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This working movie prop was supplied by Ford and based coincidentally on the Ford Thunderbird with very slight modifications. Looking like some sort of blancmange shoehorn, this version of FAB1 helped to make this movie such a critical success and a major blockbuster - no, wait...

The Aurora was conceived and built by a Catholic Priest called Father Alfred Juliano in 1957. It was an experimental safety car constructed from fibreglass with a clear plastic dome roof and shoved on a Buick chassis. It was quite a novel development at the time, the body was rust proof (although the chassis would no doubt rot away leaving you with no more than a stationary plastic lump with seats), it had integrated hydraulic jacks to help you change a wheel, seatbelts, a rollcage, padded panels, side impact bars and a collapsible steering column.

Edsel was named after the son of Henry Ford. We're guessing here that he wasn't a particularly popular person. Edsel was not a specific model of car, but a marque created by Ford in the late 1950's. There were various Edsel models, including the Citation, Corsair, Pacer and Ranger (pictured here). However, they were all very similar in their eye-popping repulsiveness, and their ability to make even the most hardened or myopic men cry at considerable distance had an inevitable effect on sales.

The zany guys of Commuter Cars in Spokane USA have managed to take an extruded cat-litter tray and convert it into a mentally fast psycho-rocket no wider than a peanut butter sandwich. Indeed this baby can reach 60mph in 4 seconds and will keep you secured in your seat via a 4-point harness until you are finally mashed into an articulated lorry at over 150mph.

Mitsuoka - who you've probably never heard of - are a Japanese coachbuilding company who appear to specialise in recreating the most repulsive designs from history. Having said that though, the Le Seyde appears to resemble something out of the Whacky Races combined with Cruella De Vil's transport in 101 Dalmations. The first version appeared in 1990 and, as with most of the nuttiest designs in Japan, sold out its initial run of 500 cars within the time it takes to say "oh my god, what have you been smoking?".

Nissan executives gathered together in a steam bath in 1989 and came up with the idea of building a new car in the style of a 1950's domestic appliance. The result was the Figaro and it was available in such delightful colours as "Solitary Confinement Grey" and "Festering Wound Green". Not available directly in the UK, but was extremely popular in Japan, and was imported to the UK in small numbers for the likes of Vanessa Feltz.

The designers at ford surpassed themselves in 1958 when they released this model Thunderbird which is made up from the left-over parts that nobody else wanted. The looks later inspired Gerry Anderson to create the Thunderbirds craft in the puppet series of the same name.

In the classic episode of The Simpsons where Homer meets his long lost brother, he gets to design his dream car. Well it turned out to be so good we had to include it here. Unfortunately for homer it cost $82,000 to build and ruined his brother's business - but at least it played "La Cucaracha" when he sounded the horn. There is no truth in the rumour that Citroen tried to license the design.

Aparrently Honda designed this concept car, which resembles the fusion of a Dalek and a photo-booth, as sort of a mobile disco where the occupants could groove in their seats as they were almost standing upright, whilst the driver steered using a wheel designed to look like a DJ's turntable. According to Honda it was also supposed to ride like a skateboard, but why anybody would want that we have no idea. Bizarrely for this site, all the above is actually true! This concept appeared at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show.

Folks from over the pond have nominated the Pontiac Aztek more times than any other model - and that's not really surprising is it? According to the Pontiac web site the Aztek won the "Most Appealing Entry SUV" - in a recent JD Power Survey! This stunned me for a while and I though perhaps it was a typo and "Appealing" should have been "Appalling", until I read a bit further and it was revealed that people only voted for its powertrain, interior and sound system - phew, for a moment I thought there might be some sort of contagious myopia epidemic over in the US.