A FAMILY has become used to turning heads while driving their fleet of 10 bumper cars on California’s roads. In this week’s episode of Ridiculous Rides, vehicles are taken from the amusement park to the open roads. But Tom Wright, a builder, hadn't planned on taking the first fairground ride he worked on to the streets. He told Ridiculous Rides: “The purpose at the time was to restore it to its original lustre and put it in a showroom.” However, before finishing the project he decided that he also wanted the cars to be mobile. So, Tom used his engineering skills to move them onto the open road. He explained: “I decided to convert it to a six-speed Kawasaki 550cc motor.” Making these historic vehicles roadworthy was a challenge for him, some having been out of use for 80 years. “They were sitting outside riddled with rust, 18 inches on some of the cars and had to be cut off," Tom said. The bumper cars have also been added with some special features, such as wood exteriors to reflect the area they drive through. “The wheels are custom golf cart wheels because this is a California beach community," he said. Acquiring the first car, finding the right components, making the frames and sending the bodies for paint took a year to complete. All this hard work was worth it in the end, as they are “extremely fun to drive”. When Tom takes the 10 bumpers for a spin with friends and family they turn the heads of locals. “The smiles, waves and the honks make the hobby worth doing.”
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MotorTranscript
00:00 They're just plain fun.
00:02 My name is Tom Wright.
00:22 This car in front of me here is a 1947-48 Lussie auto scooter.
00:27 What could be cooler than having a street-legal converted bumper car?
00:32 How about owning a whole fleet of them?
00:35 I would just say that they're just plain fun.
00:38 At first, Tom had no plans to hit the streets in these vehicles.
00:44 The purpose at the time was to restore it to its original luster
00:49 and put it in a showroom of my business, let people enjoy it.
00:54 The more I thought about it before I ever finished that project,
00:58 I decided that it needed to be mobile.
01:00 So with Tom's engineering skills,
01:04 these bumper cars said goodbye to the fairground and hello to the open road.
01:09 The easiest way to do that was to put a little Honda 110,
01:14 and that worked fine, but it just wasn't fast enough.
01:17 And at that point, I decided to convert it to a six-speed Kawasaki 500 two-cylinder Ninja motor.
01:26 What makes this car unique is that it has a six-speed transmission.
01:40 It has an independent rear suspension.
01:43 It makes the car handle extremely well.
01:46 The wheels are custom golf cart wheels.
01:50 Because this is a Californian beach community,
01:53 I thought the wood would be a nice touch with all of the woody cars in California.
01:58 This particular car, it's the oldest car in my collection.
02:04 It's a 1936 Lussie auto scooter.
02:08 The grille is so beautiful, I think, with all of the chrome.
02:11 And with some of these cars having been around for over 80 years,
02:15 roadworthy restorations were a big ask.
02:19 Because they're old, they're from the '30s, '40s, and '50s,
02:22 they were sitting outside riddled with rust.
02:25 18 inches on three or four or five of these cars had to be cut off and all new sheet metal put in.
02:30 I'm a self-taught welder, fabricator, and learned a lot the hard way.
02:36 And acquiring the car, acquiring all of the components that I needed,
02:41 making the frames, sending the bodies out for paint,
02:46 took me about ten months to a year from beginning to end.
02:51 Hood ornament came off, and I came up with this idea from a trophy shop.
02:56 This happens to be the cheapest part of the whole car.
02:59 It's $5 from the trophy shop.
03:02 And when Tom, his friends, and family take all ten bumpers for a spin,
03:08 they sure turn heads.
03:10 Normally the first reaction we get is "Aww,"
03:13 and then they try and figure out in their brain, "What was that? What are those things?"
03:19 It's just a blast to drive these cars.
03:21 It's so unique that you can't compare it to anything else you would drive.
03:26 You don't realize until you get in one what they're capable of and what they can do.
03:30 And I love driving them.
03:35 We're driving down the road. People have no idea.
03:37 We're coming, and all of a sudden they're caught in ten cars.
03:41 The smiles and the thumbs up and the waves and the honks,
03:45 those are the things that made the hobby worth doing.
03:50 Extremely fun to drive.
03:53 [Music]
03:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]