If you like oddball cars, extraordinary cars, cars to make you laugh, cry or simply send your jaw crashing to the ground, MPH 05 is the place to be. As well as the established marques displaying their latest machines, visitors can glimpse motors that are rarely featured anywhere else.

Take as your starting point the Carver. Is it a car, is it a bike? We’re still struggling with that one ourselves. It has three wheels, which would tend to lean it towards the car camp, but when you turn the steering wheel it banks like a motorbike.

The Dutch company that makes it reckons it’s both, and an ideal commuter vehicle for those wanting the comfort of a car with the practicality of a bike. Certainly it has the potential to improve commuter time: it does 0-62mph in 8.2sec and boasts a top speed of 115mph. Still, it will take some getting used to: not only will it bank to 45 degrees, enabling the driver to take corners safely at speed, but it will get to that angle from upright in half a second.

But if the Dutch Carver is an odd concept, an even stranger reality is the German Michalak C7, which is making its public debut at MPH courtesy of its UK distributor, Nottingham-based Smarts-R-us.

Billed as a spiritual successor to kit cars such as the original Lotus Seven, the Michalak uses almost all the running gear from a Smart Fortwo coupé, including its engine, gearbox, axles and even the seats. However, it turns all these ordinary parts into what can only be described as one of the most extraordinary sights of the show, combining elements of classic roadster design with a hint of Thunderbirds puppetry and the uneasy feeling that you have seen it somewhere before.

And the price of such bizarre exclusivity when the car becomes available in November? Smarts-R-us’s Paul Holmes says a fully built Michalak C7 could be yours for £11,000 or, he adds cheerily, “you can have the kit for £4,500 and then all you need is to find a crashed Fortwo”.

If you fancy something a little more conventional — but only slightly — the company’s Smart Lambo is well worth a look. From a distance it looks like any other Smart Roadster with some conventional accessories like shiny alloys and a boot spoiler. But instead of the doors opening outwards, they scissor upwards, mimicking those of a Lamborghini Diablo, hence the name.

Some, however, might want to have a look at something with a bit more steam than that provided by the tiny engines that power all Smart-based cars. And they may find that the promisingly entitled Minotaur Mk2 suits them rather well.

Not only does it have rakish looks all its own, the standard power unit is a 350bhp Chevrolet V8 that should give this one-ton sports car the kind of get up and go that the typical Porsche driver would not recognise. Minotaur doesn’t quote performance figures but judging from its power and weight, we’d not be surprised to see a 0-60mph time of 4sec and a top speed of about 170mph. Then there is the Ford Shelby Cobra concept boasting 605bhp and a 0-60mph time of under 4sec.

And if you think that’s not bad for a bit of American muscle, make your way to the US pick-up trucks stand and there you will find the most fearsome four wheeler at the show: the Dodge Ram SRT10. This pumped-up pick up packs the same 8.3 litre 500bhp V10 engine found under the bonnet of the Viper supercar and will punch this two-ton truck to 60mph in 5sec and on to a top speed of 150mph, if you have the space to park it and don’t mind what anti-SUV protesters say.

You’ll also get to see another side to the British car industry at MPH — not simply companies making ultra-low-volume bespoke sports cars, but also those taking well known modern or classic products and making them faster, more beautiful or even better to drive.

Autodelta may sound Italian — indeed it was the name of the works Alfa Romeo racing team in the 1960s. But while today’s Autodelta still deals in all things Alfa Romeo it does so from Alperton, northwest London, not Italy. If you’re passionate about Alfas, Autodelta can improve almost any aspect, from the engine to its exterior styling. We will have two examples, a GT and the new 159 on display.

If it’s the best of British you want, make your way to the Racing Green stand and check out the highly modified Jaguar XKR and Range Rover Sport. Racing Green offers a range of modifications and is able to sell the enhanced 450bhp XKR for close to Jaguar’s list price. The Range Rover Sport will not be so cheap: fitted with Racing Green’s 500bhp engine and all the other goodies, the list price will top £100,000.

So whether your tastes are for weird Dutch car/bike hybrids, huge American trucks, exquisite Italian engineering or British tuning companies, there will be something for everyone at MPH 05. The small companies may not be big, but they are clever.