Bell Aurens

If this looks like a Land Rover with a long front end, well, yes it is. But the Bell Aurens Longnose of 2009 was so much more exotic than that. This roofless, windowless machine was an evocative throwback to the World War Two desert campaigns of General Montgomery, which has some irony because the Bell Aurens was actually made in Germany. It was originally intended to house a 1,500bhp Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine, but German health and safety spoilsports forced a rethink, and the prototype was eventually fitted with a regular Rover V8.

On Bing: more pics of the Bell Aurens