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Real Version of Homer Simpson's Dream Car Built
Meshach writes "Some fans of The Simpsons have built a real-life version of Homer Simpson's dream car. In The Simpsons' world, Homer finds out he has a long, lost cousin named Herb Powell (voiced by Danny DeVito), who owns a car company in Detroit. Herb is so delighted to meet Homer that he allows Homer to design a car, which eventually ruins the company. This real vehicle is a working replica of the infamous car from the series."
The best part is the BORT license plate on the back of the vehicle.
Still a Concept Car. :-)
There's the week-late-to-the-party Slashdot I know and love! You were scaring me with those up to date current event stories earlier.
News for nerds. Seeshh!
Herb: While you're here, I want you to make yourselves right at home. Anytime you're hungry, anytime day or night, Cook will make you anything you want.
Homer: Even pork chops?
Herb: Absolutely. We have a tennis court, a swimming pool, a screening room--
Homer: You mean, if I want pork chops, even in the middle of the night, your guy will fry 'em up?
Herb: Sure. That's what he's paid for. Now, if you need towels, laundry--
Homer: Wait!
Herb: Maids--
Homer: Wait, wait, wait, wait! Let me see if I've got this straight. It's Christmas day, 4:00 a.m., there's a rumble in my stomach--
Marge: Homer, please!
Herb: Your old man sure loves pork chops!
Bart: He sure does, Uncle Herb.
It is "long lost cousin"; that comma really changes the meaning of the expression.
...no it isn't... It's a BMW with some stuff added to it for effect.
Don't get me wrong, I like it, but if it were going to be a real-life version of that car it'd probably have to be based on an actual finned car from the day, like an Imperial or Cadillac or Lincoln.
I've mused about cloning the ambulance from Cannonball Run, taking a hospital gurney and bolting it down half-hanging-out the open back doors. I've also contemplated entering a Chrysler Town and Country minivan with the fake wood panelling, and naming the car "I've got a Woody" so that the announcer could have a little bit of fun with it.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
2 week old news
...no it isn't... It's a BMW with some stuff added to it for effect.
As long as it has rack-and-peanut steering, it's close enough!
ba-dum crash
As says the title, Not cousin. Half-brother.
--Jim (me)
Pretty much. I would have loved to see a proper attempt at this vs cheesy bling + yet another BMW in lemons.
I see no restraints or muzzles in the child compartment, nor is it large enough to hold two screaming brats...er...loving children. Plus the rear end isn't even close.
I took one look at it and thought "that would be a good build for 24 hours of lemons". Then i noticed thats exactly what it is for. I love that race series.
Here is another great build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSC9MpCNSAE&feature=youtu.be
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
I already have a Canyonareo - it's made by Chevy under the Suburban brand...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
"Powerful like a gorilla, yet tough in yielding". Gotta love that. $ 82000 is a bargain for such a common man's dream ;-)
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
To be honest, Scrapheap Challenge / Junkyard Wars teams would have put out something better in half the time.
And it wouldn't work well and hilariously breakdown, but still better looking.
I agree, the toy car looks like a better version of "The Homer" than the full-sized vehicle. Wasn't the homer supposed to be an $80,000+ vehicle? What's this doing in tech., anyways? I thought we quit putting things like case-mods in idle since about five years ago. This is hardly news, the build is crap, and it has less space than a nomad. lame.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Homer's car IMMEDIATELY ruins the company once it is unveiled...
That was my thought as well. I mean it kind of vaguely looks like The Homer, but they did a real half-assed job on it.
The would have to have done fabrication of body parts and probably a complete frame off build to complete the homer. I guess they wanted it to be a race car too.
It's not even close
One of the main ideas of the car is the kids have their own back seat compartment and the parents don't have to listen to them. This one has a normal back seat and just a tiny bubble thing in the back that no one could fit in.
Most of the stuff is just tacked on visually but it still looks pretty funny.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
It's a race car (for 24 Hours of LeMons) with a theme, not a replica
My car gets fourteen rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
So you've mused and contemplated, but what have YOU DONE?? This is the third LeMons life for this car, which has been in ten races. A bunch of creative guys in a townhouse garage, with the wrong tools and limited funds have done more than muse or contemplate, buddy.
...that the Pontiac Aztec was Homer's dream brought to reality.
24 Hours of Lemons? What's that? Is it related to 24 Hours of Le Mans?
24 Hours of Lemons? What's that? Is it related to 24 Hours of Le Mans?
Something like that.
Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!
Fill it up with petroleum distillate, and re-vulcanize my tires, post-haste!
Okay, I'll play... I've been restoring a '78 Chrysler Cordoba and an '82 Dodge D350 crew cab shortbed. For the Cordoba I've built a 408 stroker from a 360 small block, gone through several 904 transmissions before giving up and going to the 727 transmission, and am mid-process going through the body and interior. For the crew cab, I've begun collecting parts and have been gathering information for a Cummins swap in place of the current 318.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
is it related to 24 Hours of Le Mans?
They are both endurance races.
The name 24 hours of lemons is clearly a play on the name 24 hours of le-mans (which is prounounced le mons).
Other than that there is no relation between them. They are basically opposite ends of the endurance racing scale. The 24 hours of Le Mons is a race where you get the top endurance cars on which big teams have spent lots of money compete with each other. The 24 hours of Lemons is a race where people with a bit of cash and some time to spare can have some fun and maybe even win.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Okay. Fair enough. Maybe you'd be impressed with the fact that after racing for 8 hours straight in 107+ heat, the team had to replace the transmission in time for the next day's racing to begin. These are not mechanics. Just some guys having fun. Let us know when you get almost 500k youtube hits in a week, or your handiwork is featured in the Sunday New York Times, Car and Driver, etc., etc., etc., .
You may not think this is news, but it is in today's Sunday New York Times, NPR did a story, and it has nearly 500K youtube hits.
part of the point though is taking cheap beater cars and costuming them.
who would take a 50/60's classic, assuming you could find one, and turn it into that monstrosity?
literally be flushing money down teh drain.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Yes - the whole point of the 24 Hours of LeMons (I'm a participant in this series) is that it's cheap cars: purchase price + repairs must be less than $500 (safety equipment is exempt). The organizers deliberately tried to keep out overly-serious, throw-the-checkbook-at-it types, to make it accessible to the average guy. Teams typically go with a "theme" to keep the sport fun (keeps out the super-serious types), and the result is a lot of creativity and humor along with real endurance racing.
The organizers really like to see unusual, oddball cars that have no business on a racetrack, and BMW E30 cars are very common, cheap, reliable, high-performing cars; this gives them a somewhat negative reputation. So the organizers encourage teams that want to run cars like this to be creative in putting together their theme, and this team is one of those. They started with an E30, and decided to make it look like The Homer. Previously, this same car was a 1958 Plymouth Fury ("Christine").
In the crapcan endurance racing world, this car is an amazing achievement. In the professional replica car building world, not so much. Other notable LeMons cars recently have been a Cessna fuselage on a Toyota van chassis; a self-driving popup camper; a Toyota MR2 with a radial aircraft engine; the front of a Toyota Corolla welded to the back of an MR2 for a two-engine, four-wheel drive car; a Geo Metro with a mid-mounted Taurus SHO engine done up as a replica of Nobuhiro Tajima's Pikes Peak SX4; a replica of the stair car from Arrested Development; and many, many other creative builds (including Star Wars and Star Trek themes). All of which are built to survive 14+ hours of racing (most races are during the day on Saturday & Sunday, some are 24-hours straight).
I'm happy to see my sport of choice make it onto Slashdot - there are a lot of nerds in LeMons. Heck, half my team are software developers.
my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
Have you ever been to a lemons race? This is a long standing standard Saturday night. If you cannot replace a transmission in the rain and mud, by flashlight, then Lemons isn't a place for you. (and most of the time the team's half drunk while doing it.) Formula Un it isn't, but knowing nothing about the car you're racing is not going to turn out well for you.
I'm to the point with an automatic for a Chrysler small block that I can usually grab every tool needed for pulling a 904 or 727 out in a single pass. Battery cable, exhaust X-pipe, differential yoke, cooling lines, starter, torque converter inspection plate, torque converter-to-flexplate, linkages, rear crossmember, bell housing, etc. I've had the transmission out and swapped in again in a couple of hours.
I'm not a mechanic either. I'm a computer guy, who got into cars because I screwed up my computers hobby by making it my profession. And I'm in Phoenix. I went junkyarding yesterday because I found out about another Cordoba in a yard and they're rare enough that I didn't feel I could wait to go strip it.
I've really strongly considered running a LeMons car, but I don't like the popular-vote-crush rule. I don't mind the K-lined-after-rollover rule or the dollar figure cap, but I'm not going to risk the time, effort, and money in getting to run in the race only to have the car crushed halfway through.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Heh. "Formula-Un" might be a good name for a competing circuit actually...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
le-mans (which is prounounced le mons).
Not really in France. "Le Mans" is pronounced without the final 's' (this is a french classic), with the sound [], like in the end of croissant (again, no final 't'), which doesn't exist in many languages.
Video of some good progressive thrash music