We all got up to some weird stuff during the pandemic, but Pennsylvania’s Dan Hryhorcoff decided to make a 200% scale bumper car out of an old Chevy Aveo and a motorcycle
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We all learned some weird habits and took on some odd projects during the isolation of the pandemic. Few were as big, or as delightful, as the giant bumper car that Dan Hryhorcoff made in his garage.
Based on the 1953-model bumper cars found at an amusement park in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, called Knoebels, Hryhorcoff’s version measures in at 13 feet long, seven feet wide, and 5.5 feet wide, or twice as large as the genuine article.
To start the project off, then, he had to go to Knoebels. Fortunately, he was allowed to spend eight hours at the park, examining the bumper cars and, crucially, taking measurements, per Popular Science. Back at home, he recreated the body using styrofoam, which was then used to create molds so that he could make the final body out of fiberglass.
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Under the hood, as it were, the bumper car uses the engine from a Chevrolet Aveo. However, the front-wheel-drive vehicle’s engine and gear train were moved to back to make this a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive bumper car.
Meanwhile, Hryhorcoff decided to use the front wheel from a motorcycle. Not only does that give the bumper car a remarkably small turning radius, it also makes it a tricycle as far as the state is concerned.
Fully street legal, as you can see in the video below, the bumper car is anything but Hryhorcoff’s first rodeo. Early into his retirement, he decided to make a larger version of the “Murray Sad Face” pedal car from the ’50s. He learned a lot about fiber glassing with that project, which was crucial during the bumper car project.
Hryhorcoff describes himself as an engineer, not an artist, and he owned a machine shop during his working years. Even before that, when he was a kid, he remembers being fascinated with anything mechanical, tinkering with lawn mowers and even building go-karts.
These days, he says he’d prefer to tackle one big project, than a dozen little ones. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
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