December 2, 2024
In 1976, building a set of Krazy Cars required a lot of Wonder Bread — Petersen Automotive Museum

The unnumbered cards are funny, odd, and informative all at the same time. Each features a colorful caricature on the front, with the name changed slightly to create a lampooned version of the real thing, like Blunderbird (a feather-covered version of the Ford Thunderbird), Booick (a Halloween-themed Buick), and Stinkin’ Continental (a skunk-like Lincoln). You get the picture.

The backs contain three brief pieces of copy—Safety Fax, a fill-in-the-blank sentence; Funny Fax, a short joke; and Car Fax, an automotive piece of trivia. Nothing on the back corresponds to the car on the front. On the Toybota (a Toyota boat), for example, the Safety Fax shows a drawing of a traffic signal, with a question mark inside the top circle, and a stop sign. The copy next to it reads: “Each of these things is called a _ _ _ _ light and a _ _ _ _ sign.” (Answer: Stop.) The Toybota’s Funny Fax asks, “How is a car like a coal miner?” (They both wear headlights.) The answers are found in the lower right corner of the card, but they are printed upside down and backwards, so you need a mirror—or a sharp mind—to decode them. Finally, the Car Fax explains: “The world’s first practical motorcar was the Benz Comfortable. It was made in 1895 and had three wheels.”