The Eagle Aircraft Flyer SpecialWhen you were a kid doodling in your notebook, what was your first idea for making a fast, cool car? It was probably to make it less like a car, and more like an airplane, right? Good, now you're in the headspace of Eagle Aircraft Company founder Dean Wilson, who wanted to make an IndyCar in the image of his favorite aviation projects.Enter the 1982 Flyer Special, also known as the "Cropduster." This vehicle shirked all of the established norms of IndyCars, placing the driver at the front instead of the back, strapping on fins and wings, and packing a construction of balsa, aluminum, and steel tubes. If this vehicle were a plane, it probably would've worked great, but as a car, the Flyer Special unfortunately couldn't keep up with vehicles that were actually designed with a racetrack in mind. It couldn't qualify for the Indy proper, and the design was scrapped.The Sumar StreamlinerOne of the dominating concepts of most IndyCars is aerodynamics. Your engine can only be so powerful, after all, so you needed to employ every additional trick and gimmick you could to maximize your vehicle's potential speed, and the first trick in the book was minimizing the profile. One car that raced in 1955 went all-in on the aerodynamics bandwagon: the Sumar Streamliner.Rather than the usual open seat employed by Indycars, the Streamliner enclosed its driver in a bubble shell, while the body featured sloping curves designed to reduce wind resistance as much as realistically possible. Ironically, this sloped body actually made the car drag more, but after some modifications, it was able to reach speeds of over 139 MPH. The main problem was in the driver's seat — specifically, driver Jimmy Daywalt felt extremely cramped and nervous in the enclosed shell, not to mention concerned that he couldn't see the car's front wheels. He made it through okay, but he called it one of the most difficult vehicles he ever had to drive.