It’s October, time to see any number of fake spiderwebs and pumpkins on our local store, and prepare to be surrounded bunch of kids in adorable costumes, adults in questionable ones, and waiting patiently until November so you can get amazing deals on cheap candy. But, since it is traditional, I bring you a question as seasonal as Pumpkin Spice Latte and and horned hairbands.
Cars. Beautiful machines. Slabs of metal, glass, and plastic that can make us feel wonder, passion, nostalgia, and in the case of the 1942 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Bertone Coupe, Mild arousal. They are also large groups of two-ton projectiles, hurling around the highways and byways of our planet under the control of people who haven’t the faintest idea of how they work. Every time we go on the roads, or even sit comfortably on a building next to a road, we’re trusting our lives on people who we’ve never met, who may have had a horrible day at work or one too many martinis on their lunch. Not to mention that even if they haven’t and are awake and alert, at any time one of the 10,000 components that make their cars could spontaneously stop working, leaving them a passenger
.
Add Pareidolia to that intoxicating cocktail of emotions and you end up associating certain vehicles to certain emotions. I know I am glad whenever I see a nice W126, and scared whenever I see…we’ll get back to that, but I’d rather hear your opinion first. It’s a pretty open-ended question. It could be the car itself that can be scary, like the 1959 Buick, the only car that has had clearly had enough of you even before you buy it, it could be a movie car, or a car that has something that makes it deadly like the widowmaker 911 Turbo’s. And now, here is what I think is the most terrifying car in the world.
Do not let its nice appearance lure you into a false sense of security. That innocuous little van is death in-car-nate. I could be driving a semi truck and I would still be afraid of its 34 Horse-of-the-apocalypse-powers. No matter who takes the wheel, they are instantly possessed by the dark spirits that lurk within. Crazed and drunk, the drivers proceed to drive at several hundred miles per hour, exploiting every little gap, cutting off and stopping so as to leave only a fraction of an inch between you and them. For the corrupted driver, we are but rolling chicanes in his slalom of death. Impressive, what when even the lightest of breezes would topple one of them on its side.
So how about you? Is yours from a movie or book? Or to paraphrase Mark Twain: “Truth is scarier than fiction.”?
The ’61 Fury’s angry face trumps the ’59 Buick… imo.
I immediately thought “’61 Plymouth” too. Scariest car face ever.
Do trucks count? Because I’d honestly be kind of creeped out if I saw a rusty Peterbilt 281 in my rear view mirror.
This. The 59 Dodge is the most menacing looking car I can think of. I would face it off against a 59 Buick any day.
+1 If not the most menacing, for sure the angriest.
Totally this. I was actually trying to find the old CC article that featured a Canadian “Plodge” that featured this front end with Plymouth bodywork.
When I first saw Gerardo’s QOTD, I immediately thought of a “Forward Look” Dodge front end.
When I was growing up near Vancouver, we had a ’59 Plodge station wagon – I’ve never seen that combination of front and rear end in any photograph since.
Looks like this guy. Scary.
or worse, 2 1959 dodges
’61 Fury … pure evil.
And the inspiration for this Lexus ES350
That was brilliant!
This ’61 Plymouth exacts its revenge. “Hot Rods to Hell” (1967)
A true Frankenstein creation – you can almost see the stitch marks.
I don’t get evil from that, I get Cletus:
Fury outscowls Dodge and Buick:
Anything driven under the influence.
+1.
The only cars I’m genuinely frightened of, are the totally rusted out heaps going 20 over the limit on multiple space-saver spare wheels. Usually while the driver is paying more attention to their phone, than the road. And I really don’t mean this as a dig against poor people, cause I’ve been there… but when my car got too dangerous to be around other people (important looking suspension bits started coming up through the floor) I junked it and rode the bus for a couple years…
Along these lines, any truck or trailer that says “U-Haul” on the side.
ANY rental 26-footer. That’s a mere mortal normal person driving that with, at best, the same regular driver’s license that most of us have and zero extra training as to how to handle that behemoth when fully loaded. Double scary if it’s towing something. And triple scary if it’s raining, snowing, or icy out there.
Agreed on all counts. When I was 19(?) and it somehow became my job to move my sister and her Jetta from Chicago to Denver, nobody would rent me an Acclaim-or-similar, but Ryder had no qualm about handing me the keys to a 26-foot straight truck with a 4-wheel car trailer for the Jetta. WTF?!
THAT is one amazing car. How can it possibly be intact enough underneath to drive? Is that level of rust – or should I say level of metal dminishment – common in the Snow Belt?
Wonderful flow through ventilation for the summer
Side impact protection, not so wonderful.
Swiss cheese Pontiac.
I’m from the snow belt and while I’ve seen some rusty vehicles, I’ve never seen a car that bad still on the road. I’ve seen some trucks, mostly the ’73-’87 GM ones with rust approaching those levels, but at least those have a frame underneath that I assume is helping hold it together. That poor thing looks like it would collapse into a pile of iron oxide if I sneezed next to it.
I see cars nearly this rusty, every day here in Wisconsin. My personal car (an 8 year old minivan) is rusting everywhere. Anyone who has a “nice” car (however you define that) puts it away from Halloween to April/May, and drives a “winter beater”.
Body panel rust through is bad enough (getting splashed with salty snow slush through the floor sucks) but when areas like the strut towers rust through, it’s a safety issue-hit one final bump, and your suspension comes up through the hood!
I had to enlarge that pic to tell if it was an ’86 Grand Am or a 3x-as-expensive ’86 Toronado
The Auto Union Grand Prix cars. Insanely powerful, challenging handling, minimal safety precautions. Fun!
My ‘69 VW Beetle. Primer green painted over a tan body. What a money pit😱😱😱😱😱😱!!
Have never entertained another VW purchase in the subsequent 40 year of car ownership
1958 Lincoln. Slanty headlights staring you down, a grille work full of teeth to grind you up, shiny chrome going off in all directions to distract you, and if that don’t get ya, the dagmars will.
When I saw the title of this QOTD I immediately thought “1958-60 Lincoln” so I definitely concur. This is what the Soviets should have copied for their ZIL limousines of the era, instead of just updating mid-50s Packard styling with cues from more recent Cadillacs or Imperials.
The car from the movie “The Car”
I think I saw the trailer for this movie as a young kid, it scared the crap out of me because I knew that it wasn’t a “real” car somehow.
Based on a 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III – I know because I owned one years ago. Speaking of heavily modifying classic Lincolns for movies, this is more funny than scary but I can’t resist sharing…I guess it is scary to see what the Delta’s did to Kent’s brother’s classic 1962 Continental…
Actually, it’s a ’64 Continental used in the movie. You weren’t supposed to notice that.
This nightmarishly modified 1951 GMC truck from The Sorcerer film.
I saw that movie because I saw images of that truck, and was surprised it wasn’t a horror movie(though it did have quite a few tense and creepy scenes). Great movie nonetheless!
From the rear the 1959 Mercury
Veritas RS III
That looks funny.
The truck in Movie jeepers creepers.
Ah, ya beat me to it while I was ranting and looking for a pic… ;o)
(see below)
The Mercedes 770 – not so much the car itself but what it symbolized.
Combination of horror and marvel in these, the latter for the looks and engineering, the former for what you stated. Quite a creepy combination.
A Jewish business owner who lived about 1 km from where I grew up, sold his sweets business for a lot of money, and bought a bunch of cars in (I think) the early ’90’s, including Bugatti and a 540K. They were often available to see, and I once (perhaps cheekily) asked him how he felt about his Mercedes. This lovely, affable man said “Well, it came up for sale, virtually impossible in Australia [painted black], so I couldn’t resist and when my mate said you bought a Nazi car, I said ‘So, we’ll paint it red and drive the shit out of it!'”.
And I might add, he did repaint it bright red, and drove with vigour for years.
All of the slanted headlight Chryslers of the early 1960s.
When I walked to school as a first grader in the early 1970’s, one of the homes along the way frequently had one of these Chryslers parked in front. If that car was there, I would cross the street just to stay away from it. That car terrified me.
Using the parameters set forth in the author’s paragraph below the picture of the weird little van, I would have to say a Nissan Rogue (or any Nissan) driven in the Baltimore/Washington corridor. These people (and sorry for singling out the brand, as I am sure there are upstanding citizens that drive them too) are the worst aggressive drivers on the planet…. Ok, rant over… well almost….. Again, sorry…
As scary as seeing a texting driver behind the wheel driver of a Nissan Versa loom up behind you in the rear-view mirror, if I were driving the 1960 Impala in the Jeepers Creepers movie, that delivery truck (whatever it is) would terrify me even more.
Like the truck in Spielberg’s Duel.
These beasts haunted my nightmares every week…when, before the sun rose, they would crawl up the street in front of my house…trying to steal my BigWheel from where I left it the afternoon before. Their beedy eyes…their roaring lungs….I HATED these things!
007’s Dragon of Crab Key!
’55 Peterbilt 281, of course.
Indeed, see above.
Oooo… I thought of another one… from reality, not the movies.
ANY Dump Truck. As they approach the expansion joint (insert ominous music here), and you know rocks are gonna fly out from every orifice and damage your windshield, paint, and everything else on your classic (or not so classic) car!
Oh, and don’t bother to call the number on the side of the truck… No one will answer. It’s kinda creepy.
(I’m sorry… was I ranting again? ;o)
For me, it would be a toss up between these two beauties, one from the lucid mind of Virgil Exner and the one out of the other equally lucid mind of Brook Stevens.
The 1960 Imperial, the only car to remind me of a demented man that is both scowling and smirking at the same time, with bushy eyebrows to boot.
Then, there is the 1965 Studebaker Sceptre, which while cool, is so alien so as to make it on this list. It doesn’t help that the front end reminds me of a butcher’s cleaver.
It’s a ’62 but it would have still looked fresh in ’65
My aunt K had a ’59 Buick Le Sabre convertible with the cantilevered front lamps. I thought it more cock-eyed than scary. She called it “the Rattletrap” and kept it for about 10 years. I remember it leaked when it rained and it was cold in the winter.
To me, nothing good ever comes of when you’re caught in the blue tractor beam from behind.
Not a car, but I was really scared of these things (Volvo B10MA) when I was a kid. The loud engine and the articulation… I liked way more riding in the quiet CNG MAN buses.
Now half of the MAN buses are beer cans, while a lot of these Volvos are still on the road
As Swedishbrick mentioned buses, I will too…late 1950’s and early 1960’s, 30 – year-old Leyland Tiger buses with wooden floors, with no maintenance. Through the engine, transmission and other maintenance hatches you could see the road. I would run to the seats expecting them to be safer than the floor.
I would have never thought of this had other buses not been posted here, but GM “old look” buses creep me out. I’d never get in one of those, it looks like it’s going to either break down, slide off the road, or just crash because the driver could barely see out.
I rode in a lot of old look buses after the new look came out. There was usually a huge groan from us kids when we saw (often heard, first) the old rattletraps, with stinky seats, approaching instead of a newer bus with fishbowl windshield. If the route had a steep hill, we knew we’d have to get out and walk.
I guess part of why they’re creepy to me is that they were all gone by the time I was a kid, *except* for a very rare few that fell into the hands of some small, shady tour operators, or occasionally were seen rusting away in some remote place. I have little recollection of ever seeing one on the road, save for maybe two that were broken down that I passed. For me they were like the bus equivalent of a haunted house.
When the ’50’s petrol Bedford turned up at school, I liked the speediness of it if not the rattles and seemingly solid suspension, but it was exclusively driven by angry Tom and, well, I don’t reckon Tom spent long periods enjoying freedom, so that bus was the scariest ever made.
The thing is: a decade and a half later, I’ve grown to really like those Volvo buses I’ve talked about (they’re still in decent shape), and I’ll really miss them when they’re gone.
Cousin Eddie’s RV. Now don’t you go falling in love with it now…
A dark 1965 Lincoln Continental wasn’t so much terrifying as it was quietly sinister. Hollywood types and social climbers went for glitzy Cadillacs. The understated Lincolns were for member of organized crime, unfriendly large corporations, or well-funded and mysterious government agencies. If a black Lincoln was following you around back in the day, you had some reason to be concerned.
That’s probably why they were always used by the baddies in many classic ’60s James Bond films. I first saw these films in the early ’70s as a little kid and my impression of these Lincolns was always that somebody evil from SPECTRE or some such organization scurried about in these cars.
Completely agree, and I’d add that that shape and colour (if not exact model) carries permanent association with the evil of a public Presidential execution.
Mopars are the most menacing.
First is a ’71 Road Runner
#2 is a ’68 Fury
#3 is a ’59 Dodge
#4 is a ’70 Coronet
Also this Mopar, especially when adorned with a bubblegum light on top.
yeah my next reply was going to be any Mopar from any year with lights on the roof but you beat me to it 😉
…and not a Mopar but there was the time when my ’77 Grand Prix turned into Christine and left a blood trail into her parking spot after a transmission rebuild. Unfortunately she didn’t finish restoring herself on her own like in the movie
1930s Brewsters. They just look like something a stereotypical cartoon villain would drive.
You should have been a Hershey this year, there were three Brewsters, but no cartoon villains in sight.
The most terrifying car I know of is this 1963 Dodge 880. This car is infamous in Seattle and has been photographed for a number of car blogs.
Here in Vancouver, it is the BMW X5, the infamous Beijing Mommy Wagon. Top speed is 12 km/h and turns are never signaled.
The Love Bug movie was still fresh in my pre-teen mind when dad got his first VW, a beater ‘64 Karmann Ghia. Whenever I studied the front of it, I kind of worried that it would start acting up with Herbie-like antics.
When I was a kid, I wasn’t fond of 2 cars I always saw on my walk to school: the Citroën CX and the Saab 900. The former was quite common in my town because the local dealership sold Citroëns, the Saab was just one car I always passed. Both just looked reaaally off with their weird shapes, especially compared to the simple Opels and VWs everywhere. The bad vibe they gave off was made worse by both of them often being in poor shape, since both models were quite old but not yet classics.
Of course, later I came to appreciate both of them for the brilliant pieces of design both were for their day. Today, my most feared vehicle is the Mercedes Sprinter, tailgating and storming past at least 20% over the speed limit, regardless of the circumstances. If I’d have children, I’d be very wary of SUVs on parking lots.
(Both photos by Niels de Wit on Wikipedia)
Flashing blue lights in your rearview are pretty bad… so is this… Know what it is?
A 1939-ish Checker Model A! And yes, that is scary.
Checker cab
Although I file that under the bizarre header
‘Dragon’ from Dr. No
Not a car, but at the Army installation where I worked I had to share the road with these. Very terrifying when you saw them in your rear-view mirror AND when you actually felt the rumble.
“As a matter of fact, I DO own the road.”
I vote for the buses around my town, but not because they look scary. See, the police union also represents the transit drivers here, so when you’re in any kind of incident with a bus, it’s ruled your fault. I know someone who got rear-ended while stopped at a stop sign, and it was ruled her fault…
They drive as such, too. Yellow here means 4 more cars. Red means 2 more cars. And the buses will gladly run a stale red, even in a redlight camera equipped intersection. Never get in front of one. They will run you over for stopping to avoid a redlight camera ticket, and you will be at fault.
I also tend to stay away from any Nissan/Infiniti, Chrysler/Dodge/non-Wrangler Jeep, Ford, Mitsubishi or Hyundai/Kia product over about two model years old. The drivers seem to know they are disposable, and drive/treat them as such.
That Plymouth wagon is gorgeous. The 1958-60 TBird is scary fugly as were late 1950’s Mercurys.
The one hurtling toward me while I’m a pedestrian or on the side of the road.
In the real world, I second the Suzuki Super Carry van and the Jimny SUV owing to their marginal propensity to tip over at every turn. I notice a Chevy badge in the photo; I knew there was the Bedford Rascal in England but didn’t know there was a Chevy one. From the movies, Christine and that bus in the third Harry Potter film.
When these were sold in the US in 1960’s, the Citroen 2-CV was said to be:
1. most economical (55 MPG)
2. most unsafe.
Some scary trucks have been mentioned. My vote is for the 1959 GMC 550.
Here’s another Lincoln-’51 Cosmopolitan. Always reminded me of an crocodile……….
Zombies and witches would drive 1980 Sevilles.
It’s good, but not enough trunk space for bodies. Evildoers might prefer a DeVille or Fleetwood.
For me the most terrifying vehicle on the road was the first gen Lincoln Navigator. The back end reminded me of the Travel Queen Family Truckster from National Lampoon’s Vacation movie, but the really scary part was that they were usually piloted by cell phone wielding yuppie housewives who had never driven anything larger than a 5 series BMW. Whenever I saw one in traffic, I gave it wide berth.
Already packaged for 6 feet under.
“Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” from 2004 had a couple of creepy old classics – a 1960 Chrysler Imperial limousine and a Tatra 603.
Gen 1 Chevy Corvair.
1980 X-Body
Any Cadillac with a HT4100.
Cadillac Cimarron
Any Pontiac (GM) with the Brazilian sourced 1.8 or 2.0 head gasket eating 4-CYL.
Corvette or Camaro/Trans AM with Crossfire Fuel Injection.
Any Toyota Previa after is has been involved in a front-end collision.
These old XJs still give me the heebie-jeebies. One used to sit on the driveway down the block from where I grew up, almost entirely covered by a tarp except for its menacing eyes (taillights) and sharp teeth (bumpers). Later XJs in this generation kept the “evil” look at the rear but they didn’t scare me as much as a kid…
You’ve mentioned this before, and sorry, but it does amuse me. Firstly because the rear view is an integral part of a car often considered as one of the best-looking sedans ever made, and secondly, even though I can very, very faintly see what your young eyes did, I easier see a goofy, friendly face with quirked-up eyebrows and perhaps the buck teeth of a harmless simpleton. Nah, HE ain’t gonna hurt you, little William!
Terrifying doesn’t mean it’s not attractive. It’s a femme fatale.
Any American 3/4 ton 4×4 pickup with 35” mud tires and a 6” block lift, tailgating in the rain.
+1
Don’t know if it was intentional, but the first two feature cars both have movie connections.
The National Lampoon’s Vacation Wagon Queen Family Truckster was a 1958 Plymouth Sport Suburban Six station wagon as written in the original John Hughes National Lampoon story.
Similarly, the 1942 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Bertone Coupe in the second photo sure looks a lot like the car in which Michael Corleone’s Italian wife was killed by a bomb in The Godfather.
When I was a kid, the tail end of the ’68ish Buick Skylarks put chills up and down my spine when I’d have to walk past one. The concave rear treatment made them look smashed-in with nothing left to lose, especially when they’d been jacked up in the back. Those were also, IIRC, among the GM car with the gasoline filler hidden behind the licence plate at the bottom of the rear bumper. Not only a ridiculous nuisance to fill, but also a serious menace with or without a collision. I used to see a lot of these with a missing or faulty gas cap, sloshing gasoline all over the road every time the driver started forward or stopped rearward.
That wasn’t the only car. My Mustang has the filler in the back but at least it is several inches above the top of the gas tank. On the other hand the Dodge has a filler tube where it seems the bottom of the filler is level with the top of the tank. After getting the car, and having a full tank during one summer while on a slight decline, I kept smelling gas when walking around it. Turns out the heat expanded the gas and it was dripping out the filler tube.
The location of the gas cap on the Mustang became something of an issue when the 1969 Shelby with it’s center mounted exhaust outlets made its appearance. Someone seriously didn’t think that one through.
One from 1970’s Argentina:
This would have scared me as a kid, one of Peter Weir’s early movies.
I actually own a VHS copy of that movie. It was on COLUMBIA HOME VIDEO and the front of the box says “full un-cut version” which I took to mean when this Australian movie was first distributed in the U.S. it was further edited for time and content. That DVD artwork looks like a British release with the lil’ BBFC-mandated ’15’ on the bottom right.
Also, I’ve noted the movie 1971 U.S. Tv movie ‘DUEL’ has been mentioned with its sinister truck but what about the 1990 made-for-cable-TV movie WHEELS OF TERROR starring Joanna Cassidy? It’s an obvious variation on DUEL with a mysterious early ’70s Mopar menacing Joanna Cassidy’s daughter in a small Arizona (or is it New Mexico) town. Joanna’s a school bus driver, btw. I bought this movie on Paramount Home Video many moons ago and I clearly remember the tagline on the box front:
[b] Evil waits . . . with the motor running [/b]
WARNING: Sinister Mopar At Work! 😀
Anyway, the movie is rated [PG-13] so says the PARAMOUNT video box.
Ford F-150 or the latest RAM. Gigantic machines whose fence-height chrome grilles fill an aesthetically dead face, one that looks designed solely to threaten and injure.
I should add that the few sold in this country are driven accordingly, which doesn’t help.
They look friendlier with kittens…
Sans chrome, it looks like a huge masked robber (“Ed also had a mysterious after-hours job”).
And the only reason that kitty isn’t fluffed-up with a tail like a tram’s trolley pole is because of that towbar you’ve fitted at the wrong end to confuse her (“Hmm, that’s the back, it must be leaving”).
Great examples from everyone. On my drive to work, it’s anyone texting in the chaise-lounge reclined seat and with a giant Garmin or tablet mounted on the dash illuminating their own face. Perhaps while making breakfast or taking a nap. Doing anything but looking out the windshield. Trying to figure out why that lever left of the steering wheel makes that little flashing light and clicking sound…
Is this only limited to classics? Because I get nightmares seeing anything from Lexus these days. Plenty of jokes about the “Predator” face, but the SUVs are the most awkward adaptation of the “Lexus” styling to the utilitarian Toyota bodies.
Wow. So much grille there. Just make it the entire front end already so you can go on to something new, Toyota…
Meeting one of these with a 12-row corn head on a narrow road…
Good lord! I don’t mean to pry, but is the 12-row corn head a relative from one of the, er, more remote and mountainous parts, and if not, why was he in your car?
You’re on a roll today, aren’t you?! (c:
Okay, one more, from high school days… my buddy and I would drive around growling at little children through a PA speaker I had mounted in the engine compartment.
This…
Gigahorse…from Mad Max Fury Road
how about………….
or…..
lets get mean…………..
Two fins aren’t enough.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Ds-7xQhpBImY&ved=2ahUKEwii6ZaZzJ_eAhViy1QKHRm0BVwQtwIwAHoECAQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1786PPt265NOt9r7CPi7Zq
To see Paul’s ’66 F100 in this condition would be terrifying. The driver survived, but with major injuries, a 3 point seat belt upgrade would have helped a lot. I’m impressed on how little the steering column got shoved back in this high speed impact.
Here’s a scary one.
The car itself, and the guy on top.
As an aside, I imagine the car doesn’t go far on a gallon of fuel even without the roof ornament.
What is not more terrifying, or beautiful than a 1950s era Buick ??
Especially a ’50.
When the triple-black Dodge Charger glides to a stop underneath the San Francisco overpass, it just oozes malevolence.
I walked by a black 1961 big Mercury on my way to grade school, which has a slightly menacing look to it.
But I agree that the scariest cars are huge SUVs, especially when they are getting old and rusty. I got hit by a Ford Expedition while walking two dogs, fortunately I was OK, just scraped up, the little dog went under the vehicle while I dropped the Pit Bull’s lease- she licked my face while the Expedition slowly drove off.
“The Simpsons” nailed it with the MARGE’S ROAD RAGE episode and her new Canyonero F Series, which aired at the start of the SUV craze:
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down,
It’s the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown!
Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero!
[Krusty:] Hey Hey
The Federal Highway comission has ruled the
Canyonero unsafe for highway or city driving.
Canyonero!
12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero! (Yah!)
She blinds everybody with her super high beams,
She’s a squirrel squashing, deer smacking, driving machine!
Canyonero!-oh woah, Canyonero! (Yah!)
Drive Canyonero!
Woah Canyonero!
Woah!
If you lived in the former East Germany (aka German “Democratic” Republic, or DDR) as so well described in Roger Carr’s posting today:
Museum Classics: 1953 DKW F91 and 1955 IFA F9 – Separated At Birth
Depicted: Wartburg 353 and Lada.
A very practical wagon … plenty of room to haul you away.
Any Escalade, which was designed to balance between its rough, workday GMC truck origins and implied glossy sophistication of its nameplate. Always looks to me like it’s about to consume more asphalt, which it does.