A Look at this Week’s Weird and Wonderful—August 7, 2026
Happy Car Week Eve, to those who celebrate! Some of our community will undoubtedly be in Monterey soon (check out the Mohr Imports Local Partners Insider’s Guide if you’re planning on it), but many of us will continue to live vicariously through features like this, our weekly roundup of strange and interesting cars currently live on the pages of BaT. This week we have some impressive classic and vintage racers (both real and re-created), Russian armor, a good amount of Pininfarina, and the biggest rat rod you’ve ever seen. Of course, there are many other treasures on our live auctions page, which hit almost 1,400 listings this week! Should you find yourself in need of further automotive edification, please do yourself a favor and head over there when you’re done here.
Enjoy this week’s selection of Weird and Wonderful BaT auctions, and let us know what else you think should be on our list!
1936 Lagonda LG45 Two-Seat Boattail Special
The silhouette of the last Lagonda LG45 listed on BaT gives you a glimpse of what this car might’ve looked like before architect, engineer, and vintage racing driver Lee Duran began transforming it with a custom riveted-aluminum boattail body of his own design. Unfortunately, Duran passed before he could bring the project to completion, but who better to finish it than someone named @LagondaJoe? A marque expert himself, Joe adopted the car in its bare porcupinesque aluminum state and brought it across the finish line. It’s since been shown around SoCal, and today it’s offered up by the man himself.
The T-34/85 may have been crude and cramped, but it was well-suited to its task. This variant’s upgraded 85mm gun in a three-person turret gave the T-34 platform enough firepower, range, and mobility to counter the superior German Panzer IVs, which were increasingly crewed with inexperienced soldiers as the Second World War came to a close. Enough of them were made and exported that they were still in service into the early 2000s in certain countries. This one wasn’t retired from Czech service until the 1980s, but now wears the white identification stripes that were used in the Battle of Berlin—the Soviet equivalent of Allied invasion stripes.
“5 Ton Fred” Wrecker-Style Autocar C-50-Bodied Rat Rod
Not a Gullwing. Not a Pagani. This is the ride to have in Monterey next week. Its Z-ed Ford school bus frame wears a chopped and channeled Autocar C-50 cab, wheels from some sort of military tractor, and a giant homemade recovery boom. As aggro as this rat rod build appears, it shows an impressive attention to detail—not a zip tie looks out of place.
Custom-Bodied Alfa Romeo Special
Midwest builder and metal craftsman Steve Bonacker must have kept company with plenty of vintage Ferraris, Maseratis, OSCAs, and others of similar ilk—or perhaps he had an Italian confidant whispering in his ear. Whatever the case, this open special was Bonacker’s custom-built, Italian-inspired opus. Dubbed the “Dragon,” it was completed in the early 2000s around an Alfa Romeo chassis and borrowed some of his favorite styling cues from a variety of Italian sports cars. We can spot a little bit of everything, including a faint hint of Maserati 450S. But that’s just us—what do you see?
No Reserve: MV Agusta Mini Bike Racing and 1971 MV Agusta 750S
MV Agusta celebrated Phil Read’s consecutive 1973 and 1974 500cc World Championships by creating a scaled-down version of his winning motorcycle for his son. But it was the photo above, showing the Prince of Speed pleading his case to the long trench coats of the law, that really pushed the mini bike into the limelight. The Italian firm was eventually persuaded to produce a limited batch during the mid-1970s.
Count Domenico Agusta was an unwavering absolutist when it came to his machines, and the 750S arrived at the height of MV Agusta’s golden age. This example hails from the year of the Count’s passing, when his successors loosened their grip on strict low-volume production and output jumped from nine units in 1970 to 56. This full-faired example is, of course, documented by none other than Ian Falloon, and it’s listed on consignment by Local Partner @911r.
Though the 541 shares styling cues like its bulbous front end and eyebrowed wheel arches with the legendary Mercedes-Benz 300SL, the two share no relation. In fact, the model became Jensen’s halo car on its own merits thanks in large part to the high-performance 541R, which gained more power from its revised Austin-derived 4.0L inline-six and featured rack-and-pinion steering (groundbreaking stuff for the mid-1950s, and legend even has it that the “R” stood for just that).
Eric Neale was the 541’s designer, and this car became something of a family affair when it was purchased by his son Michael in 2003. By the late 2000s his other son, Derek, had refurbished it, and it’s now offered by BaT Local Partner @p1_motorcars_ltd.
36-Years-Owned 1968 Behnke Condor
Peter Behnke’s time around Lotus as the British marque’s German importer certainly rubbed off on him when he created the Condor—specifically, he drew inspiration from the Lotus 23 for his own design. A variety of engines were used in period, and this example is currently powered by a two-liter BMW four-pot. The car was campaigned during the 1970s and 1980s; since refurbished, it’s now offered out of Germany by its owner of 36 years.
Ferrari 250 GT Speciale Spyder Re-Creation and Maserati A6GCS Monofaro Re-Creation from The DFW Car & Toy Museum Collection
In 1957, Prince Bernhard van Lippe-Biesterfeld of the Netherlands ordered a Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Speciale with a Pininfarina body similar to the one-off 4.9 Superfast from the same year. This is not that car! It is, rather, a recreation based on a 1970 365 GT 2+2 that reimagines the concept as a Spyder with a removable hardtop. The build was commissioned by former Ferrari dealer David Rose, who had it done with hand-formed aluminum bodywork that was unfortunately completed after his passing.
“Monofaro” refers to the single central light found in the grille of this Maserati replica, whose cycle-fendered bodywork copies Fantuzzi’s original design—somehow a two-seater that competed in Formula 2 races long after the classic driver/mechanic format had been abandoned. This car was last on BaT in late 2024, just a couple of weeks too early to be featured in the very first Weekly Weird & Wonderful post.
In 10 years, we have listed only five of the Flavia-based, Pininfarina-designed 2000 Coupe, the last car designed and manufactured by an independent Lancia before the financially troubled company was basically given to Fiat. The body and interior are pure GT, the latter looking much like that of a period Ferrari. Under the classy lines is an economical but sporty front-driver with a 2.0-liter flat-four and a four-speed manual transaxle. Less than 3,000 were ultimately made; today, the design exudes the grace and presence of wheeled Italian objects costing 10 times more.
Ex-No Good Racing 2000 Honda Civic Type R
In Osaka, where underground crews have been duking it out on the Hanshin Expressway loop for decades, the cat-and-mouse game between racers and police now resembles a high-tech cyberespionage drama. Actual street racing is said to be scarce these days, but even so, transferring ownership of a vehicle like this might prompt some questions from the local precinct. You’d think that the folks from No Good Racing might have wanted to do their stunting in less conspicuous rides, but boldness and driving skill are the currency in this scene—there are no timekeepers or finish lines. Witness the rear bumper graphic—a hallmark of No Good drivers that ostensibly goes back to the 1980s. The fact that they do this kind of driving with their hazard lights on makes them more polite than most modern 3-series drivers.
Honorable Mentions
Xtrac 7-Speed Transaxle for Pagani Huayra
It’s the second time on BaT for this Xtrac transaxle, which is the stock component found in a Pagani Huayra. It’s a transverse design with seven sequentially-selected forward gears, and mounts behind the Huayra’s longitudinal V12. Xtrac kept the weight light with a cast aluminum case, which should make this box easy to cart around at the local Pagani swap meet this fall.
427 Stroker-Powered 2006 Panoz GTS NASA Race Car
If the one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people-eater just wanted to join a rock-and-roll band, then this two-eyed, one-winged yellow tire-eater just wants to go fast. This 2006 Panoz GTS NASA racer even comes with some spares in case you find yourself having a mala noche after a hard day at the track.
1986 Porsche 944 Rothmans Challenge Race Car
Last week we featured a 944 Turbo Cup car. This week our pages are graced by its predecessor, a normally aspirated Rothmans Challenge car that was campaigned by Ray Coffey and is being sold as part of the Mohr Imports Monterey Collection.
Thanks for checking out this edition of the Weekly Weird & Wonderful! Follow this page to get updates when new installments post, and tell what caught your eye or what you think we’ve left out!
