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Most auction roundups are a parade of the usual suspects: air-cooled Porsches, big-block muscle, Ferraris with famous owners. This week we went looking for the opposite. Scanning live listings on Bring a Trailer, Collecting Cars and the upcoming Bonhams Zoute Sale, we hunted for the cars that make you stop scrolling and ask, "What the heck is that?" Here are five that earned the question, with the history behind each and where bidding stands as of Friday, October 2.
1961 Scootacar Mk1: The Microcar Built by a Locomotive Company
Where: Bring a Trailer (no reserve) | Bid: $4,250 | Ends: Sunday, October 4, around 1:45 p.m. ET
Scootacars Ltd. was a division of the Hunslet Engine Company, a railway locomotive builder in Leeds, England. From 1957 to 1964 it turned out a tiny, tall, boxy two-seater that looks like a phone booth on wheels. Roughly 750 Mk1 cars were built, powered by a rear-mounted 197cc Villiers single-cylinder two-stroke good for about 50 mph. Steering is by handlebars, like a motorcycle. Legend has it the idea began when a director's wife wanted something easier to park than her Jaguar.
This example is sold as a project after 31 years with the same owner. The hook: the people who built steam locomotives decided Britain's answer to the fuel-crisis microcar should steer like a Vespa.
If tiny and strange is your thing, we have been down this road before with the HM Vehicles Freeway microcar and the Berkeley B95 roadster.
2004 BAE Vantare: An Aston Martin DB9 Dressed as a DB5
Where: Collecting Cars | Bid: £26,000 (23 bids) | Ends: Thursday, October 8, 2:00 p.m. ET (18:00 GMT)
The Vantare is a reverse restomod. British coachbuilder BAE took a modern Aston Martin DB9, kept only the roof and greenhouse, and wrapped the rest in bespoke bodywork that borrows from the 1960s DB5: oval headlights, a bonnet scoop, a chrome grille, side gills and pill-shaped taillights. Underneath it is still a DB9, with the 5.9-liter V12 and six-speed automatic. This car shows 22,909 miles in Chelmsford, UK, and the seller says it is still registered as a DB9.
The history is the interesting part. When the first car was unveiled in 2021 it was reportedly priced at £275,000, with a run of 10 planned. A 2023 report described that press car as the only one in existence. The Collecting Cars seller now calls this "chassis 002 of only three" built, a claim we could not independently confirm. The hook: a coachbuilt Aston that almost nobody has heard of, trading far below its original asking price, with a build count that is still unclear. It is a fun companion to our look at another heavily modified DB9, and a reminder that the DB5 Shooting Brake is not the only coachbuilt Aston with a cult following.
c. 1962 Lamborghini 1R: The Lamborghini That Isn't a Car
Where: Bonhams, The Zoute Sale, Lot 101 (no reserve) | Estimate: €15,000 to €20,000 | Sale: Sunday, October 11, 2:00 p.m. CEST (8:00 a.m. ET), Knokke-Heist, Belgium
Before there was a Miura, there was a tractor. Ferruccio Lamborghini founded Lamborghini Trattori in Cento, Italy, in 1948, building farm machines partly from surplus military engines and drivetrain parts. The business made him rich enough to chase his supercar ambitions, and the famous story says a disagreement with Enzo Ferrari over a faulty clutch in his Ferrari 250 GT pushed him to start Automobili Lamborghini in 1963.
This 1R is a two-wheel-drive model with a 26-horsepower diesel, offered from a private collection in Belgium. The hook: a Lamborghini with a five-figure-at-most estimate, from the business that, in a roundabout way, started the rivalry with Ferrari. We covered an earlier Lamborghini tractor that hit the market, and the brand's founding story is worth a re-read in our 60th anniversary piece.
1970 Ferves Ranger 4x4: The Baby Fiat Off-Roader
Where: Bonhams, The Zoute Sale, Lot 102 (no reserve) | Estimate: €40,000 to €50,000 | Sale: Sunday, October 11
Ferves, short for Ferrari Veicoli Speciali, was a small Italian maker active from 1965 to 1970. The Ranger debuted at the 1966 Turin Show as a tiny all-terrain vehicle built from Fiat parts: an 18-horsepower, 499cc two-cylinder engine from the Fiat 500 mounted in the rear, independent suspension from the Fiat 600D, and drive to all four wheels. It had a folding windscreen, doors that could be fixed open and room for four. Roughly 600 were built and Bonhams estimates around 50 survive, which explains why a car with the power of a lawn tractor carries a five-figure estimate.
The hook: a Fiat 500 with a Jeep complex, and a reminder that the Italians were building cute crossovers decades before the segment had a name. For more small-displacement Italian oddballs, see our look at the 1970 Abarth Millino prototype.
1951 Alfa Romeo 1900 M "Matta": The Military Jeep With a Race Engine
Where: Bonhams, The Zoute Sale, Lot 159 | Estimate: €45,000 to €55,000 | Sale: Sunday, October 11
Alfa Romeo built a Land Rover rival, and it did it with a twin-cam engine. The 1900 M, nicknamed "La Matta" (the mad woman), had a separate chassis and four-wheel drive and served the Italian Army and police. Its engine was a detuned 65-horsepower version of the 1900's twin-overhead-cam four, which makes it one of very few military vehicles with a race-bred power unit. About 2,000 were delivered for military and police use between 1951 and 1953, with only 50 more sold to civilians.
This one was first registered to the Italian military in 1951, did not get a civilian owner until 1978 in Cosenza, and was later restored in Germany. It is eligible for the Mille Miglia. The hook: the Alfa you have never seen on a poster, built for mud instead of Monza. Fans of military oddities should also see the 1952 Austin Champ, Britain's answer to the Jeep.
Why These Five
None of these cars is on this list because it is expensive. Each one has a story that makes more sense once you hear it: a locomotive builder making a microcar, a tractor maker mad at Ferrari, a Fiat 500 that learned to climb hills, an Alfa built for soldiers, and an Aston Martin in a costume. Bids and estimates were checked against the live listings on October 2 and will change before these auctions close, so check each listing for current numbers. Bonhams lot details come from the Bonhams catalogue; history on the Scootacar, Lamborghini and Ferves was cross-checked against independent references.
