idea guy.

(43:56):
I can't really implement anything, but I'm an idea. You're
a regular nold Brown. Yeah, how about a set of
a set of golf clubs that fit the vehicle. Now,
I know, you can't do anything about the length of
the golf golf clubs himself. But you know a lot
of these manufacturers, like like Cadillac and Lexus and all that,
they will they will say that, you know, you can
fit three sets of golf clubs in the back of
the in the back of the trunk here, right, Yeah,

(44:16):
it's easy to do it. It's like a unit of measurement. Yeah,
that's right. But but that varies so much in size,
and it seems like if they were to make custom
golf bags that you know, well maybe maybe I don't know,
because you still have the problem of having you know,
whatever length clubs for you know, somebody who's six foot
tall or somebody who's five feet What about collapsible clubs
that would probably that would probably wouldn't work. You know,

(44:38):
it's another idea. It's an untapped market. I feel like
now we're getting to inventions that never made it. Yeah. Yeah,
it probably just gave somebody a million dollar idea. Oh guys,
don't steal the look. I need the money. So I'm
gonna I am gonna close though with one last vehicle
that we're not going to go into much depth on today.
All right, all right, you know earlier you and I,

(45:00):
you and I didn't quite come to blows, but we
disagree about the Diora and I respect your decision, so
I do not agree with it. There's one other one
that I think, I think you might completely agree with,
and it's a car that never made it. Scott, I'm

(45:20):
talking about the safety car. I'm talking about the Aurora
safety Car. I don't want to say too much because
we're gonna look into this in a future episode, other
than to say, um, if beauty is in the eye
of the beholder, whoever was designing this should have looked

(45:41):
at it a couple more times. Yeah, I agree. I
think we're on the same page here. That is, I
can I'll say it's an ugly car. Can I say
this on the air? The front of the car? You know,
there's this purposeful thing that designers do, right and when
when they're hacking human psychology, and they make the front
end of the vehicle sometimes resemble a face, right, two headlights, grill, uh,

(46:05):
maybe a little bit of badging right in the middle.
But this, while it might humanize the car, this can
go horribly wrong, and it went horribly wrong in the
case of the Aurora's safety car. I hope I don't
get in trouble for speaking plainly on this, Scott, But
with all due respect to the intentions of the designer,
this thing looks like it it's smiling like a jackass,

(46:27):
you know. And and uh, I'm this is one of
the cars I'm glad never made it. Yeah, I agree
with you. And it's it's not a pretty sight. And
I think somebody recently found this vehicle and restored it. Uh,
maybe maybe there's more to come on this vehicle, you think, Yeah,
there's more to come because we mentioned the you know,
we mentioned that it is ugly, and I don't I'm

(46:51):
torn because, as we'll find in the future, the intentions
of the designer and some of the function of the
vehicle or actually quite quite clever. Yeah, there were some
revolutionary ideas implemented on this vehicle, that's for sure. Uh.
The execution of that that plan, though, kind of went
awry at some point, clearly. Yeah, I mean, that's that's

(47:14):
what happens. He needed help, he needed a little help,
and we were talking about we're talking about the designer
of the vehicle. But that's all we'll say for now.
That's the last thing. I we We have gone the
gamut here. We started out with with Raleigh, North America,
by the lego to Raleigh, North America, dot got and
uh and support our Franklin. Um. We also talked about well,

(47:34):
the second set of vehicles, you know, the concept vehicles,
the one off whatever. We did a lot of those today.
We talked about eight pillars. Yeah, about my my lousy
kind of or my lousy project car that's still sitting
in the garage doing nothing. We talked about fitted luggage.
We did about an exceptionally ugly vehicle at the end
of the show here uh, and possibly another car stuff

(47:57):
topic in the near future. Um Man, we're all let
me go from here. Well, I guess now it's time
to go to my favorite part of the show, which
we'll be hearing from the listeners. We asked our earlier
episode about concept cars that never made it? Is there
one that you are inspired by having heard the conclusion
of what became our series on cars that Never made it?

(48:19):
If so, we'd like to hear it, or do you
have an opinion. I don't know. I'm gonna open a
dangerous dore Scott. No, you guys got my back right,
all right? I didn't hear nol Okay, I'll take I'll
take your vaguely accusatory nod as as a signal to
go on. Now, by the way, we need to get
him in there for for that or a vote, because
I have a feeling that Noel will be on my

(48:40):
side on this one. Are you serious? All right? Hey?
And you guys vote as well to dodge diora uh
love it or hit for it? Or again? Oh another
for it or again it? Are you for it or again?
I am again? And you were for definitely for so also,
let us know if there are any other vehicles that
we talked about today that you think we got completely wrong.

(49:04):
These are amazing or these are garbage and why uh?
And vehicles that we should have mentioned so we can
tell the rest of the listeners about this amazing cars
that may they may have not have heard of before.
Good idea I like to hear of from the listeners
when they when they write in with their own suggestions,
like actually, most of these emails stare up this way.

(49:24):
I can't believe you didn't mention this one, but there's
there's thousands of these out there, so there's no way
in our forty five minutes we had or whatever, where
I guess be more like our and a half. We'd
have to dedicate an entire show to just laundry listing.
And when I say show, I don't mean an episode.
I mean we have to make a new show called
the Cars That Never Made Yeah, And then we would

(49:45):
just do that all day long, every day, and we
still would not get the no. I think there would
be some weird math involved about the years that would take.
But in lieu of that, we are going to move
on to cover some new things in upcoming episodes, and
we'd like your check us out on Facebook and Twitter
to see some of the posts that Scott and now
we're talking about earlier. And here's where you come in.

(50:07):
If you want to help us find new topics for
upcoming episodes, we'd love to hear from you. You can
write to us directly at our stuff at how stuff
work dot com For more on this and thousands of
other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com. Let
us know what you think. Send an email to podcast

(50:27):
at how stuff works dot com