Since we’re on the subject of hauling oversize loads, that reminds me of this Festiva I shot just the other day at the Y. I love this kind of thing; it’s what CC is really all about: putting old vehicles to good use. I don’t know what he hauls with it, but this is a serious and permanent top-loader for very long objects of some sort. And rigged to what may well be the shortest car sold here in recent history. Let’s take a closer look.
So what exactly does he haul? Maybe I’ll catch him in the act, one of these days.
Rain gutters? Plumbing PVC?
The second shot makes it look like he’s hauling a Power Wheels U body and FJ Cruiser.
Now that looks awfully familiar. Back in the early 1990’s I was doing 17th century re-enactment (English Civil War, early American colonies, Three Musketeers if you must), and my first role was that of an English Army pikeman. For those not up on archaic weapons, the pike is an 16-18′ long spear wielded in a block formation.
As I owned a Festiva at the time, I made a set of roof racks out of 2×2’s and strapped the pikes to the roof. To try and keep mayhem to a minimum, and control to a maximum, I’d strap them down pike head forward with the butt of the weapon even with the back bumper. Which meant the head was running about 4′ ahead of the front bumper of the car.
You wonder about how to handle recalcitrant traffic? I strongly suggest this as a solution. You have no idea how many elderly drivers suddenly figured out what the long thin pedal on the right was for with four pike heads looming in their back window – and occasionally touching.
Happily, pikes are lighter than an aluminum ladder, so the supports built off the front bumper weren’t necessary in my case.
Now that’s real American ingenuity, right there.
The above photo of that improvised rack is nothing new. Back in the 1970’s when all of us owned Jeeps – I drove a Jeep Commando for a brief period of time – the guys who drove CJ5s needed to transport canoes and other gear for float trips, hunting and camping. My buddy who could and still can do anything, bought a supply of steel and built and welded a large, one-piece roof rack that spanned the entire length of the Jeep, fit into pockets welded on the front and rear bumpers and locked into place with pins. It was easily removable by two guys – with one, a little clumsy. He made two of these, one for himself and for another guy. Later, when I bought a truck, the canoes stuck out the back of the bed on those occasions when I drove.
You would not believe how we loaded those Jeeps down. During deer season, they used to have to strap the bows on top of the cowl in front of the windshield, using the windshield hold-downs to tie on to because there was no room inside. Two-three guys to a Jeep with a canoe up on top, sleeping bags, coolers, beer, food, water and assorted gear that always included various firearms and sometimes a dog – it was quite a sight and loads of fun and great memories. Kind of like the opening shot of the “Beverly Hillbillies” when they drove into town with granny up top! At least for me, the mid-70s, before I got married, were fun on those occasions! Yes, we drove those on the highway, too…at speed, at least 55 mph, usually pushing 70!
I have a photo of that setup somewhere…
The Fiat 500 is slightly shorter than the Festiva (139.6 inches vs 140.5 inches in US-spec trim per edmunds.com) but still, the Festiva has to be one of the shortest cars ever sold in the US with a back seat in any notable quantity – yeah, the original Mini was sold in the US for a short while in the 60’s, but in volumes nowhere near what the Festiva achieved.
I remember seeing them all over Madison, WI when I was a kid in the late 80’s. They seemed to be quite popular with college-aged females.
I tend to forget that the 500 is really here. And of course, there’s the Smart too…
Paul, let us also not forget that the 500 is a flop and the Smart a sales slug.
Cars this small don’t work in a place 2/3 of the population is overweight.
Canadians buy a fair amount of Fiats (considering the small size of the Canadian market), but it’s not doing well in the US for sure.
http://www.autonorth.ca/home/2011/8/15/fiat-500-ripping-up-the-sales-charts-in-canada-not-so-much-i.html
By the way, that Festiva was a really good car – with the exception of the Yokohama tyres it came equipped with. I swear those things were made of bakelite. They had absolutely NO grip in the wet, and I had the experience on a couple of occasions of spinning out on wet roads at 55mph (in the straight!) for absolutely no reason other than the tyres just gave up.
After I traded it in, I decided that this Kia outfit was worth looking at for future cars.
When I owned an AC/Heating company we also did Chimney Sweeping. One of the guys I hired as a helper learned enough to do chimneys by himself. The vehicle he chose was a little pinto station wagon. It was longer than this but this festiva reminds me of it in so many ways. It was always loaded and especially so when he had to do a topside repair job.
To describe it as haveing a topheavy appearance doesn’t do it justice.
Necessity truly *is* the mother of invention – did you know you can carry a half-dozen 2×4 studs inside a 1st-gen New Beetle (hatch closed)? That long dash is actually good for something besides loosing your Big Mac when you have to slam on the brakes…
The photo is titled “Herbie: Fully Unloaded.” I pulled a fully-loaded rack out of the field with it, but only once – the smell of burning clutch lining took a week to clear out of the car.
That deserves an award of some kind! All cars should come with a granny low gear.
My uncle once gave you a great bit of wisdom:
“You don’t use a Volkswagen to haul gravel.”
LOL!
Perhaps not, but this old character who lived 3 or 4 houses down the lake from us when I was a kid would regularly use his black 1956 VW Bug – only a year or two old at the time – to pull skinny second-growth fir logs from one of his other properties to his house to cut up for firewood. Just one log at a time iirc….
My dad used to paint houses during the summers to make ends meet (he was a schoolteacher), and for several summers would take the front passenger seat out of his ’72 Beetle, so that he could fit a stepladder inside the car (I’m not up on my ladder sizes…6 or 7 foot, maybe?). It actually made for a nice light hauler for the purpose.
(response to Paul)
I thought of that when I was trying to parallel park my Tercel in a tight spot on a damn steep Seattle road last summer. The combination of burning clutch smell and hand brake squeal was quite a treat…
Big ups for the Festiva. My Dad owned a repossession agency north of NYC in the 80’s, and one of the many cars that went through there (and wound up as part of our personal fleet) was a green model that he usually drove. I used it when I was home from college and dirt-poor, preferring it over our Audi 5000 wagon that died at the sight of rainfall. It was small, but thrifty, ran like a top, and carried four people surprisingly well. Sadly, it was totalled by a woman crossing the double-yellow in front of my father, who made it out with only a sore back.
In South Korea, these are about the only cars from that time period still on the road.
They are not super common anymore, but that’s still saying something here. And, there, like North America, it’s replacement, the Avella-Aspire, was a POS.
Here in Korea, the Pride (Festiva) also came in a true four-door (station) wagon body style that is relatively common and still easily spotted on the road. It makes me wonder if they are known for avoiding rust any better than other cars of that vintage…
I’ve always liked the Festiva, but I refuse to own any car with crawling seatbelts. All the ones I’ve ever seen have them.
My guess for the rack is a one-man rowing shell.
He hauls a ladder. Duh.
I do this all the time. Here’s my ’89 Camry wagon hauling almost half a ton of 24 foot lumber planks back from the sawmill…