Strange Specials

Forgive me, please, but I can’t tell you much about any of these oddities. I present them here and now for the same reason that made me and, I presume, my dad take their pictures—astonishment. “Hey, isn’t this a weird one?” Some were quite good-looking, but others…well, maybe we shot them to put them out of their misery. Then both we, and history, moved on, and neither of us ever saw these strange specimens again. Meanwhile, alternative, successful gene pools created by the Jim Halls and Colin Chapmans established the shape of today’s racing world.

But take a fresh look at these forgotten ones. Aren’t they fun to look at? See how bold they are, how imaginative, how down-to-earth practical? It takes guts to craft contraptions like these, and I reckon some desperation as well—a need to race, so intense that you don’t care what anyone thinks. Well, haven’t we all had that feeling?