What is the name of Ed Roth's famous bubble-top hot rod?

Ed Roth’s famous bubble-top hot rod is the Beatnik Bandit.

Roth created the Beatnik Bandit in 1961 as one of the radical custom cars that made him a leading figure in postwar American hot-rodding culture. Its most recognizable feature is a clear Plexiglas bubble canopy, which gives the car a futuristic, enclosed cockpit unlike a conventional open roadster.

The car was built with a fiberglass body over a shortened Oldsmobile chassis and used a supercharged Oldsmobile V8. Roth also replaced ordinary controls with a central joystick, or “unicontrol,” that operated steering, acceleration, and braking. Those science-fiction details helped make the car a show-stopping custom rather than merely a modified production vehicle.

The Beatnik Bandit is often mixed up with Roth’s other creations, especially The Outlaw, but they are separate cars. The Bandit’s cultural reach expanded when Mattel included it among the original 16 Hot Wheels designs released in 1968. Its bubble canopy, exaggerated proportions, and unusual controls made it one of the best-known icons of the custom-car era.