Car nerds occupy a small niche of the wide array of folks with special interests — some might even call that wide array of folks with special interests a spectrum. Regardless of what you or medical professionals may call it, we all like cars. Judging by the fact that you’re reading this article right now, you make a habit out of reading about cars and learning about them, too, so what’s an obscure car you know of that nobody else seems to know about? I don’t want to see any one or two-word answers, Brenda, elaborate a bit! Why the hell do you know so much about this obscure car?
Today’s youth have it good; they can just search any car online and learn everything the internet knows about it. Back in my day you had to buy VHS tapes and books and magazines to learn about cars, so my scope of car knowledge was a bit more specialized. I had several books and videos about weird cars and ugly cars and sales flops and concepts, so I had access to a lot of repeat information that I’ve committed to memory.
My answer to the question is the Volkswagen Type 34, the second generation of Karmann Ghia. My love of cars started with classic Volkswagens, so I had (and still have) several books about them and the Type 34 was my forbidden fruit. Never officially sold in the U.S., “der Große Karmann” struck me as an absolutely gorgeous little car that I desperately wanted and hoped to see on the road every time I stepped outside. I’m sure plenty of other folks know about the beauty of the Type 34, but it’s still an obscure car that has always lived rent-free in my head.
That’s enough from my nerd brain. What’s a car nobody else knows about, and why do you know about it? It can be a vintage car or a modern one, as long as it’s relatively obscure and niche as hell. Maybe it’s your special interest car, or one that a family member wouldn’t shut up about and you absorbed the knowledge via osmosis, this is a safe space to nerd out and go buck wild.
