The Costomtron, affectionately known as Cosmo, is a unique car designed to look like a 1960s bubble car. The Jetsons-style space age design was created by Paul Bacon, who spent 18-months building the car from a shed in his back garden. Bacon sat down and drew his dream car then worked out what materials he could use to make his dream a reality. He used the chassis of an old BMW Z3 as the base for his car and sculpted its unusual curves using polystyrene, foam and fiber-glass matting.
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MotorTranscript
00:00This purple vehicle may look like a spaceship from a sci-fi film, but it's actually a one
00:10of a kind custom car, the Cosmotron.
00:13The whole car is perfect and the more I drive it I realise that the car is perfect.
00:20This kind of car has never been seen in this country before.
00:24The space-age car was designed by Paul Bacon, who spent 18 months building the car in a
00:29shed in his back garden.
00:31Once the project started, I always like to keep it moving and never let it stand still.
00:36If you do just a little bit every day, it will always get done.
00:39In the 60s in America, there was a few cars like this, but not too many and when I was
00:45a kid, I was always told that by the year 2000, this is what cars would look like and they
00:50don't, so incredibly disappointing.
00:53The 41-year-old sat down and drew his dream car, then worked out how to make his dream
00:59a reality.
01:00I went and bought a BMW Z3 with the 2.8-litre straight-six around about 1998 and I took
01:09every single body panel off it, so I was left with just the rolling chassis and floor pan.
01:14I then braced that with extra steel just to make sure it was stiff enough so there'd be
01:18no flexing in the fiberglass body and onto that I bonded polystyrene and expanding foam.
01:26Then I sculpted the shape of the car.
01:28I used a piece of 10mm steel rod and ran it from here down to here and that gave me the
01:35basic lines of the car.
01:37Once I'd got it to the shape I wanted it in polystyrene, I covered that in fiberglass
01:42and then smoothed it all out to the car that you have now.
01:45I also made the tooling for the dome, the dome rings made of steel, I made the tool for the
01:51dome and sent it to a place called Dupless Domes, it used to be in Leicester and they
01:56pumped up the dome.
01:57The dome sits on a steel ring that rises and falls on a hydraulic ram and hinge system.
02:03The dome itself is made of the same sort of acrylic plastic used in glider canopies.
02:09Paul stayed true to his design throughout, even if it meant using unconventional materials.
02:16We've got the 2.8 straight six but modified so it's running the six SU carbs, they're topped
02:23off with salt and pepper pots from John Lewis because they look like cool chrome bullets.
02:27And the interior, we've got the crazy gear shift, got the one off dashboard, one off steering
02:33wheel, my wife actually stitched all the interior.
02:37The rear grille here, during the 50s people would modify cars with anything that was around
02:42and this kind of grille became popular using a draw pull off of old chest of drawers.
02:47Those draw pulls are very hard to get now so almost looking the same.
02:51These are actually lids off of a lot of tubes of moisturiser which I found in a charity shop
02:56for about £5 and then cleaned up and they are now on there.
03:00These are plastic and they won't go rustic.
03:02Paul and his wife Kirsty took the Cosmotron to car shows around Europe but after two years
03:08they were ready to move on to a brand new project.
03:11I sold it in order to build another car because for me the building of the car is better than
03:16the final owning of the car.
03:18Paul's always doing projects, crazy projects, he's not happy unless he's making something.
03:22He's on to his next car project now and Cosmotron's actually his second car.
03:26Luckily for Paul, car enthusiast Martin Smith had been coveting Cosmo for two years.
03:32I decided to buy the car because for years I wanted a different sort of car.
03:35What I like about the car so much is the way it looks, the space age look of it, the craziness
03:41of it, the actual bubble top, the colour, the whole way the car is built.
03:46The 60s crazy look is what I really go for.
03:49And Martin had fallen in love with the bizarre motor.
03:53I've done about 800 miles in it and it's been brilliant.
03:57It's like being in a goldfish bowl looking out on the world.
04:01Luckily Martin's wife Cathy shares his enthusiasm.
04:05We're a bit crazy in our family.
04:07We give them all names so he's Cosmo to us but I do love him.
04:11He's a lovely car.
04:13Drive so nice.
04:14People's reaction to the car, when you drive it down the road,
04:18everyone stops, everyone stares, everyone wants to take a picture.
04:22I think just general amazement.
04:24It's very, very, very eye-catching.
04:27Unique as well I find.
04:29I pull up into a petrol garage.
04:31People come up to me, what sort of car is this?
04:33Is it a kit car?
04:34Who makes it?
04:35Is it a production line car?
04:36They don't understand how it works.
04:37If I took it down to the pub my mates would love that.
04:40There would be photographs taken, it would be in the papers.
04:42I mean it would be splashed everywhere.
04:44And now Martin has the Cosmotron for himself.
04:47He has no intention of letting it go.
04:50It's probably the first bubble top car that's ever been made in England.
04:53I think it needs to stay in England.
04:55You know, so I'm going to try my best to keep it in England and never sell it.
04:59Let's play an end.
05:00We'll find a Bethany.
05:01Let's play with all those of us.
05:02If I got my best to keep it in England, we'll try and go die since we're talking.
05:03So thank you for that.
05:05For these things it was catastrophic.
05:06So thank you for having me.
05:07Let me start to edit this.
05:08And I think your best game of Premier Mi 20 is gonna die.
05:10This is our first game.
05:11We'll be right after this game.
05:13And go off one night and stay in the awhile play.
05:15Let's do it.
05:16Toุ Astronomy in VFX with GPS.
05:18You will be.
05:19And do those of you.
05:20As long as you let's miss,
05:21the kids are missing your own Garf Express.
05:22No West Hamnot.