Watch Someone Test Drive the World’s Worst-Ever Car

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Watch Someone Test Drive the World’s Worst-Ever Car

The 1951 Hoffmann is an inexplicable disaster.
Rachel Pick
New York, US

This might just be the worst car in the world—and Jason Torchinsky over at Jalopnik got to drive it.

The video is part of a series called "Jason Drives," where Torchinsky tries to track down strange or unique vehicles to test out. For this episode, Torchinsky asked the staff of the Lane Motor Museum for lists of what they each considered the worst car ever built, and the 1951 Hoffmann received unanimous inclusion.

The Hoffmann was designed by a mysterious German guy named simply M. Hoffmann, and there isn't a lot of information about either him or the development of the car. Torchinsky notes that though the build quality isn't the worst, every design decision that went into making this car was "the absolute worst decision you could make."

The Hoffmann is unusually wide, and features rear-wheel steering design that makes the car extremely unwieldy. The wheels are laid out like a backwards tricycle, two in front and one in back.

"This 6-horsepower car is more terrifying to drive than a 600-horsepower car," says Torchinsky. It's also deafeningly loud, and emits a ton of powerful fumes from the gas line, which actually runs on the inside of the car.

Maybe the Hoffmann was designed as an elaborate prank, or maybe Germans don't have such a great record when it comes to auto manufacturing after all. You decide.