This is not the car for those who suffer from either scopophobia (fear of being seen) or amaxophobia (fear of riding in a car), or God forbid you suffer from both. But if you do and get offered a ride in a 1968 Quasar Unipower, at least a grab bar is handily available for the afflicted passenger.
The late sixties encouraged free thinking, so why not a car built around three sliding patio doors? French-Vietnamese designer Quasar Khanh took up that thought, and used BMC 1100 running gear, with the engine now in back, to create the ultimate city car. It’s actually not a cube, being the only car ever produced known to actually be wider (66″) then long (64″). Height? A towering 74″. And just to enhance the fear of being seen from every angle, the seats in the original version (above) were made of inflatable clear plastic.
And not surprisingly, the French bought the lion’s share (13) of the fifteen Quasars actually produced. There are some funny pictures, but whoever owns the quasar-unipower.com web site is very touchy about their collection, and make them near impossible to “use”. It’s in French, but the pictures of nude (non-scopophobic) women in a Quasar don’t require any translation.
Attention all you Curbside Classic fans: lets get these parked cars identified pronto!
Nothing unsafe about that.
It has a flavor of the “Pope-mobile”. White. Maximum visibility of the passengers.
…And yet, still more aerodynamic than a Hummer H2.
Peugeot 404 break (station wagon) in the foreground. YES!!!! I”m happy now!
The tail end in front of the Peugeot looks like a Simca Etoile (star) but I won’t swear to it
First car showing up behind the cube is a Buick Special, a ’61 I think.
Behind that a Renault 4
Oh, and, that thing betw the Special and the 4 is a Fiat, but I can’t remember which one.
Paris in the ’60s (I can tell by the license plate ending in 75, but I don’t recognize the location.
The Fiat is a 600.
Or an 850.
This looks almost as silly as the electric car they put together on Top Gear.
Not a car for prudes wearing short skirts.
But “Quasar Unipower” is the coolest car name I’ve heard in a very long time.
Looks like a mobile shower.
Could this be the first mini-van with sliding doors on both passenger and drivers side?
It is a one box design!
You guys beat me to it.
Will we now hear from some other designer (say Zenith Nguyen) complaining that HE invented the minivan?
Talk about a “greenhouse”…
I will never again refer to a Volvo 240 as “boxy”.
In Amsterdam in the seventies, we had the Witkar car share (http://www.google.com/search?q=witkar | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witkar) which never took off very well unfortunately.
The vehicle itself was similarly exhibitionist.
In fact you can consider the French bike share variation Velib’ as successful offspring..
Bet it’s not too popular in Nevada or Arizona during hot summer days.
Twotone
An early Pope-mobile prototype?
Looks entirely safe. Those inflatable seats won’t crush you against the front end in a crash.
They won’t hold you back, either… but that’s a minor quibble.
I was familiar with this car before… but I didn’t realize they were crazy enough to make more than one of them!
I’d pay top dollar to see a field of 40 of those things race at Martinsville.
Part of the GlassCar Racing Series (hurr).
Catastrophic, crystalline bloodbath wrecks caused by mildew buildup in the rolling shower stalls.
One day later and I would’ve thought that to be an april fools article. I don’t want to know how much drugs were used when designing that car.
I don’t think that’s much worse safetywise than other cars of the period. Without seat belts you’re pretty much screwed in any crash, and the French didn’t start using them until 5-10 years later.
That really does look like the Pope’s car. I would hate to see that thing get hit by a pebble the car would be totaled. I wonder if they are going to start selling those at Used Cars Elizabethtown Ky dealership.