These Celebrities Drive the Most Surprisingly Weird Cars

While most of Hollywood falls under the “too much money and no sense” broad description, the 3 celebrities we’re going to talk about today don’t. In all fairness, one of them doesn’t even belong to Hollywood and is only a celebrity thanks to the impressive amount of media coverage he’s been getting.

But they all have in common a desire to go against the trend and to overturn expectations, for a variety of reasons. This means they drive – or have driven, at some point – the most surprisingly weird vehicles.

Pope Francis and a 1984 Renault 4L

Since he was elected Pope in 2013, Pope Francis has been going against tradition. Whether through talks of building a “poor Church for the poor,” or showing more acceptance towards the gay community and women, Pope Francis has painted himself as a man of the people, and not necessarily those of the Catholic faith.

His choice in cars also shows that he’s the kind of person who puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak. In addition to occasionally ditching the custom-made Popemobile, with its elevated seat, bullet-proof windows and fishtank-like qualities, he’s also started driving a used car he got as a present from another priest.

Think “ancient” by today’s standards. In 2013, Father Renzo Zocca visited Pope Francis in the Vatican and gave him a 1984 Renault 4L. The car isn’t just old: it’s also been put through its paces quite thoroughly, since the priest had been using it for charity work or to drive poor children across the country. At the time he handed it to the Pope, it had 170,000 miles on the clock, but the Pope still said he would be driving it around the Vatican, when he could.

The story behind this surprising gift is that Father Zocca wrote to the Pope to tell him of the car and how he wanted to give it to him as a present, since the Pope had spoken about leading a simpler life. The Pope tried to deter the priest, by asking him if it wouldn’t be better if he donated the car to charity but, when he saw his determination, he ended up accepting the gift with grace. Apparently, the Pope too had once owned a Renault 4.

George Clooney and Tango T600

Before Tesla Motors, there was Commuter Cars. Back in 2005, actor George Clooney, 5 years off his very successful stint on “ER,” became the first celebrity to own and drive an all-electric car. Its name was Tango T600 and it boasted 0-60 in “about 4 seconds,” “crashworthiness better than any production car” and being a “chick magnet.” Pretty bold claims.

T600 was also only 39 inches wide, which made it the strangest, funniest looking little car ever. Despite its small size, Commuter Cars insisted that it was stable, because they had packed the batteries under the floor.

At the time Clooney got the car and started to be seen around in it, T600 was not yet mass-produced. Still, it was being advertised heavily but, despite the celebrity endorsement, it would never go into production. The fact that a kit for it costs over $100,000 may have contributed to its untimely demise. As did the ridiculous size, which made it ideal for parking in small spaces but impractical for pretty much everything else.

Will.i.am and the Beetle mutant that cost him $900,000 and 2 years of his life

Before Kanye West, Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas fame, was the Renaissance black artist. Contrary to what critics and even his supporters said, he thought he could really do it all, from music to fashion design, tech design and even car construction.

His start as a custom car builder got off with plenty of glitches: he set up IAMAUTO (in caps, because only caps would have worked for his ego) and produced an IAMAUTO Delorean. He said it cost him $700,000 and that he had built it from scratch, which turned out to be false: he had used an actual Delorean and customized it, trying to pass it off for something more special than it was.

For his next project, Will.i.am turned his attention to a 1958 Volkswagen Beetle which he had modified beyond all recognition. Work on it started in 2009 and, about 2 years and roughly $900,000 later, it became something that you could have loved if you were a villain in a Tim Burton Batman movie. Or if you were about 12 years old.

In his interviews, the artist tried to explain his obsession with building cars like the mutant Beetle by saying he was looking to inspire kids to become engineers and mathematicians and whatnot. In reality, he built it because he wanted something different for himself and because he thought he could prove to the world that he could do it on his own. People from 2 different shops worked on it and would later tell the media that the reason progress was so slow is because Will.i.am kept changing his mind, kept interfering and didn’t have a clue about cars.