What’s The Rarest Car You’ve Ever Seen In Person?

Photos are certainly nice, but there’s always something special about finally seeing a car in person for the first time. Maybe you end up liking the look more than you thought you would. Maybe you find a new thing to dislike. Heck, sometimes it’s just cool to be able to say you’ve actually seen one, especially when it’s rare. That said, “rare” doesn’t always mean the same thing to everyone. 

Sometimes, we’re talking about a true one-off creation. Other times, we’re talking about a specific model that was only ever built in extremely limited numbers. Or a mass-produced vehicle that only got a limited run of manual transmissions. Or, depending on who you talk to, it could also mean the only base-model car built that day that was also equipped with the performance package and painted a particular color. Or an undented Nissan Altima with all its bodywork still attached. What can I say, enthusiasts contain multitudes. 

So, without putting too many constraints on what counts as rare, what would you say is the rarest car you’ve ever seen in person?

Considering what I do for work, it probably isn’t terribly surprising to hear I’ve seen some pretty rare cars. There are only 275 Mercedes-AMG Ones in existence, and I’ve seen two of them parked right next to each other. I’ve also been to Pebble Beach, where rare car owners go to die, so I’m sure I’ve laid eyes on plenty of one-offs. But as I was thinking about my answer to this question, the one that I got the most excited about was the Tucker 48 (or Torpedo, depending on who you’re talking to). 

Since there are 51 Tucker 48s, it certainly isn’t the rarest car ever built. Some cars are true one-of-ones. But it’s the rarest car I remember seeing, perhaps because almost as soon as I saw one, I saw another. And another. One passed by on the back of a flatbed, but several others were just out there on the road, driving like regular cars. Turns out, Tucker owners were doing a little get-together at Pebble Beach that year, and I was just lucky enough to be there to witness it. And it really was incredible to see. 

What about you, though? What’s the rarest car you remember ever seeing in person? Let us know down in the comments, and if there’s a good story, be sure to share that too.