9 Outrageous Stories about Cars

guy named Hamilton Carhart. He launched his clothing brand with just two song machines and five employees, but as his business grew, he really got enamored with this whole startup scene in Detroit, and in he actually started manufacturing cars under the car Heart brand. How in the world you go from making like pants and stuff like that to making cars? So they actually made cars. Yeah, But the weirdest part is that the vehicles weren't made for the

same audience as his clothing. Like the company had this showroom at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, which is so fancy, and they really set out to appeal to the aristocracy. So when um fancy dignitaries royalty came from abroad like car Hard, cars were actually sent to meet them at the pier and escort them to the hotel. Why have I not heard this before? I know I was thinking the same thing. But the company only made a few models and in business was so bad that

Hamilton's decided to close it up. But you know, according to the Automotive Hall of Fame, less than five car hard cars were built in total, and none are known to exist today. None. But that's just the first of nine great stories you've got about cars today. Let's dig in y hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend man Gush Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass reading the golden book he got off of eBay.

It's called Tristan flash it over here it's called Herbie gets a Special Friend. And man, he is truly invested in this book. He's been reading this thing for hours now. That's our friend, that producer, Tristan McNeil. I love that it takes some hours to read a golden book. And speaking of Herbie, did you actually watch those movies growing up? I mean I might have watched them, I have to be honest. I remember kind of a little bit about them,

but not that much. I don't remember that much about him, so I do remember watching them and loving him. And you know, we're always looking for the kind of classic Disney movies for a movie night with our kids, and for some reason, Henry and Ruby refused to watch it. And it kills me. I mean, I think that they only have like enough love for cars from the movie Cars in their hearts. But uh, you know that didn't stop me from looking up a fact about the movie

for this episode. So did you know that the VW Bug wasn't actually the initial choice to be Herbie. I mean, it seems like the obvious choice because it actually looks like it has a face. But now I wasn't aware of that, So that's what I was thinking too, And I just assumed the movie was written with the Volkswagen

Beetle in mind. But apparently the cars had to audition for the role, and according to the l A Times, about a dozen cars, including Toyotas, Volvo's MGS Fiats and a Pearl White Beetle audition for the role of Herbie. So apparently the crew came by, they kicked the tires, they checked out the steering and testro of the models, but when they walked up to Herbie, they actually couldn't help but pat and stroke the parked bug, Like that's how the decision was made. They just fell in love

with the thing. And you know, we grew up with a white box e Volvo that was our family car for like seventeen or eighteen years. And I am curious, like if a Volvo had been in that starring role and had gone bananas and gone to Mark Monte Carlo, like if people would have embraced the movies with the same figure. Maybe so well, I mean, I know, Herbie was obviously a car who got by on his charm. But I've actually got a story about a car that's

basely the opposite. Now. That was James Dean's Porsche, which also went by the nickname Little Bastard, and boy did it earn this nickname. So after Dean died in an accident and it it was sold for its parts, and basically it sounds like the car revolted against this. According to a Mental Flaws article, it fell and crushed a mechanic's legs. And then here I'm actually just going to quote the piece because it's pretty ridiculous. So it says a doctor who bought the engine was killed in a

car accident. Another victim who bought the transmission was severely injured in a crash. The tire sold from Little Bastard blew out, simultaneously injuring the buyer. While the shell of the car was being transported, the truck carrying it crashed. Thieves were injured trying to steal the car. The car was even lended to a highway safety exhibit in which the garage that housed the car burned down in a fire. Like you can't make this stuff up. And of course

now the location of the car is completely unknown. I guess nobody wants to know that they have any part of this. I love the idea that this car is like so gangster. It also feels like, you know, it's just hiding out on a beach with Elvis and Tupac kind of drinking and telling war stories. You know, are wonderful. Researcher Eves found me this next story. And actually I forgot to mention this, but this is actually Eves Jeff COT's last episode helping us with nine Things, So we

should take a second to thank her. That's right. She's gonna be helping launch and shape some new shows here at how stuff works. Well, it should be a lot of fun. But anyway you were saying, yeah, so Eves found the story about the Nature Mobile. It was invented in two thousand nine, and basically it's a Flintstone's car, but it's powered by a horse, like a like a carriage or what uh kind of. So here's a description. Basically, this Iranian engineer put a horse on a treadmill, and

he put this treadmill inside a box on wheels. So basically the driver and the passenger are sitting up front, the horse in the back, and to get it to move, you switch the treadmill on and wait for the horse to just start trotting. And I don't understand anything about this. Why wouldn't you just ride a horse instead? That's a

good question. But it's got twenty years. It goes up to twenty eight miles per hour, and like an electric car, the movement and the breaks kind of recharged the treadmill's battery. For anyone who's concerned about the horse though, and I do think we should all be concerned for this horse. The engineer wants to assure you that he spent more than two years adding things on to make the horse comfortable. So apparently there's this cold water jacket that gets applied

to the horse so it doesn't overheat. There's a bag that collects the horses emissions as he puts it, and it cleanly stores the waist under the treadmill. And they're actually photos of this thing in the Guardian. It is completely transparent so people can see the horse and it's kind of beautiful actually, but it isn't made for roads and highways. It's supposedly more of a way to get around villages, which you know, brings me back to the

same point, like, why don't you just ride the horse? Yeah, I'm I'm not sure why this one didn't take off. This is a really interesting idea. But well, here's a crazy one I just learned about, and it's more of a way to soup up your car. But it's called the bolster and it was designed by this engineer named Charles Foury in South Africa, and the bolster was a way to protect yourself against carjackings, which were happening with some frequency in Johannesburg at the time. That this was created.

So tell me what does the bolster do? Well? Just wait, for only seven hundred dollars, you get a pair of nozzles that pointed out from underneath your car, and if you felt unsafe, you could hit this small foot button, you hit the gas pedal and then massive flames would shoot out from under your car. So it's basically a flamethrower for your car for only seven hundred bucks Manga. So do they sell well despite that very reasonable price?

In my opinion, apparently not. Just a few hundred of these things were sold and the company unfortunately went out of business, and supposedly there are still a few cars in South Africa that have these things attached to them though, So just a warning to any would be carjackers in Johannesburg who also happened to listen to Part Time Genius. It's good to know and I'm glad you were thinking about then. So have you seen those bikes in Panama

that are completely kidded out? I don't think so. So they're just like bicycles and this idea of the bolster just remind me of them because they have these uh outrageous modifications on them, like They've got sirens and air horns and boom boxes. Some have like vending stalls in front of them, a giant sculptural artworks. It's really amazing. But you know, I could see some of these having flamethrowers as well. Yeah, they need to take it to the next level, all right, So where do you want

to go from here? So how about covering a guy named Houdina, which I know sounds like Houdini, but it is not, though it is equally magical in this guy, Francis Houdina designed a driverless car and this is in ninety. Basically he had an antent on top and a second car behind the driver of this car maneuvering it so you could like blow the horns, which gears turned the wheel all from the second car. And while this doesn't

seem that amazing now, was obviously a huge deal. And so there's some New York Times reporting on it, and this is our quote. It was as if a phantom hand were at the wheel. So they were pretty enamored with it, and very smartly Hudna sat in the passenger seat of this driver of this car the first time his ghost car took a drive, just in case he needed to take the wheel, and apparently he definitely needed to take the wheel. So here's what Jelapnick says about

it and the first ride through New York City. Quote the radio car Korean from left or right down Broadway, around Columbus Circle and south on Fifth Avenue, almost running down two trucks and a milk wagon, which took to the curbs for safe At st Judina lunged for the steering wheel, but could not prevent the car from crashing into the fender of an automobile filled with cameraman. It was at forty three Street that a crash into a fire engine was barely averted. The police advised Judina to

postpone his experiments. So what happened then, Like did the car ever go under production? And I guess Judina kept working on improvements and taking his car on tour. They're like, um, there's this report from Virginia and the thirties. It called the car one of the most amazing modern spectacles that people have ever seen. And this car keeps quietly surfacing in other places. But I do think like World War two and uh, the drying up of funds might have

put a damper on that research. I still can't get over this name. Like this, this magical car is invented by somebody named Houdina. But is there what you're saying? There's there's no relation to Houdini, So that's what I thought initially, and then I looked more into it, and apparently there's a story there too. So apparently Harry Houdini hated Houdina and he stormed into the Houdina Company and

tried to get them to change their name. And it wasn't just because he thought they were in fringeing on his name to sell us possessed car. It was more because he was irritated that his mail was actually ending up at the wrong address. Like he was just baffled that the mail was going to the wrong place and he was upset about it. So in the end, he was just really annoyed that he could make the Houdina

Company disappear. All right, Well, speaking of remote control cars, did you realize they actually use remote control cars in the Olympics during the track and field events? No? I had never heard that, And apparently this has been happening since at least the two thousand eight Olympics. But Obviously, the worst part of shot put, javelin and the hammer throwing is having to go retrieve your shot put javelin or hammer, and the remote control cars can do just that.

There were these beautiful and apparently very pricey little vehicles, and one thing they aren't though, is self driving. So a track official guides of the car to the javelin to be picked up for this very official reason, And when one shot putter said she wanted to buy one and hope to test drive it on the field, the officials said it was too expensive to let her take it for a spin. I mean, that's so ridiculous. It's

just a remote control car. But I mean, is there one auto manufacturer or like toy company who's responsible for making these? There might be, but the Olympic rules actually prevent any logos or sponsorship. So even though one set of rcs looked a little bit like many coopers and another look like pickup trucks, no one really knows who makes them. That's pretty fun. Well, you know, I know, we've got two more facts to go, but before we get to them, let's take a quick break. Welcome back

to Part Time Genius, where we're talking cars. So I was trying to figure out what my last fact should be, and I've got a bunch of short ones and honestly just can't pick among these mango So you know, my take with this is always just to real them off. All right, Well, here are some of the things that I just thought were so interesting. Jaguar cars used to be called SS cars, but changed their name because of

the Nazi Association. Really why Yeah, apparently they used to specialize just in motorcycle side cars, so the original name of the company was Swallow Side Car Company. That's where the SS comes from. But in the forties they changed their name for obvious reasons. Yeah, that makes sense. So what else you got? Well, Mazda had to recall cars

once because of spiders. Apparently they were called about a hundred thousand M six sedans because yellow sack spiders loved the smell of the gasoline so much that they'd climb into the engines and block event with the webs that they'd weave, which sounds impossible but I guess it's true. So they actually had to recall them twice. But I think my favorite story I stumbled into is about the law marquises and it's a car from eight eight four.

It was creative for the Count de Dion, and basically it's a steam car and it runs on coal, wood and bits of paper, and it takes the car about half an hour to really rev up, but then it can actually cruise at about thirty eight miles an hour. And you should note the verb in the tents that

I use there, that's can cruise. Because even though the car won the world's first automobile race back in eighties seven, it was last sold in two thousand eleven for four point six million dollars and apparently has the distinction of being the oldest known running automobile. Oh that's really cool. That's still runs. You know, I actually had a story about Sarah Kanigg and her dad who supposedly wrote the super famous Volkswagen Lemon newspaper ads. You know, it's a

great bit of Madman history. But actually want to save that story, it's so good for another time and just give you today's t man. What a tease you're leaving us with that, U. That is a good one that we'll have to get to that well, thank you so much. Thanks again to Eaves for all her wonderful facts. We wish her the best of luck, but we're excited to see everything she does here at House Stuff Works, and as always, thanks so much for listening. We'll be back with a full length episode tomorrow. M