Posted on 10/12/2009 7:16:52 PM PDT by Baynative
Gasoline-powered street-legal bumper cars are the perfect convergence of any car guy's adult and childhood fantasies. Now one San Diego mechanic is custom building a collection of gasoline-powered and completely street-legal (and registered) bumper car cars. He outfits the vintage shells with 750cc Kawasaki bike engines capable of doing more than simply bumping other real cars in real traffic.
Please delete that last one. The preview didn’t look like it would come out that big - thanks
I don’t understand how that is street legal. seat belts? 5mph bumpers? Turn signals?, air bags? Side impact? roll over protection? Anti lock brakes? Pollution control? Fenders? Heater? Windshield wipers? Speed rated tires?
It’s a weight issue in California. I had a ‘23 Ford Roadster with no fenders, heater, wipers, bumpers or any of the new safety stuff.
What are you smoking? every car on the road only needs to meet the regs that were in effect at time of manufacture. You can’t force seat belts on a pre 1971 manufactured vehicle(or therebouts, I might have missed the year by a small amount). You can’t force a third taillight on a pre 1986 vehicle.
etc etc.
heaters were mandated sometime in the fifties I think. 5mph bumbers circa 1978.
Some fun stuff for ya - west coast style!
This is the coolest thing I have seen in a very long time and could possibly rival Phoebe Cates coming out of the swimming pool in Fast Times.
27600. No person shall operate any motor vehicle having three or more wheels, any trailer, or semitrailer unless equipped with fenders, covers, or devices, including flaps or splash aprons, or unless the body of the vehicle or attachments thereto afford adequate protection to effectively minimize the spray or splash of water or mud to the rear of the vehicle and all such equipment or such body or attachments thereto shall be at least as wide as the tire tread. This section does not apply to those vehicles exempt from registration, trailers and semitrailers having an unladen weight of under 1,500 pounds, or any vehicles manufactured and first registered prior to January 1, 1971, having an unladen weight of under 1,500 pounds.
When were these bumper car cars made? Certainly not more than 5 years ago.
Notice that every car is unique. They probably are refurbished real bumper cars found from defunct bumper car rides. That would make their “official” manufacture date in the fifties and sixties.
Oh really?
Do ya got a title to prove that? No? Oh gee that’s too bad. Maybe an old registration slip? No? Oh no. I’m so sorry. Do you have an original VIN number by chance? Can you show where the VIN number is stamped on the frame? No? tsk tsk. What a shame.
Organ donors waiting to happen.
Looks like fun to me!
Built-in taser optional.
Need a convertible with heater here in northern Indiana. Snow tires. 4WD. Doable?
reminds me of the little cars the Shriners used to drive in parades. i actually saw some of those last weekend, doing figure eights down the street. i was surprised, i thought shriner mini cars were extinct.
It’s too bad learning how to actually communicate in English is the opposite of what they teach in law school. That section of code is pretty thick writing.
Homemade car rules are different. My factory built car only has Heater, speed rated tires and turn signals from your list.
OMG!
I don’t think so. Certainly not when they were “remade”. I can’t imagine they use the original mfg date since they weren’t meant for the street at that time.
Ha. Just bolt the thing onto a snow mobile.
ping
I think you're right. This is just wicked cool. I want one.
Forget that. Put them on ride mowers, and they’ll make millions.
They have 4 wheels. That’s not a motorcycle.
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