Germany’s most unusual car designs

From beautifully eccentric shapes to squirrelly design features, here’s our pick of Germany’s most unusual:

Many people think that Ferdinand Porsche was the man behind the Beetle, but this is incorrect. Engineer and inventor Bela Barenyi came up with the design five years before Ferdinand Porsche presented his initial insect-inspired sketch. We have Barenyi to thank for the life-saving “crumple zone” concept and “non-deformable passenger car cell”.

For Ferdinand Porsche’s Beetle guise, Adolf Hitler gave Porsche an order to develop a Volkswagen (People’s Car), which could transport two adults and three children at 60mph and cost no more than a motorbike. The Beetle’s unusual shape would become incredibly iconic and it was produced until 2003.

While it looks like something Area 51 would take interest in, the Schlörwagen was the vision of Aerodynamic Research Insitute engineer Karl Schlor. One functioning car was made, which used a Mercedes 170H chassis. The aluminium bodywork was built by the Ludewig Brothers who were also known for their bizarre Opel Blitz-based ‘Aero’ bus of 1938.

The Schlörwagen had a drag coefficient of just 0.186 in its working form and achieved a top speed of 84mph, which was slightly faster than the 170H. It was revealed to the public at the Berlin Motor Show, sadly labelled as ugly by the public and later shelved due to the Second World War.

The F125 was tinkerer Paul Kleinschnittger’s creation. After the war he made a prototype from recycled metal, bicycle wheels and parts from old airplanes. By 1949, it was ready and included a windshield from a crashed fighter plane. A German businessman saw appeal in Kleinschnittger’s design and financed a small factory.

The prototype wasn’t quite big enough, however, and the F125 had to be redesigned. During early production, their aluminium bodies were sourced from army surplus cooking pots that had been hammered flat in a bid to save costs.

Michael Hoffman, a shop foreman from Munich, had an idea to build his own car after the Second World War. It featured rear-wheel steering and was built mostly from junkyard scrap and hardware parts. His idea was simple: three wheels and a tiny engine meant that it was tax free and no driving license was required to drive it.

Its oddball shape was due to the girthy mechanicals. A large rectangular frame housed the motor, a complex lever system was used to steer it, and it was incredibly cramped inside. The design never caught on, and he stepped away from designing cars. Only one was ever made, and you can see it at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rudolf Uhlenhaut joined Mercedes in 1931, becoming the leader of the race car department in 1936. Being an engineer, his skills were used to help replace the Mercedes-Benz W25 Grand Prix racer, and the Mercedes-Benz W125 successor was born shortly after. After the war Uhlenhaut returned to Mercedes, where he designed the tubular frame for the W194 300SL racer, and in 1955 he created the Uhlenhaut 300 SLR, which would become the world’s fastest road legal car.

His W194 design would inspire Friedrich Geiger’s beautifully unusual 300SL gullwing. The Uhlenhaut 300 SLR would influence the more modern Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren supercar, while the Mercedes SLS AMG would take inspiration from the 300SL.

Brutsch was known for building wacky microcars, but it would only produce small numbers of its designs. In 1954, designer Egon Brutsch built the 200 “Spatz” — a three-seater, three-wheeled roadster. The car was ready for production, but the design was riddled with faults, such as the suspension being attached directly to the fibreglass body shell.

This meant that the intended production car, the Spatz Kabinenroller, had to be redesigned. There were various three-wheeled renditions over the years, but in 1956 the egg shaped Mopetta arrived. Its shape became incredibly popular, which led to shed dwellers building modernised replicas.

The NWF 200 fell into the BMW Isetta microcar category but was slightly larger. Its off-the-wall pig-like design featured rear-hinged doors and a rear “engine” hatch with a window — almost like what you’d find on a Lamborghini! The NWF 200’s design was the concept of freelance journalist Norbert Stevenson.

Stevenson had few formal qualifications in auto design but his idea was simple: create a car that was slightly bigger and more stable than a bubble car, and it was driven by a small engine at the rear.

When looking at a KR200, you probably can’t help but notice its aeroplane-like canopy. This is because the KR200’s designer, Fritz Fend, was an aeronautical engineer. Fend was known for designing such canopy microcars before the KR200. It all started in 1948 with the Fend Flitzer, an engine-driven, easily accessible carriage for the many disabled people created by the world war.

It became apparent that many Flitzer buyers were not disabled but simply sought cheap transport. This then led to the two-seater Fend 150, the KR175 and eventually the KR200. The KR200 was re-engineered from the KR175 to house new mechanicals. 1957 saw the introduction of a convertible guise before production ended in 1964, and Messerschmitt returned to the aircraft industry.

Another oddity during the bubble car craze was the Kabine, which was designed by former German aircraft company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke. Like Messerschmitt, the company realised that there was a thirst for affordable transport.

What made the Kabine so unusual was that it had a reverse gear and the fabric roof served as an escape hatch, should the front door become jammed in a crash. To avoid angering BMW with its Isetta, the Kabine’s steering wheel never hinged outwards when the door was open, thus avoiding a patent war.

Sometimes, a quirky name correctly suggests an outlandish design, and such is the case with the TS Coupe. Hans Glas, the Goggomobil creator, was known for agricultural equipment before shifting to cars. Its first car was the compact T250 in 1954 (T sedan), and then the pricier TS coupe arrived in 1957.

The TS Coupe and its dinky dimensions were odd, but it was highly successful because of its size. The design carried on until BMW bought the company in 1966, aiming to gain access to Glas's patents.

From the front, the Janus looks a bit like BMW’s Isetta, but from the side you’ll see less similarities. Zundapp was a motorcycle manufacturer, and in 1956 its focus turned to producing a ‘quality bubble car’. Aircraft designer Claude Dornier, mostly known for designing the Dornier Do X flying boat, was hired to envision the Janus.

It had two doors, one at the front and rear, and it could seat four people, although the rear bench faced backwards. 6900 were made before production seized in 1958. Its main design flaw was its poor handling: the engine was too light and the centre of gravity shifted depending on how many passengers were on board.

With the Amphicar, industrial designer took inspiration from the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen, an amphibious military vehicle used in the war. It used a Triumph Herald 1200 engine mounted at the rear; the same engine drove a pair of propellors.

3878 were built by a company owned by the Quandt family, which is best known today for its controlling stake in BMW. One famous celebrity owner was US president Lyndon Johnson (pictured); he would terrify passengers by pretending the brakes had failed before driving into a lake at his ranch in Texas.

The Type 181 was given various names such as the Trekker, Type 181 and more appropriately, the Thing. It’s unclear who at Volkswagen was directly responsible for the 181’s design, but it was originally developed for the West German Army. It was made using floorpans from a Karmann Ghia and rear suspension from a split-screen camper. A civilian guise was also readily available in a variety of bright colours.

Emerging from Soviet-occupied Germany, the RS1000 was the brainchild of designer and racing driver Heinz Melkus. Melkus took great inspiration from the Ferrari 250 GTO for the RS1000, although the latter's 1.0-litre powerplant would, of course, be no match for the Italian stallion. Melkus began designing cars in 1951 using Volkswagen chassis but over the next three decades, until 1986, he designed and produced many single-seater and sports car models.

The RS1000 design was eventually shelved, until 2006, when the son of Melkus announced a re-launch named the RS2000. It was produced from 2009 till 2012, and while it retained some of the RS1000’s features, it had a more Lotus-like physique.

The E30 M3 is a car that’s loved by many, but BMW’s M division secretly made a pick-up guise in 1986. The M engineers thought that the M3 would be a great part hauler at their campus. A convertible 3 Series was soon grabbed, chopped and eventually given the S14 heart from the original M3.

It started off in life with a 192bhp engine and the M division used it for 26 years before retiring the ute in 2012. While it never went into production, it started a BMW ute craze, which saw both the E39 M5 and E92 M3 receive the pick-up treatment from adoring fans.

The 036i may look like a concept, but 14 of these unconventional machines were made. Designer Eberhard Schulz originally designed his own sports car, the 1969 Erator GTE, which impressed Porsche and got his foot through the doors. Schulz began working on his second concept in his free time while under Porsche — a car that would mimic the Mercedes-Benz 300SL (the CW311).

After meeting tuner Rainer Buchmann, Schulz and Buchmann created B&B GmbH and Co Auto KG. The concept was then shown to Mercedes who knocked it back, Schulz then left B&B and took his design to his new company, Isdera. The 036i sat on the CW311’s platform but in open-top form.

It was peculiar, and still is — few people understood how the Z1 executed its ‘disappearing door’ act. In addition, the Z1 also came with plastic body panels, which could be changed from red to blue using a screwdriver in under an hour. Harm Lagaay was the Z1’s lead designer and was known mostly for his work at Porsche — he led the Carrera GT design team, but also worked for Simca in the late 1960s.

The Z1 was never intended to be built as a full series production car - it was built for just two years - but instead to let BMW explore new ideas. Its low-slung design would eventually be carried on to the Z3.

Volkswagen ID 3s have been about for a while now and still sit high in many review lists, but it’s believed that their styling is derived from the Futura — a concept van from the late ‘80s. It’s not clear who in Volkswagen designed the Futura, but they clearly had a vision of the future, hence the name.

It fell under the Integrated Research Volkswagen (IRVW) division, and despite its EV looks, it featured an 81bhp 1.7-litre petrol powerplant. All four wheels steered, and it had gullwing doors — none of which sadly made it to the ID 3.

Its dimensions were nearly the same as modern day Fiat 500, but its shape and styling are more comparable to the Audi A2. BMW has been in the EV game since 1972 and the E1 might have stomped any competition in the early 1990s with its 155-mile range. The designer behind this was Mark D Clarke. He previously assisted in the BMW Z1 project and eventually moved on to Porsche as an Assistant Chief Designer where he had input in the Porsche Carrera GT and Porsche 987 Cayman styling.

The first E1 concept was destroyed in a charging fire and it was succeeded by a second-generation concept. While BMW never produced the E1 for customers, it inspired the 1993 3 Series Compact.

Brothers Martin and Friedhelm Wiesmann decided to design their own sports car after attending the 1985 Essen Motor Show. They decided their car would be a fusion of British sports car looks backed by German technology; as the car would stick to the road therefore the only suitable logo design for the company was a gecko. By 1993, the MF30 arrived, and over the years the shape would cement Wiesmann’s identity.

The MF30 was later retired for the MF3, followed by the MF4 and the MF5. A Spyder concept was teased and it would be the last with the ‘classic’ shape. The company closed in 2014 but was purchased by a UK-based investor. Weismann announced in 2022 that it would focus on the electric sports car market.

At a time when Porsche was making powerful cars like the 911 (993) Turbo S, it was also setting its sights on entering the Chinese market with a car for the people, which was a response to Chinese governmental requests for suitable European prototypes. An engineer and a designer were brought over from China and the idea was to make an affordable, simple, spacious and comfortable car.

There were no Porsche crests on the C88, as it wasn’t intended to be sold as a Porsche. The Chinese government also reached out to Chrysler, Fiat, Mitsubishi, Opel, Ford and Mercedes-Benz to participate but a winner was never chosen. Supposedly the government took the ideas for free and applied some of the C88’s design elements to other Chinese cars.

When asking people what BMW’s first SUV was, many will say the X5, but it was actually the Z18 — it remained a concept, though BMW did make one. It was designed by the company’s 1980s renegade R&D division and was produced at the same time as the first Z3 was launched.

It never came with a roof, but BMW fitted waterproof seats and thick rubber floor mat, and its modular interior meant that it could be turned into a pick-up truck or a four-seater. There was no real intention of mass producing the Z18, however it helped BMW gauge potential demand for new ventures.

It could be considered that the A2 was ahead of its time: aluminium bodywork and incredible efficiency for the early 2000s. After the A2 won a design award in 2001, Audi commented that the idea of the car was to “transport four people from Stuttgart to Milan on a single tank of petrol”.

There’s nothing ‘Lamborghini Murcielago’ about the A2 but both cars share an element of madness, and this is thanks to designer Luc Donckerwolke who designed them both. The A2’s ‘bread loaf’ design had a mixed reception and Audi hasn’t produced anything like it since.

Audi’s supercar phase started in 1974 with the 100S Coupe Speciale. It later involved companies such as Pietro Frua and Pininfarina to design some of its wackiest cars. In 2000, the Rosemeyer concept appeared, which paid tribute to the 1930s’ ‘Silver Arrow’ Auto Union racers. It had Bugatti roots, alongside the Audi Avus concept, and even featured a concept version of the 16-cylinder powerplant, which we then saw in the Bugatti Veyron hypercar.

Behind the design was Stefan Sielaff, who joined Audi in 1984 as an intern. He quickly moved upwards and became head of Audi’s interior design — his most famous interior design is used in the Audi A7.

Kurt Lotterschmid, a racing driver, founded Lotec in 1962 with a focus on race car building. Attention later shifted to Porsche tuning and then onto crafting aftermarket aerodynamic parts for Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz. Lotec’s first car was the 1995 C1000, which failed to set the supercar world alight, then the Sirius arrived in 2001.

With just five Sirius to be made per year costing £380,000 each, it never quite took off. Its design was like the Koenigsegg CC’s, although somewhat crazier. Sketches of an updated Sirius were teased in 2008, but no car was ever produced.

The RSQ was intended to act as a product placement for the 2004 I Robot film, but some of its design went on to inspire one of the world’s most iconic modern supercars, the Audi R8, although the majority came from the Audi Le Mans quattro concept. Designed by Julian Hönig, who is also known for configuring the 2007 B8 Audi A4 and 2011 Audi Q3 8U’s exteriors, the RSQ was in-your-face and fit well into the blockbuster’s 2035 environment.

Known for producing some incredible designs, Isdera went a step further and gave us the 116i in 2006, which could be described as a long-nosed 1930s super saloon. Development started in the mid 1980s — the chassis and skeleton were Mercedes-Benz W126 S Class, it also had two Mercedes W117 engines, which could either operate together or with just one.

This meant 600bhp and 10 litres. Designer Eberhard Schulz took heavy inspiration from the Bugatti Royale and the Mercedes 540k Autobahn Kurier: his idea was to build a “retirement” project and the 116i ticked all the boxes.

Most cars are made from some kind of solid material, but the BMW GINA was instead coated in a fabric skin, and this meant it could shape shift. The two-door sports car was the work of designer Chris Bangle, who is known for creating the Fiat Coupe and Alfa Romeo 145 — his designs can also be spotted in the entire BMW line up till 2009.

Bangle claims that GINA allowed his team to “challenge existing principles and conventional processes”. Its name stands for “Geometry and functions In ‘N’ Adaptions”.

Three designers were involved in the XL1. There was speculation that the XL1’s appearance was inspired by penguins, but this was debunked by one of the designers, Peter Wouda, who claimed he was inspired by sharks instead. The XL1 had one goal: travel 100km on one litre of diesel. There were three concepts prior to the production car: the 2003, the tandem 2009 L1 and the 2011 XL1.

Production started in 2012 for the 2013 model year with very little changing from the 2011 concept. The XL1’s second designer, Klaus Zyciora, is known for designing the current Volkswagen ID range, and the third designer, Thomas Ingenlath, is best known for the Polestar 1 and 2.

Designer Richard Kim is known for the E84 BMW X1’s exterior design. In 2011, BMW founded its ‘i’ brand, which would focus on electric-powered cars. Kim worked with BMW from 2005 and was put onto Project ‘i’ to sketch ideas for BMW’s electrified future. First, he designed the i3, which was also known as the Mega City Vehicle (MCV). Kim’s inspiration for the exterior design was to create more straight lines, horizontals and verticals.

The use of different materials and shapes in the interior was designed to calm the occupants and “balance energy levels”. The i3’s production stopped in 2022, but it carved the way for the quirky BMW ‘i’ cars of today.