Random Video: 1951 “Park Car”

Utilising the spare wheel to help swing your car out of a tight space that the inventor says could be fitted to any car. Could easily see this making a resurgence with the size of modern cars and how small the parking spaces are in the UK!!!!!

Infiniti Q50 with Steer-by-Wire

So why am I featuring a current production vehicle that no doubt will be produced in the hundreds of thousands on a site for the rare and unusual? Well down to one feature, another first for a production car, no not some new hybrid system or electric drive, this saloons first is steer-by-wire, or Direct Adaptive Steering in Infiniti speak. Yes you read that right it’s the first production car where the steering wheel isn’t directly connected to the front wheels. Instead the motion is transmitted to the wheels via an electrical signal that operate servos that in turn moves the wheels!!!!! It also comes with 96 possible settings to boot.

Subaru BRAT Rear Seats

To be honest there’s probably enough about the BRAT to warrant its own article, but upon reading an article on Jalopnik about the lack of small pickups and 60 year old “chicken tax” as the reason behind it. So how did Subaru get around this?

Random Picture: Ford Fairlane 500

I saw the one below at a recent visit to the Haynes Motor Museum, what surprised me despite the size of the boot how small the actual storage area was if you wanted to drop that hard top in. The sticker on the side of the box says it all-

Nissan Pulsar NX

Sold in Japan, Australia and the US, this 3rd generation car was sold with an interchangeable rear, between 1986-90!!!! The dealership sold it as either an open top coupe (with its t-bar roof) or a hatchback/estate depending on what rear section was provided. It’s similar to an idea from Mercedes VRC, but on a server budget. I suppose it was meant to be a car for all users and could be changed to suit your life style at the time. To me it just doesn’t look finished, like part kit car, all's good up to the B pillar then oh dear. Still its unusual so found its way on here.

Vilkus VW Golf Hardtop

Okay this isn’t much of a production car more of an aftermarket modification, and what a modification. I first saw a picture of one of these taken at the Elsecar Megameet 2012, I’d never seen anything like it before and with that my interest was peaked. As I’ve mentioned this was an aftermarket hardtop produced by Top Techniks to replace the soft top on a Golf MK1 Convertible, but there’s much more to it than that.

Disappearing doors!!!!

Getting into a car usually involves opening a door and climbing in then leaning over and closing it, and as we know how doors open varies from car to car from the conventional way to suicide, roof hinged and scissor. Jaytech California LLC decided that it had found a niche in the market by making disappearing doors. Which they claim mean a driver can park in ever tighter parking spaces as you won’t need the additional space to open the door and make the car safer. They even fitted the system to a few cars and demonstrated this. At first glance it’s an awesome idea, but on a practical side maybe not, but still its most certainly innovative and unusual.