The cars with the shortest wheelbases relative to their size

Just look at the original Mini: 66.72% of its overall length is wheelbase. It’s a similar story with that hot hatch hero, Peugeot’s 205 GTI with a 65.32% wheelbase to length ratio, and at 72.48%, don’t overlook the original two-seater Smart….

We’ve rounded-up a selection of cars that are unlikely to have appeared on a list together before, all featuring peculiarly short wheelbases compared with their overall lengths. A reputation for woeful handling isn’t even a common thread between them...

Courtesy of its extremes of bodywork, most obviously in the forms of the chiselled nosecone and a low branch-lopping rear wing that made it to production in order to homologate its use in the NASCAR Cup race series, the 1970 Plymouth Superbird notched up an impressive eight victories in its debut season.Using the Plymouth Road Runner muscle car as its basis, the Superbird followed on from its very similar looking Chrysler Corporation cousin, the Dodge Charger Daytona, but because the Plymouth’s nose was shaped slightly differently, it’s the shorter of the two. That evolution might have made the Superbird more successful on circuits, but it hampers with its wheelbase to length proportions, earning it a 52.91% ratio. 

As you’ll discover, the Dodge appears rather higher up this rundown. 

Although immediately revered as a road car handling benchmark, Audi’s ur-quattro didn’t quite translate its prowess into the degree of deft nimbleness required for it to be an utterly dominant rallying weapon. Enter the gawky Sport quattro to the stage in 1984. 

Using the shell of the 80 as its starting point — its more upright windscreen creating fewer dashboard reflections than the sleeker Coupé-based quattro — this was another low-volume homologation special, with just 224 produced. 

Not only was power boosted to 302bhp, the Sport quattro’s shorter, wider bodywork made it look brutal, at least until you saw it side-on. Then the 320mm that had been chopped from the wheelbase — dropping the proportion of length to 52.88% — became uncomfortably obvious. Still, you can’t see that when you’re Scandi flicking your way to the shops. 

In its third-generation, Chevy’s composite-bodied sports car featured voluptuous styling that gradually became more bulbous and butch as its production run continued into the early-1980s. 

It’s those later Y-series editions of the C3 ‘Vette, by now shorn of its Stingray suffix, complete with protruding chin for improved airflow to the hulking V8s beneath the bonnet, which are the longest of the genre. Its wheelbase represents 52.87% of its expanse, with the snug cabin nestled just in front of the back axle. 

Production ended in 1982, marked by a special Collector Edition finished in metallic beige, with C4 debuting the following year. It — and all subsequent Corvettes — have been designed to appeal on a more global scale, with lengthier wheelbases being normalised in the process. 

Nissan’s line-up today is dominated by family-focused SUVs, but it wasn’t always the case, with a broad suite of sports cars emanating from the Japanese marque, including its years masquerading as Datsun. Skyline GT-R aside, one of the better-known ranges was the Z-car line, with the focus here being the razor-edged Z31 iteration from the 1980s. 

Okay, it wasn’t a high point for Nissan, being more of a quick cruiser than a fun sportster, but with a wheelbase to length ratio of 52.61%, the facelifted two-seater versions of the Fairlady Z - or 300ZX outside its homeland - it makes our list. 

Proof that a wheelbase proportionally small vis-à-vis length and excellent dynamics aren’t mutually exclusive is ably demonstrated by various generations of Porsche’s evergreen 911. Charging into our list at 52.58% is the 997-generation 911, specifically in 2007’s GT2 form. Its 3.6-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six pummels 523bhp through the rear wheels, enabling a 204mph (328km/h) top speed, providing you’re on a suitable section of derestricted autobahn, natch. 

Yet it’s no drag strip showboater, as Porsche test pilot Walter Röhrl proved lapping the Nürburgring in 7 minutes 32 seconds.  How come the 911 is proportioned this way? They’re essentially very compact cars, but with the engine being located so far back the rear axle is pushed closer to the front one. 

Launched as the Electra and LeSabre Estate Wagons, those labels were finally dropped from these rear-wheel drive load-luggers for 1990, even though the names had also been applied to more modern, smaller, front-drive sedans for four years. V8 engines were your only choice, necessitating plenty of bonnet, while the cavernous cargo bay at back creates some sense of balance. 

Nevertheless, only 52.96% of the Buick Estates’ length is accounted for by its wheelbase, and no amount of faux wood panelling could disguise that. If the Buicks are a tad too ill-proportioned for your tastes, the other GM B-platform wagons, namely the Chevrolet Caprice, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser and Pontiac Safari all feature near-identical bodies, but with marginally smaller extremities.

While the Roadster edition of Mercedes-Benz’s iconic first-generation 300 SL did without the Coupe’s gullwing doors, mechanically it’s barely different — a throaty 3.0-litre straight-six engine proving all the more sonorous on a top-down boulevard cruise. 

Detail changes make the soft-top a smidgen longer than the hard-top it replaced, making it the one on our list with a wheelbase that’s 52.52% of the overall length. Styling devices, such as the heavily browed wheel arches, together with the complex vent pattern on front wings add much needed visual length to the W198. Later SL series have been more conventionally proportioned. 

While Ford’s European customers had a reskinned Mk2 rear-drive Escort holding the fort until its up-to-date front-drive replacement arrived at the end of 1980, over in North America it was the Pinto performing a similar job. 

Particularly interesting for us is the niche of the three-door Pinto Wagon, which after its late-life cycle facelift, with a flatter, more rectangular nose in place of the shorter original, is the only version to make our list. In this guise the wheelbase represented 52.51% of the Pinto’s length. 

If you were so minded, Mercury dealers sold a near-identical version badged Bobcat, and the Ford could be ordered with a distinctive Cruising Package. Not only did this net customers bold bodywork stripes, it also blanked-off almost the entirety of the rear side windows, save for portholes to the back. Not for the claustrophobic. 

Given several iterations of Porsche’s 911 could have made this list if treated individually; it’s not a huge surprise that its predecessor, the 356, also features here. What you won’t find elsewhere here, though, is the Volkswagen Beetle upon which the 356 was ultimately derived. In Porsche’s pursuit of performance, its sleeker styling increased its length in comparison with the VW. 

Few cars are as visually over-bodied as Porsche’s debut series production model. Not only does the wheelbase look too short for its length — and at 52.40%, it is — the wheels themselves look sunken within the arches, giving the impression the bodywork’s also too wide. Only 356s from its final six years in production are accounted for on our list, courtesy of the additional length added by their more substantial bumpers. 

Ford’s upscale, sporty line of Thunderbirds ran from 1955 to 2005, encompassing 11 generations in the process, but it’s the short-lived seventh from the late-1970s that interests us most here. The Mk7 T-Bird is very of its time, being one of Ford’s final gargantuan model lines before downsizing reigned dimensions in — a little, at least. This, combined with an exclusively V8-configuration engine range and two-door hardtop coupe styling, generated curious proportions, with a 52.37% wheelbase to length ratio. 

It’s worth giving an honourable mention to the facelifted editions of Ford’s ninth-generation Thunderbird, as its 52.62% figure is dealt with in a far more elegant fashion. 

Few cars exemplify excess in the manner of the Continental Mark V. Sold via Lincoln retailers, but not marketed with reference to Ford’s Cadillac rivalling marque, it’s the archetypal ‘personal luxury’ car; a razor-edged two-door coupe measuring 5850mm in length, yet its wheelbase claimed only 52.31% of that. 

Plenty of that real estate is up front, understandably necessary when there’s a 7.5-litre V8 to accommodate — that’s not a powerplant of choice if you’re concerned about the amount of unleaded you’re burning through, which is exactly what a Mark V owner would want you to think.

Particularly sought-after are the Designer Series versions of the Mark V. Colour schemes and roof finishes were particular to each of the Bill Blass, Cartier, Givenchy and Emilio Pucci examples, each featuring a 22-carat gold plaque mounted on the dashboard. Rather telling that it was one of the more restrained elements. 

Sharing showroom space with the more exclusive Continental ‘Mark Series’ – and no doubt creating some customer confusion in the process – was the Lincoln Continental, a separate line-up of even larger models aimed at those intending to carry passengers more regularly.

While earlier Continentals were the luxury cars of choice for North American heads of state, by the turn of the millennium much of that lustre had waned, as epitomised by the ninth-generation sedan. Sure, it was still V8-powered, now with a more modest 4.6-litre capacity, yet despite its unique bodywork, the styling’s soft curvature had the same well-used bar of soap-bar aesthetic you’d spot on the contemporary Ford and Mercury models.

Lincoln sought to redress that for the 1998 models, with a facelift introducing a bolder nose and lashings of chrome-look trim. Thanks to that extended prow, it makes our list, with the Continental’s wheelbase utilising just 52.28% of the length available.

For the fourth incarnation of the Camaro sports car line, Chevy produced a design which looked like it had been squeezed from a tube. Long and sleek it certainly was, but the wheelbase looked comedically lost. Curiously, while the mid-life 1998 model facelift, with its more upright grille and bolder, peanut-shaped headlights, redressed that a little in visual terms, the new front clip actually made the Camaro a tad longer at 4915mm, reducing the wheelbase quotient to 52.25%.

Still, it wasn’t all bad becoming the least expensive way to get into V8 ownership – using the Corvette’s 5.7-litre LS1 unit, no less – when GM officially began UK imports before the end of the 1990s. Shame it remained left-hand drive, though. While we’re Camaro-ing, the third-generation also gets a shout-out, thanks to its late-in-life makeover giving it a 52.45% score.

When is a car not a car? Using a commercial vehicle, in this case the Liteace, as the basis for an MPV is commonplace today, but back when Toyota debuted its Model-F Space Cruiser in the early-1980s, few looked at it and thought ‘I’ll have one of those’ over a Renault Espace.

Not that vans can’t be exceptionally spacious, promoting interior flexibility in the process, it’s more that the Space Cruiser wasn’t based on such a van. As is typical in Japan, where small vehicular footprints are prized, the Toyota’s first-row occupants sat over the front wheels, with the engine and transmission squeezed in between, eating into rear cabin space in the process.

That forward-control layout guarantees a proportionally short wheelbase — just 2240mm for those taking notes — although at 52.21% it’s not as small as its looks imply. And no, it won’t topple forwards under heavy braking…

With General Motors’ B-platform wagons square in its sights, the Mercury Grand Marquis Colony Park – together with its Ford LTD Crown Victoria wagon twin – were the same dish served at a different restaurant.

V8s? Check. Plasti-timber body sides? Check? Space for eight passengers? Check? Enormous bodywork sat on a short wheelbase? You betcha. Not that 2903mm between the axles is short, of course, but it is when it accounts for just 52.11% of the bumper-to-bumper measurement.

As the 1990s dawned, Ford pulled the plug on full-size wagons, focusing instead on SUVs and minivans for those who needed to transport lots of people and their detritus around, but it must have looked on at GM with a watchful eye as its rival had a final roll of the dice. Seems the Blue Oval made the right call.

Due to its highly specialised nature, the Iltis — that’s German for polecat, if you’re curious — is one of VW’s less well-known products, which seems unfair given its importance to the company as a whole. 

Primarily designed as a military vehicle with go-anywhere agility, the Type 183, to use its formal moniker, was sold in civilian street guise from 1979, but only in small numbers. As a passenger car, it was too crude and basic, particularly compared with Mercedes-Benz’s then-new, more refined — but also much pricier — Geländewagen to catch on. 

As an army-appropriate vehicle, it excelled, though. Although the 183’s overhangs are surprisingly long for a cross-country vehicle, as evidenced by the 52.06% wheelbase ratio, the extremes are high-mounted allowing steep changes in ramp angle to be tackled with ease. That it was fine value for money for its government customers wasn’t unnoticed, either. 

More importantly, a development of the Iltis’s four-wheel drive system formed the building blocks of what was employed for Audi’s quattro. Quite the legacy. 

With the TR7, throwing away tradition and established conventions was an uncharacteristic move by British Leyland, which could have been a master stroke, but events conspired against it. 

Harris Mann’s rulebook-ripping styling was daring, but as with his Austin Allegro, its intended sleekness was lost as it transitioned into production guise. That relatively tiny 2159mm wheelbase made it look cartoonish, which was amplified by chunky, impact-resistant rubber bumpers yielding a 51.85% ratio to length.

Customers in North America had it even worse as the bumpers were extended further out, reducing the comparison to 51.76%.  Early models were badly made, customers were forced to endure delivery delays due to strikes you could set your watch by and the performance wasn’t all that either, all of which further tarnished the TR7’s initial lustre.

By the end of its run, it was a decent-handling, if not rapid, sports car, but you’d still have to really love its looks to take the plunge.

Few homologation specials translate so easily between road and track like the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona. Built specifically to make up lost ground in the NASCAR series, the Daytona differed from ‘lesser’ Chargers with uprated mechanicals, but more obviously via its revised bodywork.

Chief among those modifications was the extended nosecone, designed to cleave the air with greater efficiency — providing the pop-up headlights were retracted — something it did successfully being the first car of the series to break the 200mph barrier.

Six 1969-70 NASCAR Cup wins are a fitting testament, but why the Daytona’s here is the wheelbase to length ratio. That race-proven snout extended the Dodge to 5753mm, resulting in a 51.66% figure. As you saw earlier, the Plymouth Superbird evolution’s slightly shorter tweaked beak skews its percentage, ranking it 17 positions lower. In the annals of motorsport history, few off-track credits are so important. Ahem.

Close family relation to Chevy’s Camaro and forming GM’s two-pronged attack on Ford’s Mustang was Pontiac’s Firebird. Specifically, here we’ve taken a particular interest in the faster Trans Am versions of the fourth Firebird iteration’s early years, which had extended bodywork compared with less powerful siblings.

With a wheelbase accounting for 51.32% of the Trans Am’s expanse, at least until its 1998 model year facelift, it looked great from three-quarter angles, but side-on the ‘oohs’ gave way to ‘ewws’. 

Just as the Mk3 Camaro wasn’t far behind the Mk4’s figure, so it is with the equivalent Firebird generations. Once again in Trans Am guise, the third-era Firebird can quote a 51.73% wheelbase ratio. Now, consider for a moment that KITT was a modified third-generation Firebird and the Knight Rider lie is fully exposed in plain sight. 

That the victor in this list is a vehicle with two roles — as a car and a boat — goes far to explain why its wheelbase to length ratio is an astonishingly low 49.14%. Yes, of course we’re referring to the curio of curios, the Amphicar 770 — or Wetseven depending upon how it was marketed in different parts of the world.

Similar to the Volkswagen Iltis in that its extremes are high-mounted, the Amphicar’s are so positioned not for off-roading in the accepted sense, but for entering water and returning to terra firma via jetties, without grounding the [checks notes] hull in the process. 

The vision of Hans Trippel, and backed by the Quandt family, also of BMW fame — from the waistline up, the Amphicar was a delightful little cabriolet, resplendent with vibrant paint schemes and far from vestigial rear fins.

Below, though, it certainly looked unusual, not helped by the elongation of the rear portion of the wheelarches. Still, while you were enjoying your Amphicar as a boat, your wheelbase was conveniently out of sight below the surface.