What is the most odd or obscure car you have driven?

In 1988, I was a 'gopher' for a race team that had a partnership with Prototype Automotive Services in Farmington Hills, Mi.  They did a bunch of prototype work for both GM and Ford.  At the time, they were working on two cars for Pontiac, the Bonneville SSE and the 20th Anniversary Trans-Am Turbo.  
 

While we were there to dyno some motors, the car we used to go back and forth to the hotel was a test mule Bonneville with a turbo (they were supercharged in production).   When they sent me out to get non-detergent oil to break in the motors on the dyno, they sent me out in a test mule Trans-Am.  I surprised some guy in a brand new Vette, while learning what turbo lag actually felt like.

1967 Fiat Dino Coupe 2.0 (mine), 1976 Lancia Scorpion/Monte Carlo, 1960-something Ferrari 275GTC, 1959 Fiat-OSCA (mine). I test drove a brand new Yugo 55 when they first came out. 

I owned a Honda Beat for a while. Not a terribly rare import as far as these things go, but at the same time I've yet to encounter another one on our shores...

2000, i was 18 and desperate for summer work between the end of high school and my first semester of college.  my dad's boss (also his good friend from high school, and owner of the company) mentioned he was building a new house and could use my help getting his current home cleaned up and ready for sale.  i'd show up every day and work odd-jobs...paint these cabinets, clean up this wooded hill, powerwash the stucco, stain the deck, etc.  both him and his wife were pretty successful, hard working blue collar people and were slowly turning over their fleet of beaters to higher end cars which was a real treat for me on car wash day.

he had 2 gems in the fleet - a dark blue on black E39 M5 and a silver on black Z8.  he had intended to buy a viper, but when he walked in with jeans an a t-shirt on the dealer wouldn't take him seriously, so he bought this silver arrow of a car instead.  it mostly hung out in the garage looking pretty.

they knew i loved cars, and one day the husband was out on some business trip and the wife tossed me the keys to the Z8.  "i need you to go grab some special bulbs for these light fixtures and pick up a new faucet down at the hardware store." so i ran errands in that Z for the afternoon, shaking like a leaf the whole time knowing the car was worth more than my life.  the hood felt like it was 15 feet long and was miserable to park.  i got more attention in that thing than any other time in my life and felt really out of place being essentially a kid in this thing.  i think i romped on it once, in second, and immediately decided to never do that again knowing the rarity of the car.  it was an amazing experience but i think i was glad to hand the keys back.

i got to drive the M5 a couple times to pick up their kids and that was a way less stressful experience.  i can totally see why people benchmarked them at the time.

NSU RO80 Belonged to a friend of my mum and dad. I wasn't old enough to drive but in a quasi rural area who cared. All I remember was stalling it a few times, but once we were going it was great fun I think. No way to compare but our regular cars were a Hillman Minx and an Austin A40 so it was a low bar. 

SAAB 95 wagon converted into a pickup truck.  There was a load of SAABs being shipped to the US in 67.  The boat hit a storm and one of the cars broke loose and was ping ponging in the hold, damaged a bunch of cars.  My Dad (a SAAB dealer) bought a bunch of sedans and one wagon.  They converted the sedans to convertible and the wagon into a pickup.  Never drove a convertible, understand they were death traps due to the lack of reinforcement.  Also they leaked like sieves, so they all rusted immediately.  We used the truck as a delivery vehicle until about 75, when it finally rusted out.

Citroen Mehari, the French version of The Thing.  Plastic bodied version of a 2CV.  Mine didn't have a roof or windows, did have the canvas doors.

I owned a 71 Simca. Cut my teeth on front drive clutch replacement on it.

1973 Saab 95 wagon my ex- was interested in buying. But since it has a 4 on the tree, she made me do the test drive ("you're better with strange clutches than I am...").  Neat car and I've had a hankering for one ever since.

By most standards, the Volvo 1800ES wagon is reasonably obscure.  But I own one and also spent a ton of miles behind the wheel of my ex's example, so I don't know if that counts. 

I suppose my TR8 is fairly obscure, with only around 2700 made in 1980 and 81.

Edit: I forgot about the 1978 Datsun F10 my father owned. I only drove it a couple of times, but it was pretty obscure even when it was new.

Antihero said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Oh yeah... a bench seat Fairmont wagon with the inline six.  They probably made like four of those.

 

The kicker was that it was my girlfriend's mom's car and I was teaching her to drive.  I am tall, my girlfriend was not.  Like, she could stand up under my armpit and hide in my coat.  And she was driving, and I was in the passenger seat, and did I mention that it was a bench seat car?

My mom had one for years, I wish they never got rid of it

My parents had a bench seat Fairmont wagon, I loved that car.  Can't remember if it was a six or four cylinder, though.  It was manual transmission.

I owned a Phaeton for a while, that was fairly obscure as even the local VW shop couldn't work on it.

Quadrasteer Suburban?

Allroad?

Zoomboni?

All my vehicles are reasonably odd and or obscure, just not very old.

I owned a 1984 Datsun/Nissan Stanza 3 door. (For one year, they used both names) They were pretty rare at the time, especially the 3 door, and I almost guarantee there are zero left on the road. Nothing fancy, but for whatever reason, no one bought them. 

Here you go - the early Post War British idea of what America wanted.  Austin A90 Atlantic.

And this - looks like a basking shark with dentures. Daimler SP 250

At our annual car show I always tried to park my Jensen CV8 beside an SP 250 - it made it look almost normal in comparison.

The car itself wasn't obscure, but growing up the family truckster was a '92 Plymouth Voyager with the 5-speed manual.  It always took people by suprise the first time they hopped into it.  Dog slow, but good for learning to drive in.  Even took my drivers license test in it.  

Citroen 2CV, Peugeot 505GL, Bullnose Saab.  Not rare, but fairly obscure over here.

Either a Zimmer Quicksilver a friend's dad owned ( I called it the Caddiero), or a right-hand drive Integra Type R. 

Not super rare or super odd other than French car in the US in the 70's.  My parent's 1973 Peugeot 504 very similar to this one.

Followed by a 1978 Datsun 810 with a 4 speed similar to this one but in brown, also my parents.

I also did the Rally for the Lane and highly recommend it, along with the museum itself.

My ride was the '58 Tatra 603....

I've owned a '70 Dino Ferrari, a '72 Citroen DS and driven a 1938 Rolls Royce PIII along with all sorts of obscure French cars like 2CV's and Dyna Panhards. 

Drove this Radical SR3 one time:

Spun it on the first corner at speed by going from 0 to 25% throttle too quickly I have the data log...if it were mine two mods I would've done to it are increasing the air compressor kick-on pressure (I noticed on one straight it was consistently failing to shift into 5th because the pressure was too low, so I started just running it closer to the limiter in 4th) and a harder return spring on the gas pedal, so that I might have an easier time adding power in less than 25~33% dollops especially with the way it can make a smooth track feel bumpy...

I've owned an Austin A40 Somerset, an A55 Cambridge Farina, a Simca 1204, a Fiat 850 coupe, a Vauxhall "Firenza" ( a Canadian Vauxhall Viva HC), a Jag XK150S, a Jag XJ12L, Triumph TR8 and GT6 and a Ferguson TE20. All except the Fergie were daily drivers.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

You've reminded me that I drove a one off race car. It was very fast but also very expensive.

I love the old, weird stuff, and you guys are bringing it 

My current project is a 1959 Berkeley.. It sees quite a few annual miles.. I daily it to work on warmer days.  Terrifying, in a life-affirming sort of way 

 I'm surprised that I can't think of anything really obscure, or even that interesting. 
I did put a fair bit of mileage on these, enjoying everything the slant six and three on the tree had to offer

1930 Oakland V8 roadster, Indy 500 racecar. 1 of 1.

I daily drive a 2001 Chevy Lumina for highschool, and i had never heard of the car until dad got it for me. 

It has a 4 speed automatic transmission thats slowly starting to go out and has 224,700 miles on it, and it can hit 60mph in 1st gear. 

In the owners manual it actually says that if the car does not seem to accelerating to put the gas petal to the floor. 

Its top speed is 107 (i looked it up) and it is fwd with a 3600 3.0 v6

Here are some photos:

I used to daily a Nissan Axxess.  What made it obscure is it was a manual with AWD, not many of those existed.