Weird Cars

Here is a celebration of eccentric cars in all shapes and sizes - some of the most ugly, crazily designed and downright awkward vehicles of all time. Where else would you find, in one book, descriptions and photographs of 250 automotive oddities as diverse as the 1920 propeller-driven Leyat Aerocar and the Purves Dynasphere - a huge wheel in which the driver sat suspended, trying to maintain momentum and stability? And the Gatso with its three headlights, perspex roof and blob-shaped body. Then there is the Wolseley Gyrocar from 1912: a gyroscope, driven by dynamo, kept this three-ton vehicle upright. The Amphicar, Germany's answer to driving on land and water, also features, and there is even a modern equivalent in the form of the Aquada. Today, when cars are designed and built so efficiently, all of these oddballs provide a welcome glimpse of the opposite end of the motoring spectrum, where weirdness and charm are mixed in equal measure.