Top Gear: Daft Cars

Interested in a car that drives sideways? Try the Jeep Hurricane. Or maybe a car in which the windows change color according to your mood for a more serene driving experience? That'll be the Toyota RiN. And if you like to bet, you'll need the Chrysler Town and Country Black Jack, which contains a mini onboard casino. Some concept cars are designed to demonstrate alternative materials and energy sources, or to showcase the gadgets of the future, or even cater for specific lifestyles or groups of people. Many don't even get beyond the prototype stage--for reasons of cost or practicality, or, in the case of the nuclear-powered Ford Nucleon of 1958, the danger of causing a small atomic explosion. Featuring everything from practical experiments such as the hatchback fire engine, and ideas that have managed to make it into production, to stunning yet impractical supercar concepts, this book both celebrates and cringes at some of motoring's strangest--and even idiotic--ideas.