Cars The 12 Most Bizarre Formula 1 Cars Of All Time

Formula 1 is all about speed. Speed that must be created and harnessed by the engineers and the drivers. Engineers are tasked with finding creative ways to make the cars as fast as possible while the drivers are tasked with racing the wheels off of 'em. Most of the time, an engineer's work is never visible to the public. Mostof the time. These are the 12 weirdest looking F1 cars that have ever been built.

1. 1968 Brabham BT26 In the late 1960s, teams were playing with new ways of attaching wings to cars, including putting a wing directly in front of the driver. One of them, the McLaren M7C, earned the nickname "The Guillotine", and was quickly banned.

2. 2001 Arrows A22 The front wing concept resurfaced briefly in 2001 when Arrows brought one out for the Monaco Grand Prix. The car needed all the help it could get in terms of downforce, but the wing didn't get past the organizers, who nixed it for the race.

3. 1976-77 Tyrrell P34 This is the only six-wheeled car to ever race in F1. It actually won a race, too. The idea was that you could have the same traction as a tire twice as wide, with half the wind resistance. Ironically, the only problem was that no one copied the design, so Goodyear had little reason to improve the tires, which ultimately rendered the car obsolete.

4. 1981 Williams FW07D Several teams, including Ferrari, experimented with using four wheels in back, but none of them ever made it to a race. F1 eventually said "dudes, enough" and banned using more than four wheels total shortly thereafter

5. Every 2014 Car An unfortunate loophole in the 2014 rules led most teams to develop what's best described as a phallic attachment to the front of the car. Sadly, no team thought to market their... tip with Trojan sponsoring.

6. Tyrrell 25 You get one guess as to why this car was nicknamed the X-Wing.

7. 1979 Ensign N179 See the stepping stool at the front? Those are radiators to help keep everything cool. This is often considered the ugliest F1 car of all time.

8. 1971 March 711 Take a good look at the front wing here, and you'll understand why the car was sometimes referred to as the Tea Tray.

9. 1977-78 Renault RS01 This was the very first turbocharged F1 car, which helps explain some of the unusual ducting you see. It also tended to blow its engine a lot.

10. 1981 Lotus 88 Notice how there aren't any wings? This car has two different chassis, one for the suspension, and the other for the bodywork, so that it generates a tremendous amount of downforce, keeping the car firmly glued to the ground.

11. The "ground effect" cars If you've ever heard the term "ground effects," you can find its origin in late 1970s F1. Pioneered by Lotus and copied by teams like Ferrari (shown), moveable side skirts dragged across the ground (look between the front and rear wheels), forming a vacuum that literally sucked the car down.