The Weinermobile is a hot dog shaped car that has been around in the US since the late 1930’s. Developed as a promotional gimick for the Oscar Mayer sausage company. While there have been several variations of the weinermobile over the years, one thing always looks the same and that is the sausage on top of the car. The one pictured above from the 1950’s resides at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit and looks not much different to the fleet of 7 Weinermobiles doing the rounds of the US today. Every year the company recruits a new set of drivers known as “hotdoggers” to take the cars around the country to parades and events that helps promote the company.
Another funny video this week where someone took the phrase “The only way it would go faster is if it went backwards” literally. The guys in this footage seem to be having a bit of fun in their modified Fiat 126. It looks like they have somehow grafted a front wheel drive engine steering and suspension into the fiat in place of the standard Fiat rear engine. It sounds like a hell of a lot of work to pull off this effort but does make for some funny driving especially when the passenger is also steering the Fiat’s original front end (now back end). The film looks to be taken in Poland, so the Fiat 126 in question may actually be the Polski Fiat 126p built under licence by Poland’s FSM (Fabryka Samochodów Ma?olitra?owych). If you know any more about this car or know of any other cars with crazy mods drop us a line below.
Most Beetle owners have faced the idea of giving their beloved cars bodywork a bit of a spruce up at one point in their cars life, but this guy takes it to a whole new level. the beetle in the video above is covered with over 20000 oak tiles, that apparently took around a year to attach to the car along with fabricating other oak bits and pieces (we especially like the wiper arms). So if your more handy with a chisel than welder give some thought to creating your own wooden car. Gallery via Gizmodo.
Firstly id like to say I’m not that keen on camping, campervans or people that clog the roads with their caravan but if id had to go camping it would be in the van in the video above. Known as the Volkner Performance Motorhome, the cost of this thing is more than the average home, but you could live in this thing for a fair while and be very comfortable with its pop up plasma TV, full bathroom and luxury fittings. When you need to pop down the shops this van like many normal homes has a built garage to house you luxury sports car. With a price tag of around 750.000 Pounds you would want to like camping a lot but with this one it really does beat spending a week pooping in a bucket. Personally i think I keep ponying up the cash to stay in a hotel.
The Paykan is a car built by the Iranian company Iran Khodro, based on the 1966 Hillman Hunter, the Pakyan came about after the Iranian government set up the nationally owned car factory to produce cheap cars for the Iranian people.
A deal was struck with the British Rootes group, who owned Hillman, to send CKD kits of the Hunter to Iran for local assembly. In 1978 Chrysler who now owned Hillman was in financial difficulties and sold out their European operations to Peugeot. In 1979 Peugeot Shut down the Hunter production lines and sold the tooling for the bodies along with the rights to the design to Iran Khodro allowing the car to be fully built locally in Iran.
With the engine getting outdated, Peugeot agreed to export their 504 engine for use in the Paykan, from the early 90s the 504 engines were being made in Iran bring the total of locally made parts up to around 98%.
The Paykan is still being sold as a ute in Iran with the sedan version phased out early in 2005 after 38 years, very little changed with the Paykan over the years, despite this it is the most popular car in Iran with 40% of the population owning one perhaps due to its $7700AU price tag.
Tha Paykan has been replaced by an all new Rover designed car called the Samand that features some Peugeot 405 mechanicals. They also produce the Peugeot 405 locally in both front and rear wheel drive as well as a model with an updated 406 style front and rear. Iran Khodro is signing up export deals and setting up factorys in China, Africa and former Soviet states with plans to sell 1 million cars a year by 2011.
We liked the idea of styling and building our own car and this guy from Lithuania has done just that. While we would probably start with a Datsun 120Y and turn it into something that looked like a Mercedes CL, this guy has taken a perfectly good CL and turned it into a cross between a Ferarri and a Ssang Yong. We do give the guy credit for the amount of painstaking work this mod must of taken to achieve. Basically he has built a new body around the Benz with expanding foam held in place by cardboard. Once it set he has then finished off the styling with a lot of bog and filing. We really hate the grill and the bulberous wheel arches but then again we’d be happy with the untouched doner car, Mercedes Benz probably spent millions on styling the CL, why does a guy in a shed with a can of bog think he can do a better job. For the full gallery head over to englishrussia.com blog.
The Popemobile is the name given to the modified car used by the pope when he appears in parades. While the pope has used many modified cars for decades the name only come in to use around 1980 when Pope John Paul II started to use the converted Mercedes Benz G-Wagon. The G Class or G wagon is a Mercedes Benz 4WD that has been in production since 1979. The G wagon is popular with armies around the world and is known for its strong go anywhere design. Pope John Paul II’s G wagon from 1981 is on display in the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart Germany.
Now building scale models of army stuff like tanks is not a new hobby but when you build a fully drivable half scale WW2 German tiger tiger tank you are pretty much on your own. University student Will Foster from Kettering Uni in Michigan recons he always liked building models so he asked his fraternity if he could build a tank in their yard and they agreed. The tank has 3 cyl diesel engine scavenged from a generator and a fully working gun that can shoot paint balls via compressed air from a scuba tank. He recons there is about 2000 bux worth of parts in his half scale tank but has spent a lot more on trial and error finding the right parts to make it all work.
The Hongqi Century Star is a popular car with China’s government and officials. Based on the old Audi 100 of the early 1990s, the Hongqi is made by China’s First Auto Works or FAW. 80% of the Hongqi car is locally produced; it still has a very Audi look about despite a new grill treatment.
Hongqi means “red flag” and the Hongqi century star is China’s own luxury car, with stretch and convertible versions also being produced. FAW also make new VWs and Audi’s locally in China for VW. Volkswagen have other partnerships in China producing various VW and Audi products mainly for the local market. Recently some VW products made in China are being exported to other countries around the world including the Polo small car.
The Taylor Aerocar is one of the most famous flying cars ever built. First designed by Moulton Taylor in 1949 it was a time when popular science magazine was predicting that everyone would own a flying car by the year 2000. Although six prototypes of the Aerocar car were built it never entered mass production but it did gain a bit of interest from Ford at the time making it one of the few aeroplane car combos to even come close to being produced. The idea behind the Aerocar was that once you reach the airport you could fold up the wings and drive it back to your own garage. Amazingly all six prototypes survive today with an Aerocar 1 on display at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Golden Wings Museum at Blane, Minnesota and at the Kissimmee Air Museum. Florida. An Aerocar 3 (pictured) is on display at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. The Aerocar located in Florida is flying today was once owned by actor Bob Cummings and was used in his 1960s TV program. Taylor went on to design an amphibious aircraft in 1969 known as the Coot that still is being constructed by home builders across the world.
