SLIDESHOW
The coolest one-off road cars of the modern era
I nthe early days of the car, it was easy to build oneoffs. But the advent of monocoque construction made it much harder, which is why it’s now such a costly business. But every so often a company will still unveil a road-going car that’s unique, either as a customer commission, a marketing exercise or the basis of a production model that never sees the light of day. Here are our favourites.
RICHARD DREDGE
Maybach Exelero 2005
Although it looks like a refugee from a Batman film, the Exelero was never designed for a starring role on the silver screen. Instead, it was designed as a mobile test bed for high-speed tyres, bankrolled by German tyre maker Fulda and based on the platform of the Maybach 57 limousine. This wasn’t the first time that Fulda had teamed up with the ultra-luxurious German marque, nor was it the first time that the tyre maker had built a vehicle specially for the purpose of demonstrating its tyres. Back in 1938, Fulda had paid for a one-off Maybach SW38, to enable high-speed tyre testing on Germany’s revolutionary new autobahns.