You guys remember the world’s narrowest car? Well, someone has done it again, though it is not quite the narrowest. In the most capitalist-driven marketing move ever, YouTuber Prop Department claimed it as the “Thinnest Street Legal Car.” No “World,” just “Thinnest.” Prop Department isn’t alone in the attempt. There was a Mazda MX-5/Miata in China that was as thin as both of them. Though it is not clear if that Mazda came before the squashed Fiat Panda or later. We will dig more into that this week.
But for now, we have a “thinnest” in the road-legal category, or so it was claimed. Frankly, I am not sure why there’s a need to chew the cud again. Don’t get me wrong. I am not putting the man’s effort down. What I am saying is, this is not a movie trailer or a smartphone, where you can simply repost, or build a phone from parts sourced from China’s electronics wonderland. The engineering to put a thing like this together is no walk in the park, which makes me question why go through the agonizing process to do something that already claimed the title?
In fact, the flattest car also met the same situation. I believe it is not alone. Someone also copied what Carmagheddon did fairly quickly. But to be honest, the complexity for that is nowhere near this super surreal, super thin car.
Anyhoo, Prop Department a.k.a. Tyler Fever, an aspiring “mad scientist” (but probably not as “mad” as this bloke), is out to prove that you don’t need to be an engineer to make a super thin road-going car happen. His version started as a regular old Ford Festiva, and actually managed to retain two headlights.
Obviously, the ICE has to go. The drivetrain is now electric, borrowed from an electric off-road bike. Also, it is now a rear-wheel-drive vehicle. The electric motor drives the rear wheel via the good’ol chain and sprocket setup. And it has a swappable battery.
Speaking of batteries, it has a removable battery from power tools to power the auxiliary stuff like horns, signals, et cetera. Being a prop person, Tyler did what he does best. He 3D-scanned the dash and the front fascia, put the data into CAD, and designed and then 3D printed parts for those areas.
Even though it isn’t the first, it is still crazy surreal. It looks like a creature straight out of Monsters, Inc. All told, it took around two weeks to turn a regular Festiva into a squashed version. And oh yes, it seats two, and it is still good for grocery runs. Keep going for the video of the build and everything that happens after that.
Images: YouTube (Prop Department).