If you’re trying to buy a rear-engined, aerodynamic, aluminum-bodied car for new Camry money, you don’t really have many options. That’s why this ad should be such a godsend to the significant portion of our readership finding themselves in this situation: it’s a rear-engined, aerodynamic, aluminum, and absolutely unique car, all for $25,000. It’s also a Beetle chassis with an airplane stuck on top of it.
We’ve seen a number of other airplanes-turned-into-cars here, and I don’t care who knows it, I think I love them all. There’s something about the strange, sleek snugness of small aircraft that just make for great car bodies. This particular one is from a 1959 Cessna 172, and it’s on what appears to be a fairly cut-down (as in floorboards removed, leaving the main backbone) 1968 Beetle chassis.
Inside, we have seating for four on two-tone, low-back VW seats, and the whole original, gauge-laden instrument cluster has been retained in the cockpit, with one of the gauges replaced with the Beetle’s all-in-one speedo/fuel gauge/warning lights instrument.
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Headlights have been set into a grille around the propeller (which, it seems, can block them?) and the wings are hilariously cut down into stubby little winglets, which provide some shade and rain protection for the side windows.
The engine is exposed at the rear, but it’s got a nice chrome fan shroud and big chrome headers and lots of other shiny bits, so there’s no shame in showing it off. It’s a period-correct single-port motor, which, in original 1500cc guise, was good for 53 horsepower. Those headers probably help somewhat, but this plane isn’t likely to take flight.
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Now, sure, $25,000 is a lot of money for something mildly outrageous like this, but, to it’s credit, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be a reasonably practical daily driver, right?
I mean, the ad says it could be an “airport taxi or parade vehicle,” but what about the daily parade of life? That deserves fun stuff like this, right?
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I think so.
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