From the famous 1920s cars that stunned the world to the most iconic cars of all time, the world’s most magnificent motors have captured our imagination.
Whether it’s the Porsche 911, the Lamborghini Miura and the Ferrari Testarossa or the Mini and the Citroën 2CV, the classics will remain the classics, and while the biggest isn’t always the best, the world’s biggest cars are certainly astonishing! We all stop and stare when we see a huge Rolls-Royce in the street or similarly sized auto-behemoth, but there are other colossal cars that will make your eyes pop out of your head!
Here are the world’s biggest cars.
Hummer H1 X3
A colourful Hummer (Photo: Blacqbook via Getty Images)
The Hummer H1 is already one of the largest cars in the world but the X3, as its name suggests, is an incredible three times bigger!
The X3 is 6.6 metres high, 14 metres long and six metres wide. It’s believed to run on four huge diesel engines. It has a top speed of 32 km/h and is built on the US Army LARC LX steel-hulled cargo vehicle.
Antarctic Snow Cruiser
Snow Covered Wheel Of Truck (Photo: Wilson Wu / EyeEm via Getty Images)
In theory it was a game-changer but in practice it was a damp squib. The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was designed by a team of scientists at the Armor Institute of Technology in Chicago for use in Antarctic exploration. It was built at a cost of $150,000 in 1939 and it was certainly one of the biggest cars in the world at the time.
The ASC was 17 metres long, 6.1 metres wide and fully loaded, it weighed 37 tons. It was powered by two, 11-litre diesel engines and had a top speed of 48 km/h.
Once it got to the Antarctic it was greeted with cheers but the adulation soon fell silent. It was far too heavy to operate in the snow. The slick tyres spun freely, offering no traction on ice and it was very quickly turned into a static crew quarters. By 1946 it was abandoned.
It was rediscovered in 1958 but lost again due to the shifting ice. It remains lost. Most likely forever.
Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII EWB
Rolls-Royce (Photo: nrqemi via iStock)
While it isn’t the biggest car ever, the 2022 Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII Extended Wheelbase is the biggest car in the world you can go into a showroom and buy (assuming you’ve got the money!)
The ultra-luxurious Rolls-Royce is six metres long and two metres wide and is powered by their undeniably wonderful 6.75-litre, V12, twin-turbocharged engine. It weighs 2.6 tons and costs around £450,000.
Bugatti Type 41 Royale
Bugatti Royale-Type 41 (Photo: Daniel SIMON via Getty Images)
Ettore Bugatti wanted the Type 41 to be the world’s biggest car as well as the most exquisitely luxurious. It was to be sold to kings, queens and emperors.
At the time, it was also the longest car in the world at a staggering 6.4 metres. It was 2.1 metres wide, weighed almost 3.2 tons and was powered by a 12.8 litre straight-eight.
Only seven were made of which six still exist. If one came up for sale it would probably eclipse the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe that sold at auction in May 2022 for an eye-watering $142 million, or around £116 million.
The Best of the Rest
1970 Mercedes Benz 600 Pullman limousine (Photo: Heritage Images via Getty Images)
American cars are pretty big, but a contender for world’s biggest car in the 1970s was the Cadillac Series 70. It was 6.4 metres long and over two metres wide and presumably a right pain to park!
The Checker Aerobus was another American creation and was a cross between a famous New York yellow cab and the Incredible Hulk! It had eight doors and was a shade under seven metres long.
Two of the largest cars in the world are executive limousines. The beautiful Mercedes 600 Pullman was 6.2 metres long and weighed almost 3.3 tons.
Behind the Iron Curtain, the Russian ZIL-41047 weighed 3.6 tons and was almost 6.4 metres long.
The Longest Car in the World: The American Dream
Classic V8 petrol engine (Photo: Coneyl Jay via Getty Images)
Based on the 1976 Cadillac Eldorado, the longest car in the world has a hot tub, a helipad, a swimming pool, as well as fridges, TVs and a waterbed!
The original iteration of the biggest car in the world was built in the mid-1980s by Jay Ohrberg in California and measured 18.28 metres. After a three-year restoration costing almost £200,000 the car, called The American Dream, is 30.54 metres, it has 26 wheels and there’s room for 75 passengers!
The car can be driven from both ends and has a V8 engine at the front and at the back.
To put the longest car in the world into perspective, you can park seven VW Golfs end to end and the American Dream would still be slightly longer!
Today, the car is on display at the Orlando Auto Museum in Dezerland Park, Florida.
