2019-09-12

Motoring Misfits: Cheetah Cars

Listing the world's worst cars has always been a fun and often controversial topic, but I'm growing tired of the same old subjects being repeated ad infinitum and instead I nominate some of my own choices that are so bad their very existence is almost unknown. I'm not going to fall into the usual clichés like the Edsel, Austin Allegro and Alfa Romeo Arna that appear on everyone else's lists, as those cars all had some merit and can be defended by enthusiastic supporters.

To find something truly awful, one has to look beyond the mass-producers to the weird and wonderful world of cottage industry kit car manufacturers. Many of these are extremely obscure, but thanks to a book I have recently purchased, the fascinating Filby Files Vol. 2 - Classic Kit Cars by Chris Rees and Peter Filby, a whole new world of bizarre and rubbish contraptions has been revealed to me and some of them make the Allegro look like a model of perfection.