A Shenyang businessman made Chinese headlines the other day, after he used two donkeys two tow his faulty Range Rover back to the dealership, in protest.

Just two weeks after another dissatisfied car owner had his Lamborghini Gallardo smashed with jackhammers, in protest of poor quality vehicles that auto companies chose to sell in China, a similar incident took place in front of a Rover dealership. A man sick of having to repair his Range Rover every few months, rented two donkeys and had them tow his broken vehicle back to its manufacturer, and asked for a total refund.

The protester bought his luxury SUV in 2010, for 2 million yuan ($304,000), and it reportedly broke down six times before he eventually had to replace the entire engine. When the car died on him for the seventh time, the angry owner felt he had to do something to send a clear message to car makers about the shady quality of their products. So he rented the donkeys, glued a protest banner to the SUV and towed it back to the dealership.

Although his actions grabbed a lot of media attention, they weren’t enough to convince Rover to give him the total refund he asked for. They’ll probably just fix it for him, again.

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22-year-old John McArthur is the owner of the world’s only golf course on four wheels – a Skoda Felicia covered with fake grass and complete with a sand bunker.

The young Brit from Rayne, Essex, is surprisingly not a big fan of golf, but as soon as he saw this lovely Felicia on eBay, he new it would be the one to replace his old Renault Megane. He even got a bargain price of £347, so buying it was a no-brainer. As soon as he parked it in front of his front door, his sister said she wouldn’t be caught dead in it, but John’s friends love it and people keep taking photos of the green vehicle and ask about him, wherever he goes.

The golf-mobile is almost completely covered in fake grass and comes complete with a hole flag on the roof and a sand bunker on the hood, and while it doesn’t inspire him to take up golf, young Jake McArthur says he’s happy he never has to wash it.

We’ve featured our share of quirky art cars here on Oddity Central, but this is definitely one of the most ingenious ones.

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A Chinese Lamborghini Gallardo owner decided to have his supercar destroyed in public, to show his dissatisfaction with the car maker’s services.

The businessman from Qingdao, Shandong Province, says the engine of his luxury sports-car, a Lamborghini Gallardo L140, failed to start on November 29, 2010, just six months after he bought it. As any other car owner would do, he contacted the Lamborghini dealer in Qingdao, and the trailer of a maintenance service provider entrusted by the dealer was sent to carry the car to a designated maintenance shop. When his Lamborghini was returned, the owner noticed the engine problem still hadn’t been fixed, and that the bumper and chassis had been damaged, probably during the towing.

When the owner pointed out the problems at the maintenance shop, they denied his claims and simply ignored his consumer rights, so the owner tried to work things out with Mr. Stephan Winkelmann, CEO of Lamborghini’s China division, with the auto-maker’s after-sales service manager for Asia-Pacific region, and even with brand owner Volkswagen Group, but no one took responsibility for what had happened. Under the circumstances, the outraged car owner felt there was only one thing he could do.

He decided to hire a group of construction workers to publicly destroy his faulty Lamborghini Gallardo L140 on World Consumer Rights Day, to attract attention to the consumer rights problem in China. He stated that, in recent years,  the Chinese people have been more than capable of consuming luxury goods, but international brands seek only to exploit the Chinese market and ignore the interests and rights of consumers. He feels that, in his case, Lamborghini failed to bring their famous high quality service to China, and this was the only way left he could protest.

In China, a Lamborghini Gallardo retails for between $529,000 and $757,000, depending on specifications.

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A life size Play-Doh replica of the Chevrolet Orlando MPV, created to mark the launch of the seven-seater, has been turning heads on the streets of London.

The sculpture was created out of 1.5 tonnes of blue Play-Doh, by a team of eight model makers who worked on it for two-week period. Created as a marketing scheme for the launch of the Orlando MPV in the UK, the 4.6-meters-long, 1.8-meters-wide Play-Doh Chevrolet has set a new record for the world’s largest Play-Doh sculpture.

The plasticine-like substance may seem like a strange material to build a car, but the marketers decided on it after Play-Doh was voted the most loved toy of 2010, with 19% of the votes. LEGO came in close second with 17%, followed by Kinder Surprise, 15 %.

It’s hard to believe the popular toy started out as a wallpaper cleaner, in the early 1950’s.

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44-year-old Shaun Mitchell, from West Lynn, Norfolk is a newspaper delivery man with an unusual passion for military vehicles. He likes them so much he put together a regular fleet of tanks, anti aircraft guns, jeeps and other vehicles, right in his backyard.

Shaun became obsessed with military vehicles when he was 18 years old, and he remembers the first one he saved money for was a World War 2 Austin Champ army jeep. Since then, this self-taught mechanic has bought and restored an impressive collection of vehicles that includes tanks, tankettes and anti-aircraft guns. He stores most of them in his back garden and when the weather allows it, he drives them through his local village.

”I get a thrill from working on something that’s totally different and the adrenalin pumps when you drive them out onto the road. It’s the smell and the whole atmosphere, people look at you and wave, everyone is interested in the vehicle.” Shaun says about his passion, but while his friends and family approve of his unusual hobby, because they get to ride around in his military vehicles, he admits it has affected his love life in a negative way. Because of his obsession with military vehicles, he had to end a 12 year relationship and is now looking for a girl who actually likes tanks as much as he does.

Shaun’s impressive collection of military vehicles includes an 8.1 tonne street-legal Sabre tank that reaches 50 mph, a WWII 1945 GMS Bolster Truck, a Polsten 20 mm anti-aircraft gun, a 1929 Carden-loyd machine-gun carrier, a Self-Propelled Abbot fighting vehicle and two Ferret Scout cars. Asked about how much they’re all worth, the collector said the Sabre alone is worth around $32,000.

”I don’t drink or smoke, I have no bad habits apart from the compulsion to buy military vehicles.” claims Shaun, who works as a newspaper delivery man, but spends two days a week restoring other military vehicles for a local tractor dealership.

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Throughout the years I’ve been writing on Oddity Central, I’ve seen some pretty amazing car models built out of the most unusual materials, and edible cars have definitely been among the most impressive. I’ve featured some of them on this blog, and today I thought I’d make a list of the coolest life-size cars made of things you love to eat.

Chococar

This tasty looking thing was created exclusively out of chocolate, and was exhibited in SIngapore’s Royal Plaza on Scotts, back in 2008. The 4.7 meters-long, 2 meters-wide Formula 1 car weighed around 90 kilograms and was made with white, dark and milk chocolate. The design alone took 44 days to complete, and a team of eight chocolatiers worked 7 days and nights on it.

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Public transportation is considered one of the most stressful things in the world, but the designers of Italian public transport company QC Termemilano set out to prove public transportation can also be relaxing.

They managed to create an ordinary tram cart into the world’s first tram sauna, complete with hot coals, wooden benches, and thanks to the open windows, a wonderful view of the surroundings. Except for these features, the tram sauna looks just like any other cart. ‘This innovative design is to show that not all public transport is frustrating. It can be somewhere to relax.’ said one of the company’s representatives.

The custom tram sauna is currently located in the middle of a real spa complex, but although it sits on its own real tracks, it won’t be going anywhere any more.

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The Cars Dream Restaurant, in the city of Surabaya, Indonesia, features ten vintage cars converted into furniture, making it the ideal place to dine if you’re into cars.

Bobby Handojo Gunawan, owner of the Cars Dream Restaurant, says he has been dreaming about opening an automotive-themed restaurant for 15 years, and since he’s always been passionate about tuning cars, using them as furniture just came naturally. With ten vintage automobiles converted into unique restaurant furniture and accessories, the Cars Dream Restaurant holds the Guinness record for Most Cars on Display in a Restaurant.

Here are some of the auto wonders you can see in this unusual Indonesian venue:

• a red 1949 Mercedes Benz Limousine  converted into a big dining table for 20 people;
• a red 1969 Chevrolet Corvette converted into a beautiful aquarium with 100 fish;
• a yellow 1969 Lotus turned into an organ and audio system;
• two 1961 Cadillacs transformed into a cozy seating area;
• a 1962 Chevrolet Impala converted into a cool dinning table

The Cars Dream Restaurant also features a 1954 Mercedes Gullwig 300 SL and a 1961 Morris Mini Cooper set on display for auto enthusiasts to admire. They don’t have an engine anymore, but they look just as good as the day they were shipped off from the factory.

If you’re ever in Surabaya,and you have a thing for classic cars, you must stop by the Cars Dream Restaurant, at 68 Raya Menganti.

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Whether it’s by tuning their cars or driving them like madmen, car enthusiasts are always looking for ways to stand out, and now, thanks to the Cruisin Caskets, they can even go out in style.

However scary and sad, death is a part of life, so if you can’t cheat it, why not make the most of it? For car lovers who want to take their passion for automobiles in the grave with them, the guys at Cruisin Caskets offer the perfect solution – a car-shaped coffin made of fiber glass that can be shaped like any model car, from the 50s classics to today’s futuristic rides.

This “perfect way for the car aficionado to express their love for cars” can be converted into a nice-looking beer cooler, before it serves its permanent purpose, but the idea of seeing what’s to be my final resting place every time I want a beer doesn’t make much sense to me. Read More »

A BMW Z4 model made from hundreds of bricks is now being sold for $125,000.

Chinese artist Dai Geng spent more than a year cementing bricks together and then carving the massive block into an impressive replica of the 155 mhp BMW Z4. Except for the windows, everything is made from brick, even the hinges that allow the door to open and close just like metal ones. The car was unveiled in January 2010, and has been on display, in Shenzheng City, for the last year. Now the artist wants to sell it and make a nice profit.

Although this brick BMW Z4 is definitely an impressive replica, down to the interior trimmings, the price tag of $125,000 seems prohibitive. But Dai Geng is confident that one of China’s rich businessmen will want to buy it as and ornament for their gardens…

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The Brass Van is a unique art car completely covered with various brass items. Also known as the “California Fantasy Van”, this artwork on four wheels took 22 years to complete.

Hunter Mann is the present owner of the Brass Van, but it was actually his late godfather, Ernie Steingold, who crated it. A vacuum-cleaner repairman, Steingold first started adding brass to his 1975 GMC van, in the early 1980s and continued doing so for the next 20 years or so. It all started one day, when he decided to attach three brass elephants to the hood, as ornaments. Then he got it into his head to cover the vehicle with brass coins, and he did just that – around $15,000 worth of coins, at the time he finished the job. From there on in, he just kept adding brass.

Mann, the current owner of the Brass van, says there are around 5,000 pieces of brass presently attached to his vehicle, weighing about 10,000 pounds. In fact, this car is so heavy, its tires have to be changed every 4,000 miles, and I don’t even want to think about the mileage…

As you would expect, Hunter Mann gets pulled over by police, about once every five days. Most of the officers just want to ask him about his Brass van and take photos with it. Even though he gets asked the same questions every time, Mann never gets tired of answering them.

When it’s not on tour, the Brass Van can be found at ArtCar World, a museum for art cars, in Douglas, Arizona. Just in case you were wondering about how much such a unique vehicle costs, the Brass van was appraised at $350,000.

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The designers of Parker Brothers Choppers have managed to turn the iconic CGI Tron Lightcycle into a real, rideable motorcycle.

While it may look impossible to ride in real life, Parker Brothers Choppers managed to create a real life replica able to reach speeds of up to 120 miles per hour. The 8-feet-long, 23-inches-wide and 215-kilograms-heavy masterpiece looks exactly like the space-age bike featured in Tron, it’s powered by a present day TL1000R motor that powers the chain driven friction drive system.

At first, the guys just wanted to see if they could build it, but as the videos of the build process they posted on YouTube went viral, it turned into a serious project. 800,000 people viewed the test drive of the Tron Lighcycle, and all the media coverage attracted the attention of Disney, who now wants to use the bike at promotional event for their new motion picture.

The real life Lightcycle is just a prototype, but Parker Brothers Choppers is currently working on another four lightcycles. Sadly, if you were thinking of buying one of these babies, you should know four of them are already spoken for, so that just leaves a single one for Tron fanboys to fight over. According to the Florida-based motorcycle manufacturer, a real life lightcycle sells for $55,000.

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2010 was an exceptional year for Red Bull Racing, with Sebastian Vettel scoring the first Formula One World Championship title, in Abu Dhabi. To celebrate the event, Red Bull has created a life-size Formula One car replica, out of Red Bull bottles. The unique artwork is on display at a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, and is made up of 2,615 bottles of Red Bull energy drink.

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Known as Dekotora, Decotora, or simply as Japanese art trucks, these incredible masterpieces on four wheels have become a symbol of Japan.

Dekotora is an abbreviation for “decoration truck”, and if you can say something about these trucks it’s that they are very decorated. That’s basically what defines the Dekotora art movement – adding as many decorations to your truck, as you possibly can, while keeping it operational. And making use of the ingenuity that defines the Japanese, they have been able to create some truly impressive rigs that blow your mind. Neon lights, flashy spoilers, manga and kabuki artworks are all part of a Dekotora artist’s arsenal, in his quest of creating the flashiest truck possible.

The Dekotora movement was born in 1975, when Toei released the first of its 10-movie series called “Trucker”, which featured a trucker who drove his overly-decorated truck all over Japan. The movie was a huge success, and people started tuning their own big rigs to resemble what they saw on screen. Dekotora truckers are very passionate about what they do, and money is no object when it comes to turning their vehicles into flashy masterpieces. They often form communities where they can show off their creations and interact with other art-truck enthusiasts. Most of them try to adorn the trucks with as many decorations as possible, while keeping them street legal, but there are those who go over the limit and create impressive Dekotora beasts that can only be admired in exhibitions.

There are three main Dekotora styles – Kansai, Kant and Retro, and starting with the late 1990s, the Gundam franchise has had a huge influence on the world of Dekotora. I guess the Japanese love robots and sci-fi,even when it comes to big flashy trucks.

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A Mazda Miata owner used a number of sharpies to give his favorite car some really cool-looking tattoos.

“Mighty” Mike Niemann of Team Miataka Racing spent 22 days and $100 in sharpies giving his 1992 Mazda Miata a radical new look. After carefully drawing the entire thing by hand, he added a clear coat so his impressive masterpiece doesn’t get ruined by the first falling rain drops.

Mike’s sharpie-painted Miata is definitely impressive, but it’s not the first sharpie-tattooed car. That probably goes to this gorgeous Lamborghini.

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