World's Weirdest Racing Cars (Top 8)

As exemplified by the current Ford Mustang in V8 Supercars, teams have often tried to bend the rules with weird cars. Also, some just liked to be different for publicity reasons. Here are eight of the strangest racing cars in racing history.

8. Volvo 850 BTCC

Volvo made the first wagon to ever appear in BTCC. And it did very well. Swedish Volvo driver Rickard Rydell etched his name into BTCC history with a robust driving style leading to third in the 1995 championship. The 850 took part only in 1994, but a saloon version of the same chassis replaced it in 1995 and did fairly well as mentioned above.

7. Ferrari 250 Breadvan GTO

In 1962 Ferrari unveiled the 250 GTO replacing the 250 SWB, but one racing team couldn't upgrade: Scuderia Serenissima. The owner, Count Volpi, had poached staff from Ferrari for his formula 1 team ATS. So he hired Giovanni Bizzarrini to upgrade his SWB, and this unlikely-looking creation came out. The car was faster than most other GTOs and could have been the lead Ferrari in 1962 at Le Mans had it not lost a driveshaft.

6. Toyota Prius Super GT

In 2012, the team aps built a GT300 Prius to compete in the Super GT series in Japan. The car is powered by a V8 but it's partnered to a supercapacitor that also provides electric power. The first generation had two second places in the series and there is a brand new generation in 2019 after the original's mid-engine layout was banned.

5. Tyrrell P34

In 1976, Ken Tyrrell read the regulations about the new front wing sizes and decided to have two smaller wheels behind it instead of one big one protruding above the wing. This created the P34. Jackie Stewart and Jody Scheckter were neither fans, but it did see some success in the hands of Scheckter and Patrick Depailler, with Scheckter winning the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix.

4. Chevrolet Chevelle

This entry does sound relatively normal but there was a big difference. In 1966, NASCAR hero/cheat Smokey Yunick produced a Chevelle. Everything looked normal. But upon closer inspection, it was discovered to be a 7/8 scale model.

No, of course it wasn't. That's an urban legend. If it was it'd be first in this list, since it isn't it still gets a place. Why? The entire aerodynamics of the car have been remodelled to make it faster. Sneaky move, eh? NASCAR still banned it even though it was the correct size.

3. Peugeot 806 ProCar

Well, this is a minivan, not a car, but it still counts, and after the disqualification of the 7/8 scale car, it moves onto the podium of weirdest racing cars. Peugeot wanted to develop a car in Belgium for the Spa 24 hours in 1995. They turned to Kronos Racing to build the car, and Kronos inexplicably chose the 806 minivan. But still, it qualified third in class. It proved to be quick but unreliable and retired with a engine failure 10 hours in.

2. Chaparral 2J

The Chaparral company has the distinction of having two of their four cars banned. That's a 50% success rate. Way to go! The 2J was banned for a similar reason to the Brabham BT45B- a big fan at the back. However, the actual reason it was banned was not because of the fan but the fact the fan was movable.

1. Nissan DeltaWing

Now this one is truly bizarre. All American Motorsports and Panoz devised this car in 2012 and it was actually allowed to run at the Le Man 24 Hours. Nissan built the enginee and also sponsored the effort. It ran as a Garage 56 entry for 'experimental vehicles', which this... thing definitely is. Unfortunately, it failed to finish after hitting a Toyota TS030, then the wall, on lap 75, but continue to compete until the end of 2016.

So they are the top 8 weirdest racing cars, in my opinion! Did I miss anything? Let me know!