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Weird Cars: A compilation of 77 avant garde silly, slow, experimental, failed, rare, ridiculous, revolutionary, obsolete, obscure, idiotic, and X-rated machines Paperback – January 15, 2015

by Michael Banovsky (Author), Nicholas Maronese (Editor)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 68 ratings
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Weird Cars is compilation of 77 avant garde, silly, slow, experimental, failed, rare, ridiculous, revolutionary, obsolete, obscure idiotic, and X-rated machines. Written for the informed and adventurous automotive enthusiast, the book is a series of vignettes focused on car stories you won't read anywhere else.

Author's note (2022): Thanks for dropping by!This book is no longer in print; my latest writing about cars and store of published materials is online at https://speedster.news/ Used copies of Weird Cars can be found here on Amazon, as well as on eBay and other used booksellers. A (much improved) sequel is on its way. :)

Introduction cont'd: As much as you may know about automotive history, sometimes strange things happen. Designs emerge. Tastes change. Economies collapse. Companies merge. Racing selects the winners. Sales Weird cars are interesting because they’re different. Because sometimes the world wasn’t ready—and sometimes because people don’t want to buy a Ferrari with no doors. From a royal car named after a nuclear bomb test to an SUV known by its exhaust pipes, Weird Cars is a collection of misfits thrown together simply because they don’t belong anywhere else.
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  1. Print length
    314 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    January 15, 2015
  4. Dimensions
    4.75 x 0.75 x 8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1505509696
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1505509694
  7. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Banovsky's first word was "car," and his condition hasn't improved since. A journalism graduate and former automotive reviewer, his love of cars transcends the normal and focuses on the exceptional. Writing about rare and interesting designs from around the world keep him busy daily with an all-new story on his website, banovsky.com

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (January 15, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 314 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1505509696
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1505509694
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.75 x 0.75 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 68 ratings

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
68 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Wiley Hodges
5.0 out of 5 stars Weird fun for the car crazy
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2015
Verified Purchase
As a fan of Michael Banovsky's Car of the Day, I couldn't pass up Weird Cars. It's a great collection of some of the wildest things ever to hit the road. If you love cars, you owe it to yourself to get this volume (and to subscribe to and support Michael's Car of the Day email list).
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Jonas Stallmeister
4.0 out of 5 stars Compiled from the one newsletter that I like to see in the inbox
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2014
Compiled from the one newsletter that I like to see in the inbox. Michael Banovsky won me over by featuring cars that nearly all were new to me, and I'd say I know a bit about car design and history. He kept me as a reader with witty, personal writing. He hints at a large car design knowledge without bragging and separates unconventional thinking from bad ideas. Writer and subject are a perfect match.

The layout is the only problem. Weird Cars shouldn't be a cookie cutter ebook with awful typography. It should be a coffee table brick.
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Betsy Grill
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read and good info
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2019
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I love the authors sense of humor. I recommend this book to anyone interested in strange and exotic cars throughout history and from around the world.
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Justin Laberge
5.0 out of 5 stars For Car lovers
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2015
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As a reader of Michael's daily newsletter this book is exactly what I want. I strongly recommend it for anyone that is even remotely interested in cars.
2 people found this helpful
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Mike P. Banovsky
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book.
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2015
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading Weird Cars. Interesting cars and great writing. Looking forward to the next one.
One person found this helpful
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WTS
3.0 out of 5 stars A little dry reading but informative
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2015
Verified Purchase
Not exactly what I expected. I thought it would be more interesting. The cars mentioned are pretty odd but the book itself is not written dynamically and is more like a weird car text book in its "just the facts" style. A little dry but informative.
2 people found this helpful
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zoomer
5.0 out of 5 stars Seemed like a winner
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2016
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Gave them as gifts. Seemed like a winner.
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amz
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2015
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Great coffee table book, easy to read on the go
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Top reviews from other countries

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Paul Senior
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun!
Reviewed in Canada on October 15, 2015
Verified Purchase
Really fun and informative. I've been reading his daily articles for over a year, he has an eye and passion for the odd or unusual, each writeup is well researched. Great for all readers, would make a great gift to a young gearhead to show them the breadth of the world of cars.

My only quibbles would be really minor, sometimes the web version of the stories have multiple pictures and there is only one each in the book version. Photo repro is iffy sometimes, it's a trade off.
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shb
2.0 out of 5 stars Leider für meine Erwartungen enttäuschend
Reviewed in Germany on September 3, 2016
Verified Purchase
Der Autor hat sich durchaus Mühe gegeben und einige auch sehr unbekannte Automodelle aufgetan. Dabei hat er durchaus viele skurrile Autos gefunden und beschrieben.

Die Umsetzung erscheint mir aber ungenügend: Das Bildmaterial ist sehr eingeschränkt: Sehr kleine, wenig aussagekräftige Bilder; ausschließlich schwarz/weiß. Die Texte sind sehr subjektivistisch und für mich weniger informativ.

Die Bücher von Stephen VOKINS sind aus meiner Sicht wesentlich interessanter und daher lesenswerter (und auch viel günstiger!)

Ich komme zusammenfassend entgegen der sehr euphorischen Bewertungen auf amazon.com daher zu einem anderen Ergebnis: nur zwei Punkte für das Aufspüren der Modelle; leider aber mangelhafte Umsetzung.
One person found this helpful
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AK
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting collection of short vignettes on non-standard cars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2015
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The book is a collection of short vignettes on 77 different - weird - cars and will primarily appeal to people interested in topics outside the automotive mainstream.

Each car is covered with a single photograph and then several pages of text describing its history, genesis and success (rare) or otherwise in the marketplace. Quite some were produced in series of under 10 units, while some were more prolific but none would be frequent in any country of the world.

The book is written in an easygoing style and is very readable. It is not intended as a serious scientific treatise on the automotive industry and does not come across as such.

Where some readers may find it lacking is that there are almost no performance figures available and the single picture often does not do the car justice - some of them would definitely need several to really get a good understanding of how the cars looked like in reality. This is especially unfortunate, since many of the cars were really rare and will not be familiar to most readers.

So overall an interesting collection of trivia for the automotive enthusiast but could have been much better with some more effort - i.e. more and better pictures and some technical data would easily make it a five star in my opinion.
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redcarracer
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and slightly odd book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 14, 2015
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Excellent book with the type of cars I am interested in. I bought the paperback version and while I am happy with it, it is essentially an 'in house' print copy published by Amazon. It has the look and feel of a pre-print proof. Saying that it is printed and bound to a high standard.
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Mr. R. B. Gosling
3.0 out of 5 stars Amusing book, badly printed.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2015
Verified Purchase
This is an amusing book that tracks down some seriously rare, unusual and weird cars. My main complaint that results in the mediocre rating is the printing - the paper feels cheap, and each car has only one rather grainy black and white photo to illustrate it. With more photos, and better quality, this would be well worth leaving in your toilet, you may end up spending more time there than you should. There's no excuse, since the source (the website Banovsky's Car Of The Day) has good pics for most of the cars.
One person found this helpful
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