Top Ten Cars You Will Likely Never See on the Road Posted 2010/04/09 @ 2:00 PM By Myles Kornblatt
This list started from an innocent conversation in our office about the Chrysler Norseman, a concept car that was aboard the Andrea Doria when it sank in 1956. The Norseman was on its way from the Italian coachbuilder Ghia to the New York Auto Show. Only a handful of people ever saw the car in person before it was lost at sea forever.
The Norseman talk sparked a new conversation about cars that few people have ever seen. Then we realized a lot of the road cars viewed in museums we’ve also seen at historic rallies and track days. There are only a select few classic cars that the entire line has less outdoor sightings than Bigfoot. It takes a combination of a car being ultra rare, very expensive and/or an odd occurrence to disappear from the roads. So we compiled the top ten cars that most people will likely never see roaming the neighborhood streets.
We set some parameters for this list. All cars had to be built during or after the Great Depression (before that time everyone with a home garage and a decent set of tools was a carbuilder.) The car couldn’t be a prototype as defined by only one example built and/or the producer being in business for less than two years total. Then we started debating different vehicles, and the ones we found most intriguing made the list. There are plenty of cars we left out, so feel free to add them in the comments section.
(in alphabetical order)
10. AC 3000 ME – While most people know AC Cars for the Ace/Cobra, the company had a long history of building sports cars, and this was part of its last gasp. Production delays and an unfavorable economic climate resulted in only around 80 examples of the 3000 ME produced over five years.
9. Bristol (any model) – If Howard Hughes were to have started a car company, he would have modeled it after Bristol Cars. It is a very reclusive company that makes ultra exclusive cars and only has one dealership. Bristol doesn’t release sales figures, so annual production has been approximated to be anywhere from as much as a hundred vehicles to as little as can be counted on one hand.
With prices starting at about £163,000 (currently about $250k) and skyrocketing to £352,000 (about $541k), not to mention special order production cars, Bristol is never going to be a high volume manufacturer. So it is a rarity to see one on the road, especially outside of its UK home market.
We added Bristol to our list as an American indulgence. Those who travel in the right circles in the UK may very well come across plenty of Bristols. If you’re reading this, and you happen to be one of those people, we’ll gladly give you a job writing about your friend’s cars…we pay about enough to make sure you’ll never have to bother anyone for Grey Poupon at a stoplight ever again.
8. Bugatti Type 41 Royale – This one is a no-brainer. Ettore Bugatti built a car for royalty that even they had trouble affording -- building them during the Great Depression didn’t help sales either. In the end only six were made between 1926 and 1932, and a third of them are in France’s national automotive museum. So good luck seeing this one out for a Sunday drive.
7. Chrysler Turbine Car – Chrysler embraced the jet age by flirting with turbine engines. It even had Ghia build about 50 special car bodies in 1963 designed to reflect the unique engine. Many of these cars were loaned to consumers for testing. In the end it was decided that a car that could run on any combustible fuel and rev up to 45,000 rpms was probably overkill for the suburban commute.
All but nine of the Turbine Cars were destroyed to avoid the import tariff from Italy. Of the few that survived, even fewer actually worked because Chrysler removed a crucial engine component before shipping the car off to museums and collectors. But there were a few private owners with the right connections (such as Bob Lutz – former Chrysler executive) who could get the right parts to get the Turbine Car running down the road again.
6. Citroen GS Birotor – Citroen and NSU teamed up to develop the Wankel engine in the late 1960s. Citroen eventually decided to offer rotary power in its small GS sedan starting in the 1974 model year, but it quickly saw a high failure rate for the powerplant. While NSU famously rode the rotary engine into the sunset, Citroen quickly nipped this mistake in the bud. After selling only 847 Wankel engines, Citroen decided to stop production and buy back as many cars as it could to avoid stocking parts for its mistake.
5. Leyland Force 7 – Ever hear of the Leyland P76? It was a large car British Leyland sold to Australia and New Zealand for only three years. Still not exclusive enough? How about its stillborn coupe sibling?
British Leyland was disappointed in the sales of the P76 sedan, so it pulled the plug prematurely on the car in 1974. The coupe version called the Force 7 was just beginning initial assembly during this time. The company made 58 coupes, but because the project was over before the Force 7 hit the showroom, all the cars were ordered to be destroyed. Only ten of these vehicles escaped the crusher and all are now in Australia and New Zealand (one went to the UK but is believed to have come back.) So, not only is this one unseen by most who have not traveled the roads of the Southern Hemisphere, but a Force 7 is a rare sight for Kiwis and Aussies as well.
4. Mohs SafariKar – Bruce Mohs found success making seaplanes in Madison, Wisconsin, but his most interesting products may have been his cars. One of his more sporting models was the SafariKar. It had interesting features such as a retractable hard top, seating for eight, and doors that moved longitudinally. The exterior body was aluminum skinned over with foam padded Naugahide.
Mohs did offer some other interesting vehicles, but they were disqualified from this list because we could not find proof of more than one example made. It is unknown the total number of cars Mohs produced over a seven-year run that started in the late 1960s, but it is easy to state that seeing a Mohs on the road is rare.
3. Morgan Plus Four Plus – Morgan is not a company that likes to update with the times, but once in 1963 it went for the modern crowd. The company known for its old-world wooden ways placed a contemporary fiberglass body over the Plus Four chassis. The car cost about twice as much as a Jaguar XKE, and unfortunately for Morgan, its reputation was not as iconic as it is today. After a five-year run only 26 were produced.
2. Rover SD1 Estate (wagon) – We kind of snuck this one on the list. The Rover SD1 Estate represents the post-WWII European car culture where auto executives sometimes got to drive ex-prototypes as personal transport. The streets of Longbridge were not exactly filled with one-off metal, but there are a lot more stories of test cars making the morning commute in the U.K. than there are in the U.S.
The SD1 Estate was basically a prototype, but two were made and both were daily drivers for part of their lives, so it fits under the parameters of this list. Good luck finding either one on the road today. Both cars are in U.K. auto museums.
1. Tucker 48 (Torpedo) – The Tucker 48 is presented as a story of almost making the great American dream. Preston Tucker was trying to battle the big car companies while raising money to finance his car operation. He fought a good fight, but in the end the car company that carried his name only completed 51 cars.
Today 47 cars survived, and almost half are on display in museums around the U.S. While it is worthwhile to see a Tucker in a museum, the car makes this list because these rarely go on road trips.
For an American car that you MIGHT see on the road, look at the Arnolt Bristol. A combination of an English Bristol chassis and engine combined with a body by Bertone, but almost all were sold through S.H. Arnolt Corporation, Chicago or Hoosier International Motors, Warsaw Indian. The car was the idea of Stanley H "Wacky" Arnolt, of Chicago, who made his fortune selling small engines to the Navy during WW2. He also thought up and sold Arnolt MG's and a very few Arnolt Aston Martins.
Only 142 Arnolt Bristols were produced. Ten burned in a factory fire. Of the remaining 132, some were stripped Bolide, or competition models, some were DeLuxe models with convertable tops, side curtains, and bumpers. Only six coupes were built. One is in Sweden, most are in collections or museums. There are approximately 92 Arnolt Bristols known to exist. They are now scattered all over the world, including one in a museum in Munich, one for sale in Belgium, and two in Ottowa, Canada. I think there were one or two at Pebble Beach last year. The one from Sweden was invited to Carmel and was shipped to the USA where it won second place in the Carmel event. See Arnolt Bristol at Carmel for links. Production was from 1954 to around 1959, but the last one was sold from parts circa 1962.
Original owners included Lee Marvin, Emmet Kelly Jr, the Clown, and General Curtis LeMay.
Jim McQuay
West Linn, Oregon
Comment by chinamonty
34 yeasr ago on my 21 st birthday my Alfa had brake problems in Adelaide Australia. The Alfa dealer I went to had two Force 7 and they let me have a drive of one. It went really well but now I cant even remember what the dash looked like. We have a few Bristols in Australia as well but mainly old ones.
The Norseman talk sparked a new conversation about cars that few people have ever seen. Then we realized a lot of the road cars viewed in museums we’ve also seen at historic rallies and track days. There are only a select few classic cars that the entire line has less outdoor sightings than Bigfoot. It takes a combination of a car being ultra rare, very expensive and/or an odd occurrence to disappear from the roads. So we compiled the top ten cars that most people will likely never see roaming the neighborhood streets.
10. AC 3000 ME – While most people know AC Cars for the Ace/Cobra, the company had a long history of building sports cars, and this was part of its last gasp. Production delays and an unfavorable economic climate resulted in only around 80 examples of the 3000 ME produced over five years.
9. Bristol (any model) – If Howard Hughes were to have started a car company, he would have modeled it after Bristol Cars. It is a very reclusive company that makes ultra exclusive cars and only has one dealership. Bristol doesn’t release sales figures, so annual production has been approximated to be anywhere from as much as a hundred vehicles to as little as can be counted on one hand.
8. Bugatti Type 41 Royale – This one is a no-brainer. Ettore Bugatti built a car for royalty that even they had trouble affording -- building them during the Great Depression didn’t help sales either. In the end only six were made between 1926 and 1932, and a third of them are in France’s national automotive museum. So good luck seeing this one out for a Sunday drive.
7. Chrysler Turbine Car – Chrysler embraced the jet age by flirting with turbine engines. It even had Ghia build about 50 special car bodies in 1963 designed to reflect the unique engine. Many of these cars were loaned to consumers for testing. In the end it was decided that a car that could run on any combustible fuel and rev up to 45,000 rpms was probably overkill for the suburban commute. 
6. Citroen GS Birotor – Citroen and NSU teamed up to develop the Wankel engine in the late 1960s. Citroen eventually decided to offer rotary power in its small GS sedan starting in the 1974 model year, but it quickly saw a high failure rate for the powerplant. While NSU famously 
5. Leyland Force 7 – Ever hear of the Leyland P76? It was a large car British Leyland sold to Australia and New Zealand for only three years. Still not exclusive enough? How about its stillborn coupe sibling?
4. Mohs SafariKar – Bruce Mohs found success making seaplanes in Madison, Wisconsin, but his most interesting products may have been his cars. One of his more sporting models was the SafariKar. It had interesting features such as a retractable hard top, seating for eight, and doors that moved longitudinally. The exterior body was aluminum skinned over with foam padded Naugahide. 
3. Morgan Plus Four Plus – Morgan is not a company that likes to update with the times, but once in 1963 it went for the modern crowd. The company known for its old-world wooden ways placed a contemporary fiberglass body over the Plus Four chassis. The car cost about twice as much as a Jaguar XKE, and unfortunately for Morgan, its reputation was not as iconic as it is today. After a five-year run only 26 were produced.
2. Rover SD1 Estate (wagon) – We kind of snuck this one on the list. The Rover SD1 Estate represents the post-WWII European car culture where auto executives sometimes got to drive ex-prototypes as personal transport. The streets of Longbridge were not exactly filled with one-off metal, but there are a lot more stories of test cars making the morning commute in the U.K. than there are in the U.S.
1. Tucker 48 (Torpedo) – The Tucker 48 is presented as a story of almost making the great American dream. Preston Tucker was trying to battle the big car companies while raising money to finance his car operation. He fought a good fight, but in the end the car company that carried his name only completed 51 cars. 
