Not concepts. Not one-offs. Real production cars you could walk into a showroom and buy — and the smallest of them has no reverse gear at all.
Its engine sat in the tail, leaving a flat floor with chairs you could move around a small table. Widely called the first minivan. Only six to nine were built.
A 2.9-litre air-cooled V8 mounted behind the rear axle, and a fin down the back. It would do close to 100 mph at a time when most family cars managed 60.
The entire front of the car is the door. Open it and the steering wheel swings out with it. Over 100,000 sold, and it helped keep BMW alive after the war.
You climbed in under a hinged canopy and sat one behind the other, like a fighter crew. Designed by an aircraft engineer, and about 41,000 were made.
Twin propellers under the back bumper, and the front wheels double as rudders. 3,878 were built — still the most successful amphibious car ever sold.
One wheel at the front, two at the back, and a fibreglass body light enough to lift. Britain taxed it as a three-wheeler, which was the whole point.
Nissan shaped a delivery van like a snail and named it after escargot. It was sold for barely two years and 10,685 were made before the joke ended.
Four-wheel drive solved by fitting a second engine in the boot. Two ignitions, two fuel tanks, two gearboxes. Just 694 were built before demand dried up.
The smallest production car ever made: 54 inches long and around 130 pounds. There is no reverse gear. You get out, grab the handle, and drag it around.
Every car here cleared a boardroom, a budget and a production line. Most were built to dodge a tax rule or fix a problem nobody else was solving.