The weird & wonderful delights of the Isle of Man Motor Museum

Packed with cars that you've either never heard of, or only seen references to online or in books, the Isle of Man Motor Museum  has more than 500 vehicles. This includes around 200 cars, some commercial vehicles, hundreds of motorbikes and even a space capsule, and these are just a few of the brilliant machines on show.

The collection is the result of three decades of collecting on the part of Darren Cunningham and his father Denis. The museum opened in 2015 and as Darren says: "We like to have cars in our collection that visitors will not have seen anywhere else, and to offer that to everyone there has to be a really wide variety." As these pictures show, it's fair to say the objective has been achieved.

The P50 has a much higher profile than it used to, thanks to the antics of a certain TV show. Built on the Isle of Man, at 1370mm long (54in) the single-seater Peel is the smallest road car to ever be produced in series, and as you'd expect there are no fewer than three in the collection, including this original example, one shown in exploded view, along with a 2011 replica.

With 300bhp family hatchbacks now common, and 600bhp saloons even more so, it's hard to imagine how much the Lotus Carlton ruffled feathers when it arrived in 1990. Its 377bhp twin-turbo straight-six provided a 177mph top speed, which was enough to make some newspapers very angry indeed, though they didn’t seem to mind Ferraris…

The Citroën DS and ID were made in big numbers over a production run of two decades (1955-1975), but of the 1.5 million or so built, just 1365 were convertibles, or Decapotables. This one is a 1962 DS19, built independently by Chapron but supplied through the Citroën dealer network with a factory warranty.

The first post-war motor show in the UK was the 1948 Earls Court bash, and this was one of the cars on display. The 90 was a premium family car, and this cut-away was produced by the factory to show it off in all its glory. With the car on axle stands and driven by mains power, the engine, drivetrain and wheels all rotate.

Among all of the really weird stuff in the collection are some more mainstream gems, including this very original 205 GTi 1.9. It's in private hands and the lucky chap who owns it bought it as a daily driver before lending it to the museum.

Just about a contemporary of the Fiat 130, the slab-sided Ford Zephyr/Zodiac Mk4 was in production between 1966 and 1972. At the top of the model range was the Executive, complete with power steering, a sunroof, walnut dash and seatbelts.

The only production Roller to be designed by Pininfarina, the Camargue was seen as something of an ugly duckling by many, even though it was the world's most expensive car at the time. Just 531 were made between 1975 and 1986, and this 1981 example has covered just 12,000 miles so far.

Under those garish glassfibre add-ons is a 1975 Chevrolet Monte Carlo trying to get out. The brainchild of American Jon Tedesco, the Custom Cloud was meant to provide the luxury of a Rolls-Royce for a quarter of the cost. The guys from Crewe didn't take kindly and tried to shut him down, being only partially successful and forcing a redesign of the car.

The DMC-12 was one of those what-might-have-been cars. Loved and hated seemingly in equal measure, it did things differently which meant it was compromised, but with more development it could have been a contender. Production lasted just two years; this example is one of the ultra-rare right-hand drive prototypes.

Darren bought this 1954 Greyhound bus to drive around the US a few years ago. Estimated to have covered 5 or 6 million miles, it has air suspension, air-con and was originally powered by a pair of 4.7-litre four-cylinder diesel engines; it was later re-engined with a fairly monstrous 9.3-litre diesel V8, good for 1000lb ft of torque. 1001 Scenicruisers were built, originally all for Greyhound, between 1954 and 1956 – and by all accounts was a fairly nightmarish project all round, stemming largely from that (initially) convoluted engine setup.

Lots of companies have tried to produce a commercially viable amphibious vehicle, but so far it's proved to be a tricky proposition. In 2004, New Zealand company Gibbs unveiled the Aquada, but it sank without trace (thankfully not literally), with just a handful made. This one was the company’s show car, which was donated to the museum in 2021.

The only amphibious car that has come close to being a commercial success is the Amphicar 770, almost 4000 of which were built between 1960 and 1965. Powered by a Triumph Herald 1200 engine, it was called the 770 because it could do 7mph on the water and 70mph on land. The Amphicar was built by a company owned by the Quandt family, famous today for the controlling stake in BMW.

Despite its understated looks, 1961 Daimler Majestic Major housed a powerful 220bhp 4561cc V8 that provided a 125mph top speed. With disc brakes all round, the Daimler had excellent stopping power too, but just 1180 were made between 1960 and 1968.

Most of Japan's car makers have got pretty creative over the years, when developing models that would comply with the country's kei car regulations. One of our favourites is the Cappuccino, with its turbocharged 657cc three-cylinder engine. This example was received as a donation from the family of a museum supporter who sadly passed away.

Not all of the exhibits are pristine, although opposite this pair (to the left, out of shot) are excellent examples of both. In the foreground is an ultra-rare Fiat 2300S, and behind it is a Jaguar E-type Series 1 coupé.

There's a handful of Ferraris in the collection, and this one is arguably the least obvious. Not only is the 612 one of those cars that's usually overlooked by marque enthusiasts, but this one has a manual gearbox; of the 3025 examples made, just 199 were not autos, and of those just 23 were right-hand drive.

The Lagonda famously broke down at its own launch when it was unveiled to the world's press in 1976. The car was just too complicated for its own good, with the digital dashboard and touch-sensitive controls the biggest problems. Aston soon shifted away from these, but this 1981 Lagonda still has them, and they're all claimed to work.

One of the late Tom Karen's design greats was the Bond Bug, just 2270 of which were made between 1970 and 1974. The idea was to come up with something sporty and fun that could be run on a budget; there was just 29bhp on tap, from a Reliant-sourced 700cc engine.

Here's one to get the Blue Oval fans salivating: a very original 1985 Escort RS Turbo. Like the Peugeot, this one is privately owned and the lucky custodian has had it since 1993. Ford planned to build 5000 RS Turbos, but the hot Escort was so popular that 8604 ended up rolling off the production lines. While this vehicle was on show in 2023, the lucky owner has now whisked it away.

It's no surprise that this 1929 fire engine has seen better days because it's almost a century old.  Darren and Denis managed to track it down after it had been put into storage soon after the Second World War, complete with its original fixtures and fittings. It was purchased to prevent it from being converted into a two-seater speedster.

It's going to be a while until more prosaic editions of the Passat B5.5 are bone fide classics, but by then it's likely that there won't be many left with the 4.0-litre W8 engine thanks to patchy reliability and high rebuild costs. It doesn't help that this engine wasn't fitted to any other Volkswagen Group car…

Now here's something rather special; the first Monica prototype ever made. If that's got you scratching your head, the Monica was an attempt at a French luxury car in the mid-seventies.

The Monica story would run from 1966 until 1975, and in that time around 35 cars would be made. But just 10 or so of these were customer cars; the rest were prototypes. This is prototype number two, which looks very different from the first.

Incredibly, Darren and Denis also have a third Monica. The sixth car made, it was never finished. In fact this is as far as the factory ever got with the car, and the Cunninghams now have a quandary: do they leave the Monica as it is, or try to finish it and get it roadworthy?

Japanese buyers have been able to purchase all sorts of intriguing cars over the years, which were unavailable elsewhere, and this is one of them. Almost 16,000 Toyota Seras were made between 1990 and 1995, each with a 1.5-litre petrol engine and magnificent butterfly doors for entry and exit.

Bristol is one of the most enigmatic car makers of all time, and during the 60 or so years that it was building cars it produced only one four-door model, and this is it. Just 265 405 saloons were made between 1954 and 1958. They originally featured a 1971cc straight-six, although this one was later fitted with a Rover V8. The plan is to reunite it with its original engine but to not restore it cosmetically.

Porsche built at least one 928 convertible to explore the possibility of putting it into production. The exercise came to nothing, but third-party companies tried their hand at the same. This open-topped 928 was built by an unnamed company in California, as part of a small run.

Built towards the end of production, like many of the cars in the collection this MG has a story behind it. A friend of Denis's bought this car for his wife, but when the marriage ended she wasn't so keen to keep it – so he was given it as part of the divorce settlement.

French luxury brand Facel Vega produced luxury cars for just a decade (1954-1964), and in that time it made about 3000 vehicles. Most were coupés, but in there were 156 Excellence four-door saloons, of which no fewer than four are in the Isle of Man Motor Museum. Three are shown here, and as you can see, some are in better condition than others…

The museum also has four Fiat 125-based Samanthas, a car that was built by Vignale and which is even rarer than the Facel Vega Excellence, because only about 100 were made in the first place. Again, some Samanthas are ripe for restoration; these cars weren't too good at staving off corrosion…

Launched in 1955 as a two-seater, this third-generation Thunderbird dates from 1962 and could seat four. Fitted with a 300bhp 6.4-litre V8, this car features a steering wheel that slides out of the way to make it easier for pregnant women to get in and out.

In the 1950s, Humber was asked by various oil companies if it would make some pick-ups for use in the desert. One or two batches of 200 were made but none seem to survive, so Denis created two of his own using original drawings, based on early-1950s Super Snipe saloons.

While everyone was looking at what Alpina was doing to BMWs in the 1980s and 1990s, rival German tuning company Hartge was working its magic on cars such as this 325i Sport. With 195bhp in place of the regular 170bhp, uprated brakes and suspension, plus a limited-slip diff, it was quite a beast. This 1991 example is one of the last H26s made and while it was on display in 2023, this year its owner is enjoying driving it instead.

Fiat's luxurious 130 saloon was launched in 1969 and two years later came the ultra-stylish coupé, which was designed and manufactured by Pininfarina. Almost 4500 of these gorgeous two-door 130s would be made up to 1977, each with a 3.2-litre V6 petrol engine.

This 1964 Humber Super Snipe IV is one of the last built before the fifth-generation edition took over. Most rusted away years ago and corrosion is such a problem with these, that when Denis looked for one in the UK he gave up and imported one from Australia instead. Hence the unusual colour, which was offered only in Oz on cars built locally from UK-supplied kits.

Another one of those cars that was produced mainly for the Japanese market, the Toyota Century arrived in 1967 and the first-generation model barely changed before its successor took over in 1997. This 1991 example has a 4.0-litre V8 and is the highly unusual limousine version, which is 150mm longer than the regular edition.

As well as all of the cars and motorcycles, the museum also features a huge array of model cars, posters, adverts and TT memorabilia such as tabards, trophies and pictures.

The Ro80 was a technical tour de force, with its Wankel rotary engine, semi-automatic transmission, aerodynamic design and construction, plus power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering. As if all this wasn't enough there were disc brakes and independent suspension front and rear, but engine reliability problems bankrupted the company, which was then bought by Volkswagen.

The 'Frog-Eye' of 1958 evolved into this; the final iteration of the Sprite (the MkIV), before the Austin Healey marque was killed off altogether. This is one of the last Sprites, produced in 1971 and fitted with a 1275cc A-series engine; the shape would live on for another decade though, as the MG Midget.

Learn more about the museum: www.isleofmanmotormuseum.com