A mechanic has created an adult version of classic children’s car the Cozy Coupe – which cost a staggering £35,000.
Petrolhead John Bitmead spent five months creating a life-size version of the child’s toy, and copied every detail from the yellow roof, to glassless windows and over-sized drinks holder. And although the kids’ version is well-known for running on pedal power, Mr Bitmead’s newest toy can do 0-60 in just 17 seconds – and has an 800cc engine.
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Mr Bitmead, who created the car with help from his brother, Geoff, and friend Nigel Douglas, said: ‘I love setting myself a challenge, and once I’d got the idea in my head, I was determined to see it through.
‘We were chatting one day about how more people have probably driven a Cozy Coupe than any other kind of car – and it snowballed from there. Since making it, we’ve taken it out on a few trips, and people can’t believe their eyes when we come driving down the street in this red and yellow toy car.
Video: Adult version of a COZY COUPE that can do 70 mph
‘We took it on the motorway once, but I’m too scared to do it again in case we cause and accident – people were taking photos of us driving past at the wheel and swerving all over the place when they saw us drive past.’
Mr Douglas, who is managing director of Attitude Autos, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, where John and Geoff are mechanics, said: ‘We tried to create our version of a classic car. We saw so many of them in people’s front gardens, we thought it would be great to make one for grown ups wanting to relive their youth. We’ll take on any challenge – the weirder the better. We set up the company to make unique bespoke vehicles for film, television and photography, and hopefully, we might be able to use this car to raise some money for charity too.’
The Cozy Coupe toy is made by American firm Little Tikes and in 2004 the company had sold six million of the red and yellow cars. The design is dsecribed as a cross between a VW Beetle and Fred Flintstone’s car. Mr Bitmead, 48, took apart a Daewoo Matiz to create the vehicle – and the trio estimate it’s cost more than £35,000 in parts and man hours to create the car – which retail for around £50. He worked for more than 1000 hours on the project, working on the bodywork for 150 days straight.
He said: ‘I thought a Matiz was the most similar in shape to the Cozy Coupe, we just needed to chop the middle out to make the dimensions correct. It was really important to me to get the details exactly right – the ignition is even a big button, and we created all kinds of moulds to get the steel roof and unique seat shape exactly right. I wear a helmet when driving it, not because I need it, but because it gets fairly windy with no windscreen.’
Source: dailymail
