THIS is one car that can dodge traffic - as it is a street-legal DODGEM. The purple vehicle, which looks more at home at a funfair than on the roads, is a fully converted bumper car that runs on petrol. And its owner, 69-year-old Tom Evans, is more than capable handling the unusual motor as he used to run a fairground. The tiny car has working lights, indicators, a petrol gauge and even a tax disc to prove its legality to incredulous onlookers. His wife and two sons bought the dodgem car for the young-at-heart driver two years ago.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 00;30 COMM: This is one car that will turn heads
00:05 on the road, as it looks to be more at home in a fairground.
00:10 69 year old Tom Evans from Glasgow used to run a fun fair before handing the reins of
00:15 the business over to his son.
00:17 But when he spotted a Dodgem car on an auction site, he couldn't resist the memento.
00:22 00;51 TOM EVANS: The reason I wanted it, because
00:25 it looks like a Dodgem car, and that's what our family runs, Dodgems, so I could not pass
00:31 it up.
00:32 01;06 TOM EVANS: It was advertising for sale and
00:41 I thought, oh, very nice, you know, and we kept looking for a couple of days, then all
00:45 of a sudden it went off and I thought, oh, somebody must have bought it.
00:48 01;18 COMM: In fact, Tom's wife had bought the Dodgem
00:51 car without him knowing, and surprised him with his bumper gift for Christmas in 2013.
00:56 01;29 TOM EVANS: The two boys and my wife went down
00:59 to Northumberland and haggled with the man that had it, agreed the price and fetched
01:03 it home.
01:04 It was stored for about four months, five months before Christmas.
01:07 Obviously, I didn't get it till Christmas.
01:10 It's been neglected over the years, and when we got it, couldn't use it on the road because
01:16 it wasn't tested.
01:17 It had a handbrake, but no foot brake, and the lights didn't work and things like that,
01:21 so we took it to a place in Glasgow and they went through it, they had it for months, because
01:25 trying to find the parts.
01:27 01;54 COMMM: The street-legal bumper car has all
01:30 the necessary paperwork and fittings for the road.
01:34 It can run up to 75 miles per hour, has indicator lights, a petrol gauge and turns heads wherever
01:40 it goes, including the police.
01:42 02;02 TOM EVANS: And we've been on the road about
01:44 five minutes and we got stopped by the police, and they wanted to know what the hell is it.
01:49 And we had to take the documents down to the police station.
01:53 And they all came out of the police station to have a look, and they thought, this is
01:56 unbelievable.
01:57 02;22 TOM EVANS: Very clever, what a great novel idea,
02:03 eh?
02:04 Have a dodgem on the high street.
02:05 02;29 TOM EVANS: It's quite cool because the buns in
02:06 here are not as usual as in normal cars.
02:11 02;43 COMMM: But this is one bumper car that Tom
02:14 hopes won't be in a bus stop.
02:16 02;48 TOM EVANS: You'll never see another one like
02:18 it, I don't think.
02:19 People see it and they do stop and think, what the hell is that?
02:22 Because it is an eye-catcher.
02:23 And it's a good one.
02:23 [MUSIC]
02:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]