Mini Hot Rod Hits German Roads [View all]
from Der Spiegel:
The mini hot rod looks like an outsize toy, and its Hamburg-based creators still can't quite believe it's street legal. It offers drivers as much fun as can be had behind a steering wheel, and a bit of discomfort is a small price to pay.
Kids never want the fun to be over. Being thrown in the air by their daddy just once isn't enough -- they want him to do it again, and again and again. The mini hot rod gives adults a chance to recapture that feeling of exhilaration. Anyone who's been behind the wheel once won't rest until they've done it again.
Forget everything you've ever heard about driving satisfaction and imagine a cross between a soap box car and a go-kart. A mini hot rod is a bit like a narrow bathtub -- and climbing in is similar too. Drivers have to lower themselves into the cockpit, one leg after the other, with their hands braced on either side. Then all they need to do is to put the pedal to the metal and hit the traffic.
As dangerous as it looks, the mini hot rod is approved for road use. Fifty one-year-old Maik Wenckstern still can't believe it. He and his brother developed the quirky vehicle five years ago. A beer-fuelled race on riding lawn mowers was what first gave them the idea.
"It took technical inspectors two years to approve it," says Wenckstern. In Germany, a vehicle is only road-worthy if it can travel at a speed of at least 80 kilometers per hour (about 50 miles per hour), but that was the least of his problems. He cleared the biggest hurdle when inspectors gave the nod to the GFK bodywork. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-mini-hot-rod-is-made-in-hamburg-and-approved-for-road-use-a-900570.html
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