Don’t be hating. It’s time for a Mac’s Motor City Garage tradition: the annual Turkey Day Turkeys photo essay. Grab some antacids and have a look.
You know the drill. Each year on Thanksgiving Day, MCG takes a moment to recall a few examples of the good, the bad, and the inexplicable in automotive design. There’s only one rule: we don’t judge. We’re not haters. If it’s a motorized vehicle for road or track, it’s probably okay with us. Granted, maybe some are more okay than others. As we’re always noting, the unusual and unfortunate-looking cars are often more interesting than the pretty ones.
This year, we’ve opened up the selection process a bit. Along with production cars and concepts, we’ve included some vehicles from the fabulous and often bizarre world of custom cars. There’s even one example here of racially offensive automotive styling. (What? How is that even possible, you may ask. Two words: George Barris.) Despite its tastelessness, we’re including the vehicle here because it’s a legitimate article of automotive history. Slideshow below.
Love it! I’ll be the first to confess that I have owned one of these cars and tried to buy a couple others. It’s features like this that make me truly grateful for the Motor City Garage.
Maybe next year we could do an all-Myron version of Turkeys. Thank you – we are extremely grateful for your support!
Although I chuckled when I saw it, I have to admit that the Trans-Am Superbird is well done. And what else is more representative of ’70s styling than a screaming chicken and a 40″ wing?
A pink microwave oven? The miniaturization of electronics has definitely brought improvements to kitchen appliances.
And is that Batmobile based on a Dart Swinger? Anything with a slant six is a car that you can rely on no matter what the emergency.
Having been George Barris’s historian for the past 20 years I note only a couple of Barris machines in this collection. In their contemporary life, the Love Machine Van and the Rickshaw Bike were the best show cars of their age. Models were made of them and millions of people lined up to see them at a Autorama’s and other indoor cars shows. Seen in that light, what else is shown in this pictorial shows some inventively quirky, nonsensical styling that is beyond reason. Thank god for such humor and automotive insanity in a world bound by convention.
Terrific! Some gloriously hideous creations in this lot.
Ha! It took me a couple of looks before I figured out why the Fleetwood Plaza picture was here.