Let me know if you have heard this one … a geodesic dome, a Volkswagen and an armadillo walk into a bar … this custom creation could be the punchline. This strange but oddly appealing monster lived among the other occupants of the oddball storage yard. It could have only come from the kit car and van crazed 1970s.
Let me first off apologize for the quality of the photos. A fence as well as other vehicles didn’t allow any great shooting angles. The snow didn’t help either. This shot is as good as it gets for the front end.
Sadly the interior was completely trashed denying us an inside view into its heyday. A three spoke steering wheel with circle cut outs was pure sport back in the 70s and early 80s. Or at least it seemed so to my young eyes at the time. I’ve heard they fell out of favor after people kept getting their fingers stuck in the spokes. Not sure how real that injury risk is but it is probably much less than that exposed chain connecting the wheel to the steering gear below. The central driving position remains rather novel today with only a handful of vehicles ever adopting it. Check out the wheel well intrusion.
Powering this creation was the usual flat four engine which was long gone but the transmission was still intact. A collection of seemingly random trailer lights handle the rear lighting and indication duties. The four bolt wheels indicate that Beetle fans can rest easy knowing that a classic 50s or early 60s Bug didn’t give its life for this.
When the Air Force got to have stealth aircraft, it seems the Army wanted stealth vehicles. The project failed.
Why would you want to steer from the center? So you could drive between LHD and RHD countries?
I see you grow good dope in Canada
Looks like the work of a Buckminster Fuller acolyte, a semi-Bucky Ball on wheels, though Fuller’s own streamlined car design, the Dymaxion, looked nothing like his famous geodesic domes.
It seems to me the Bradley GT was the most popular Beetle conversion, aside from dune buggies. Come to think of it, why didn’t the Germans think of these for the Africa Korps, instead of Kubelwagens & a handful of militarized Käfers for the brass?
Several years ago, I read an article on the HumVee. When the Army was first thinking of it, they experimented with dune buggies as a replacement for the jeep. If I recall, a lot of the development was in Fort Lewis, in Washington. Must have been an interesting sight. I assume it was a three-man-crew setup with gunner in the back; never saw a picture.
Here ya go my good man Pete! They did use them, look on Youtube for FPSRussia and he actually shoots off of one!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Patrol_Vehicle
Looks like someone was to cheap to order up the plans for the Brubaker Box.
That isn’t a brubaker box, This is.
I have seen your bus style before, but can’t recall the name, I know it is something odd though.
Oops you are correct what I posted was the Boonie Bug. Plans for which are still available. http://rqriley.com/b-bug.html
Wow, can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually like that Brubaker Box! Very funky!
I really think that might be the ugliest thing I’ve seen all day.
YF-117 meets Beetle. Good for avoiding radar traps, but if they ever get a pic, boy will they ever know it is you!
This is a strange looking thing, like somebody tried to create a geodesic dome on wheels, or maybe it’s something left over from a Mad Max movie.
Really hard to imagine what the creators were going for with this. It belongs to no known genre of automotion. But whatever they were attempting it clearly failed. Unless maybe the objective was to make a VW-based vehicle even uglier than The Thing.
Don’t take drugs kids!
I love that door. A random 6-sided plate with a round porthole and one big ol’ hardware store hinge.
What I’m not seeing is a latch…
It’s a Bucky Bug!