Customized Cars
T
RANSPORT
MOST EXPENSIVE
SET OF CAR TYRES
On 10 May 2016, a set
of four tyres were
sold by the Dubai
office of ZTyre.com
to a private buyer
for AED 2,202,000
($599,350; £415,647).
Designed by
Zenises CEO Harjeev
Kandhari, the Z1 high-
performance tyres
were fitted with
sets of diamonds
using 3D-printed
white gold casing
by jewellers Joaillier
Privé. The tyres were
then decorated with
gold leaf.Invisible cars aren’t just for Bond films. In 2009, British art student Sara Watson
spray-painted an old Skoda so that it seemed to merge with the car park around it.Fiat 500Lowest camper van
On 18–22 Aug 2008, at the Bug Jam 22
festival in Podington, Bedfordshire, UK,
designer Andy Saunders and engineer
Jim Chalmers (both UK) took a 1980 T25
Volkswagen (VW) Camper Van measuring
7 ft 8 in (2.34 m) high and converted it into a
3 -ft 3-in (0.99-m) version. The finished vehicle,
known as Van Cake, is fully roadworthy and
capable of speeds up to 80 mph (128.75 km/h).Hairiest car
Maria Lucia Mugno and Valentino Stassano
(both ITA) have spent more than 150 hr sewing
strands of human hair to the interior and
exterior of Maria’s Fiat 5 00. Weighed at a public
weighbridge in Padula Scalo, Salerno, Italy, on
15 Mar 2014, the Fiat was covered with 120 kg
( 264 lb 8 oz) of human hair.Lowest roadworthy car
Mirai measures 45.2 cm (17.79 in) from the
ground to the highest part of the car. It was
unveiled on 15 Nov 2010 by students and
teachers of the Automobile Engineering Course
at Okayama Sanyo High School in Asakuchi,
Japan. They beat the record of 48.26 cm (19 in)
held by the appropriately named “Flatmobile”,
created by Perry Watkins (UK) in 2008.Smallest roadworthy car
Created by Austin Coulson (USA) and measured
in Carrollton, Texas, USA, on 7 Sep 2012, the
smallest roadworthy car measures 2 ft 1 in
(63.5 cm) high, 2 ft 1.75 in (65.4 cm) wide
and 4 ft 1 .75 in (126.3 cm) long. The vehicle is
licensed for public roads with a speed limit of
40 km/h (25 mph), and is often driven during
local veterans’ military parades.FASTEST...
Motorized log
On 20 Jan 2016, Bryan Reid Sr (CAN) steered
Cedar Rocket to 47.64 mph (76.66 km/h) on
the set of HGTV Canada’s Timber Kings, at the
Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler,
Arizona, USA. Bryan mashed up a Mazda RX-8
with a single log of western red cedar from
British Columbia, Canada.Motorized shopping trolley
Matt McKeown (UK) achieved a speed of
7 0.4 mph (113.29 km/h) in a motorized shopping
trolley on 18 Aug 2013 at Elvington airfield in
North Yorkshire, UK. He souped up his shopping
trolley with a modified Chinook helicopter
starter engine and a 250-cc Honda engine.Bed
Created by Hotels.com and steered by
professional racing driver Tom Onslow-Cole (UK),
a Ford Mustang GT adapted into a motorized
double bed reached a maximum speed of
8 3.8 mph (135 km/h) at Emirates Motor Sports
Complex in Umm al-Quwain, UAE, on 1 3 Dec
2 016. It smashed the previous record of 69 mph
( 111 km/h), achieved by serial customizer Edd
China (UK, see below) on 7 Nov 2008.Postman Pat van
Racing enthusiasts Tom Armitage and David
Taylor (both UK) bought a coin-operated ride
based on the popular children’s TV series
and added modifications including a racing
wheelbase, slick tyres and a 500-cc four-stroke
engine. On 30 Aug 2012, the converted van
completed a quarter-mile drag racing run at
York Raceway in East Yorkshire, UK, in 17.419 sec,
with a terminal speed of 84.28 mph (135.6 km/h).Milk float
On 25 Jun 2014, a milk float created by Weetabix
On the Go Breakfast Drinks and driven by Rob Gill
(both UK) achieved 84.556 mph (136.081 km/h)
at Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire, UK.Office
Former presenter and mechanic on the Discovery
Channel’s Wheeler Dealers, Edd China (UK) is
the king of crazy customizations. On 9 Nov 2006,
China created a roadworthy desk and drove it at
a maximum speed of 87 mph (140 km/h) across
Westminster Bridge in London, UK. The record
attempt took place as part of GWR Day.
China is also responsible for the fastest
garden shed. His creation Gone to Speed
can reach 58.41 mph (94 km/h), and was
presented on the set of Lo Show dei Record
in Milan, Italy, on 1 Apr 2011.Q: Cutouts, lakes and
zoomies are all custom
types of what car part?
: Exhaust pipesAPresident^ Donald
Trump’s Cadillac One
was due for delivery
on 30 Mar 2017. Exact
details of the car were
classified, but the doors
were reported to be so
heavy they had to be
opened from the
outside.THICKEST DOORS ON A CUSTOM CAR
The United States presidential limousine Cadillac One, or “The Beast”,
boasts 8-in (20.32-cm) doors that weigh as much as the outer cabin
door of a Boeing 7 57. First used on 20 Jan 2009, they have no key holes
and are opened by a secret mechanism known only to the US Secret
Service. Other customizations to the car include a set of rocket-
propelled grenades, on-board oxygen tanks, night-vision optics, pump-
action shotguns and bottles of the president’s blood type. The interior
is 100% sealed in order to protect its occupants from chemical attack.Smart car20
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Citroën 2CVVW Beetle – classicVW Beetle – newMini – classicMini – newVW Camper VanMOST PEOPLE
CRAMMED INTO A...27
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