Car collecting can encompass just about any idea imaginable; collecting original classics, historic machinery and weird one-of-a-kind art cars created just because someone had both the thought and the means to do it. Classic car collections often concentrate on authenticity, rarity, historic racing history and high levels of restoration quality, but some out-of-the-ordinary motor museums and collections of personal property inject more character and out-of-the-box thinking, showing how cars can be displays of cultural expression, wit, technical daring, personal lifestyle and artistic execution rather than just a means of getting around.

Others are notable because the cars document a certain aspect of motoring history. And some are interesting because the cars are so bizarre and outlandish, you’re sure you wouldn’t find them anywhere else. The French Schlumpf Collection showcases this style of museum-quality preservation, though you can see the same sort of lot in the private and royally owned Middle Eastern collections, where seemingly unlimited budgets create mechanical realities based on just about any idea you can imagine. Some collectors have built movie replicas, food-themed vehicles, monumental reproductions and nutty, blow-the-rules-of-engineering-out-of-the water kit cars.

The cars we’ve looked at here exemplify just how wide-ranging a love for cars can be when drivers are free from conventional notions of aesthetics or function. From huge off-roaders to extravagant Mercedes-Benz show cars to truly weird custom creations, every example is a distinct take on collecting for love. Some are all about the past; others are show-stopping; some are entirely unique creations; and together, they demonstrate how imagination and personality can be every bit as important as horsepower, rarity or price.

1. The Schlumpf Collection Preserves Automotive History

The French specimen has the museum-sized glitz as the desired bent, where preservation and importance trumps making the odd custom. The collection was developed by a French enthusiast drawn from that country’s largest gathering of historic vehicles, and there is a special link with Bugatti that allows visitors to see important European examples of automotive design and engineering. Rather than the odd standout custom, this collection shows how vehicles from a wide range of eras can be preserved as part of a larger picture. Its importance lies in the ability to assemble a collection of important examples of vehicles, engineering concepts and styling trends together.

Historical qualities that define the collection:

• Historic automobiles preserved together
• Strong connection with Bugatti
• Museum-style automotive presentation
• Engineering history remains central
• Design evolution becomes easier to study

The value of a collection like the Schlumpf is that with individual cars the details provided by a photograph or text cannot tell the full story. Visitors can see the true scale of the historic bodies, see mechanical parts laid out to observe how they were put together, and compare construction methods across periods. The importance of physically seeing the cars is that understanding of changes in style, engineering, manufacturing, and performance is more readily apparent. And to see a number of historically significant cars together forms a context for understanding that is difficult to find when each one is experienced as a separate object.

The other side of this account, this handful of stories, is the evidence that a truly idiosyncratic and extraordinary collection of cars need not depend on their strangeness or spectacle. A single car to a group of historically significant automobiles can be just as fun to look at (more so) as a parking lot of Caterpillars. This sort of collection is not about visual shock or showing off; it’s about preservation, about focus, and about the 20th century of car development. These cars demonstrate how collecting can be about the past as well as about today’s factory-built art.

2. The Jordanian Royal Family Collection Combines Many Automotive Worlds

The various cars of the Jordanian Royal Family are eclectic in the extreme. Instead of having a narrowly focused collection, the collection on display here ranges from casual luxury transportation and performance-oriented cars through to rally- and off-road vehicles. Amidst the luxury sedans, the allure of performance cars looms: a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing stands for an important period of performance transportation, while a Ford Escort Cosworth provides perspective from the world of rally engineering and performance. A stark contrast to all of this luxury is a bulletproof limousine.

Vehicles representing different automotive worlds:

• Bulletproof limousine for secure transportation
• Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing
• Ford Escort Cosworth rally connection
• Ferrari F40 high-performance heritage
• Specialized off-road machines

The inclusion of such an eclectic mix of vehicles illustrates the flexibility of the definition of ‘collectable’. The arms-limousines are cars designed from the ground up to focus on comfort, security and serving as a luxury mode of transportation, while the Gullwing is a very different aspect to styling and focus on performance. The Escort Cosworth introduces a little competition into the context, while the Ferrari F40 explores an extreme concept of what a road-going car can be. Collectively they span several automotive as well as manufacturing concerns.

The same variety is what makes these cars what they are. For someone who is interested in everything, a collector does not have to face the choice between luxury and performance, against motorsports heritage and off-road performance, because not every interest needs to be a priority: each car is a different idea of the invention and perhaps taste, and not having a single corner does not necessarily mean having a garage full of nothing. Surely the contrast between the cars is part of the interest  it really shows us how different machines can mean radically different things to different people, and to be able to collect, then, it is to be able to save different car experiences that a single definition of the car can no longer satisfy.

3. The Batmobile Collection Turns Cinema Into Automotive Art

The Batmobile is arguably one of the most iconic fictional cars in pop culture history. Adding a number of different versions to the collection turns the design of movies’ cars into a type of automotive art. Compared to collections that are based entirely on production cars, a Batmobile collection is able to include vehicles based on different versions of Batman, movies, time periods, and directions that a given character has been taken. Each version of the Batmobile reflects the imagination of the designers and filmmakers who envisioned the fictionalized machine at a given point in time.

Features that make cinematic vehicles collectible:

• Multiple Batman-era interpretations
• Distinctive fictional automotive designs
• Strong connections with cinema
• Themed display environments
• Cultural value beyond transportation

What makes these vehicles appealing, however, transcends shapes or mechanics because their meaning is inextricably linked with the movies and stories that established them as icons. A Batmobile, for example, can be instantly identified by someone who has almost no interest in automobiles because the design has an identity embedded within a character and a universe. Collecting many versions is then comparable to building a chronological visual history of the ways filmmakers and designers have continually revisited the same design formula. Variations in proportions, styling cues, technology, and characterization show the evolution of cinematic vehicle design in concert with developments in entertainment technology and viewer expectations.

A dedicated display could add even more to the set, such as the vehicles being displayed in an environment built in homage to their on-screen persona. Effective lighting, architecture, themed environment, and display details can take them from just being inanimate objects parked on a shelf to cultural artifacts. It proves that a collectible doesn’t necessarily have to have some long ago important role as a production car to have value to collectors. With the Batmobile, automotive design becomes part of a much larger mythic storytelling tradition where fictional cars can find a very special place in the car collecting world.

4. Marcel Dubois’ Rolling Cheese Vehicles Blur Cars and Culture

Marcel “Le Fromage” Dubois pushes the concept of auto-body customization in an unorthodox, light-hearted way by pairing old cars and French food culture. Dubois collection consists of a dozen vintage cars turned into traveling exhibits and tastefully fashioned cheese shops. Rather than turning trucks or muscle cars into speed monsters, more plush rides, or off-road ready vehicles, the idea is to give ’em a whole new personality that’s all about cheese and cuisine. It’s a great example of how one of the most common machines on the planet can be transformed into a visual and corporeal celebration of local culture, humor, and individualism.

Details that define the cheese-themed vehicles:

• Twelve vintage vehicles receive conversions
• Mobile cheese showcases create novelty
• Camembert Convertible adds culinary humor
• Limburger Limousine extends the theme
• Classic styling meets food culture

That vehicle also exemplifies just how the culinary theme is woven through many of the collection. The Camembert Convertible and Limburger Limousine translate plain ol’ automotive words into clever culinary wordplay, but the cars are also entirely altered to make a statement much bigger than a standard carbureted food display. The vintage vehicles were already eye-catching due to their design, design cues and the character of their age; but by transforming them into culinary displays, they gain an entirely different layer of personality. They are conversation starters because they combine two so-called disparate subjects: food and cars.

What’s more intriguing about the wider idea here is the way automotive ingenuity doesn’t always need anything close to horsepower, cost-prohibitive hardware mods, or sophisticated technologies, a memorable custom car just needs a bit of a different slant on an existing contraption. French culinary tradition and traditional automobile culture both have very close ties to craftsmanship, presentation and tradition, which when applied in the right way creates an entirely new artform, and that is exactly what this collection achieves. A vehicle that’s intended as a cultural artifact, a promotional piece, a joke, and a work of art, all at the same time, is one that’s totally unique, and far removed from a typical classic-car collection.

5. Baz Thompson’s Giant Toilet Trucks Embrace Automotive Humor

However, what Baz Thompson has created has nothing to do with preservation, customization or even racing. What he’s shown the world is a whole new way to customize trucks: with humor. There isn’t any indication that these giant (scale) porcelain commodes would ever have had any purpose other than making a spectacle out of other trucks, and because they look out of proportion as trucks, they turn into giant rolling comedy devices. Clearly meant to turn heads, these trucks were meant to entertain rather than to impress with luxury or better engineering, their design can now be explained as “comedic” rather than “performance.”

Humorous features built into the trucks:

• Heavy-duty truck foundations
• Giant porcelain toilet appearance
• Deliberately exaggerated visual design
• Horn-activated flushing mechanism
• Strong public entertainment value

And it only gets better – the toilet theme doesn’t just stop at the styling of the vehicles. According to the source material, a flushing system is also controlled by the horn, transforming the vehicle into a jokester. “It gives the cars a bit of theatricality because you see the image and then see a mechanical manifestation of the image,” the writer noted. “It doesn’t really have much practical use, but it’s enough to impress people and for a lot of people, that’s what matters in eccentric car culture.”

These trucks also prove that show-stopping can be driven completely by personality: a builder doesn’t need to start with a one-off sports car or a once-in-a-lifetime car to craft something unforgettable, any more than a heavy-duty work truck must be. These gargantuan toilet trucks illustrate how commercial and service vehicles can become a civic event, through humor and flair. Their position in the company of vintage cars, giant puppets, and random museum exhibits illustrates just how broad the automotive devotee’s interests can be: here, making an observer blink and giggle can be as valuable as pristine originality or peak performance.

6. The Oshkosh-Based Jeep Wrangler Becomes a Giant Off-Road Machine

It’s easy to get excited when anyone comes up with another humongous Jeep Wrangler project like the one Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan has just completed. This version features the rugged Wrangler body, but the rest of the design is based on the heavy-duty platform of an Oshkosh M1075-built machine. This is a vehicle that takes a familiar form factor and makes it shockingly huge, and with a Caterpillar 15.2 liter engine, it also generates somewhere in the region of 600 horsepower and is ready to push a super-sized Jeep into uncharted waters. When you’re not really just modifying a Jeep, you’re turning the design concept into something massive.

Engineering details behind the oversized Jeep:

• Oshkosh M1075-based heavy platform
• Jeep Wrangler body design
• 15.2-liter Caterpillar diesel engine
• Approximately 600 horsepower
• Extreme overall vehicle dimensions

The size is what makes this machine so eye catching. Measuring nearly 11 meters long and just over three metres tall, this rig is more in the realm of work or construction vehicles rather than your average SUV. The huge chassis and carry a Jeep-badged Wrangler body make for a tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top take on the off-road lifestyle. Other vehicles elements and design cues were added to the shell, including headlights from a Ford Super Duty pickup truck and taillights from a Dodge Dart, making this anything but a scaled-up Jeep.

It’s part of a larger trend in Sheikh Hamad’s collection in which more familiar automaking notions are regularly scaled up, tweaked or completely rejigged. An average Jeep is all about compact utility and off-road capability, and now it is transformed into a kind of eye-catching moving image. The finished product is better described as a sculptural piece of machinery than it is as an SUV but, of course, its stout underpinning lends it authentic technical plausibility. It just shows that collecting can also sometimes develop beyond the idea of acquiring particular cars and toward the actual creation of entirely new cars that have so little in common with ‘production’ cars that they almost have no conventional equivalents.

7. The Giant Land Rover Series 3 Creates a Desert Landmark

The giant Land Rover Series 3 associated with the Emirates National Auto Museum shows how an automobile can become part of the surrounding landscape rather than simply an exhibit inside a building. Positioned as an oversized display connected with the pyramid-shaped museum, the vehicle immediately establishes the unusual character of the collection. Its scale turns a familiar off-road vehicle into something that functions almost like architecture or a monument. Instead of approaching the museum and seeing an ordinary entrance display, visitors encounter a dramatically enlarged vehicle that communicates the collection’s interest in unusual proportions and spectacular automotive creations.

Elements that make the Land Rover display distinctive:

• Oversized Series 3 design
• Connection with Emirates National Auto Museum
• Pyramid-shaped museum setting
• Strong off-road visual identity
• Landmark-scale presentation

The Land Rover Series 3 is particularly appropriate for this treatment because the original vehicle is strongly associated with utility and off-road capability. Enlarging its shape creates an immediate contrast between the practical dimensions of the original and the monumental proportions of the replica. The desert environment surrounding the museum also provides a natural setting for an enormous off-road vehicle. Against a wide landscape, the oversized Land Rover can function as a visual landmark, making the familiar shape recognizable while giving it a completely different relationship with its surroundings.

The most interesting part of the giant Land Rover is the way scale changes the viewer’s relationship with the automobile. A normal Series 3 is designed to be entered, driven, and used, but an enormous replica becomes something people stand beside and observe. Its primary purpose becomes visual rather than practical, turning the vehicle into a large-scale sculpture. This approach fits the wider philosophy of the collection, where automobiles are repeatedly transformed through unusual dimensions, colors, mechanical modifications, and unconventional purposes. The giant Land Rover therefore demonstrates how a familiar automotive design can be separated from its original function and presented as a piece of visual spectacle.

8. The Giant Willys Jeep Became a Record-Setting Replica

The giant Willys Jeep is one of the most recognizable oversized creations associated with the Emirates National Auto Museum. The functional replica is reported to stand approximately 21 feet tall and to be around four times the size of a conventional Willys Jeep. Despite its enormous proportions, the vehicle retains recognizable details associated with the original design, including a large shovel and axe mounted along its side. It was also designed to be driven rather than serving solely as a static monument, with the driver positioned behind the front grille. This combination of scale, functionality, and recognizable styling makes the vehicle particularly unusual.

Features that preserve the Willys Jeep identity:

• Approximately 21 feet tall
• Roughly four times normal size
• Functional and designed to drive
• Large shovel and axe details
• Driver positioned behind the grille

The enormous replica creates an interesting contrast with the original Willys Jeep because the wartime vehicle was famous for being compact, lightweight, simple, and highly maneuverable. Those qualities were central to its usefulness, yet the giant replica reverses the concept by making every dimension dramatically larger. The silhouette remains familiar, but the proportions turn a compact utility vehicle into a towering mechanical landmark. Details such as the shovel and axe help maintain the connection with the original military-inspired design, allowing viewers to recognize the source vehicle even after its dimensions have been radically transformed.

The giant Jeep has also been associated with a Guinness World Records claim as the largest motorized Jeep replica. It is located in the context of the Emirates National Auto Museum in Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra region, where it forms part of a broader collection of unusual and oversized automobiles. The museum itself is housed in a pyramid-shaped structure, reinforcing the collection’s emphasis on spectacle. Alongside giant trucks, modified Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and other eccentric creations, the Willys Jeep demonstrates how a historic automotive design can be transformed into a record-setting attraction while still retaining enough of its original visual identity to remain recognizable.

9. The Mercedes-Benz W116 Monster Truck Reimagines a Luxury Sedan

The Mercedes-Benz W116 was originally created as a luxury sedan focused on refinement, comfort, engineering quality, and road-going performance. Transforming that design into a monster truck therefore produces a striking contrast between its original purpose and its new configuration. The version associated with the Emirates National Auto Museum places the recognizable Mercedes body high above the ground on an off-road chassis, giving the formal sedan the stance and proportions of a specialized monster truck. The result retains the identity of the W116 while completely changing its physical purpose, demonstrating how far custom engineering can move a vehicle away from its factory design.

Changes that redefine the Mercedes sedan:

• Original W116 luxury-sedan foundation
• Elevated body on off-road chassis
• Dramatically increased ground clearance
• Monster-truck-inspired overall proportions
• Luxury identity meets extreme customization

The transformation becomes especially interesting when considered alongside the engineering philosophy of the original W116. Mercedes-Benz designed the sedan around road use, long-distance comfort, stability, refinement, and sophisticated luxury-car engineering. It was never intended to become a high-clearance off-road machine. Raising the body onto a monster-truck chassis reverses those priorities while preserving the visual character that identifies the Mercedes. The result therefore works through contrast: a formal European luxury sedan becomes an oversized off-road vehicle without losing the basic shape that made the original recognizable.

The monster-truck Mercedes fits naturally within the broader character of the Emirates National Auto Museum collection because the museum includes vehicles that challenge conventional ideas about originality and purpose. The collection brings together classic automobiles, military machines, giant replicas, unusual trucks, and heavily modified vehicles rather than limiting itself to one manufacturer or historical period. The W116 therefore becomes another example of a familiar automobile being transformed into something unexpected. Its importance within this context comes less from factory specification and more from the creativity involved in giving a luxury sedan an entirely different visual and mechanical identity.

10. The Rainbow Mercedes Fleet Turns Color Into a Collection Theme

The group of Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL models associated with Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan is one of the most visually distinctive displays in the collection. The cars are commonly associated with the nickname “Rainbow Sheikh” because seven Mercedes-Benz 500 SELs were presented in different rainbow colors, with matching interiors and additional customized details. Rather than collecting unrelated automobiles, this display uses the same basic luxury sedan as a repeated design element and then changes the visual treatment of each vehicle. The result turns color itself into the organizing theme of the collection, making the group especially recognizable as a single display.

Details that define the rainbow Mercedes fleet:

• Seven Mercedes-Benz 500 SELs
• Different rainbow exterior colors
• Matching interior treatments
• Customized visual details
• Strong group-display identity

The concept works particularly well because the Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL already has a formal and imposing appearance. Repeating the same luxury sedan in multiple colors changes the way viewers perceive the cars, transforming them from individual automobiles into parts of a larger visual composition. Matching interiors reinforce that idea by extending the color theme into the cabin. Instead of relying on differences in model, engine, or body style to create variety, the collection uses color and repetition. The display therefore demonstrates that a collection can be designed around presentation and visual unity as much as rarity or mechanical diversity.

The rainbow fleet also fits into the larger automotive environment associated with the Emirates National Auto Museum, where unusual vehicles are displayed alongside historic and specialized machines. The broader collection includes giant replicas, military-inspired vehicles, custom trucks, unusual Mercedes-Benz creations, and other eccentric automobiles. Within that setting, the rainbow cars represent a different kind of automotive creativity: rather than changing the vehicle’s size or mechanical purpose, the collection changes its visual identity. Together with the other machines, they demonstrate how collecting can become a personal expression of imagination, combining historical vehicles, engineering experiments, humor, luxury, color, and spectacle into one highly unconventional automotive world.