Wouldn’t it be great to have a car-companion that simply radiates warmth on a cold, cold winter’s day? Well, Pascal Prokop has just that, except his companion isn’t human. While most people complain about the cold, this guy from Switzerland actually decided to do something about it by putting a stove in his car – a real, wood-burning stove, complete with a chimney and everything.

The sight of Prokop driving his 1990 Volvo 240 station wagon around the streets of Mettmenstetten, a town 25km south of Zurich, is a strange and funny one. With the chimney sticking up about 2m above the roof, the car looks like it’s smoking, and the effect produced is kind of cartoonish. To Prokop however, this doesn’t matter one bit, since he’s warm and happy. Temperatures across Europe have been declining steadily, especially in the past couple of weeks. So Prokop came up with the ultimate heating solution. He simply removed the passenger seat in the Volvo and replaced it with an oven, the perfect passenger. He feeds the oven occasionally with wood sticks and in turn it keeps him nice and warm all the time. Prokop likes it so much inside his car that he sometimes ends up spending the night too, mostly when he’s tired or has had too much to drink.

Photo © REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Of course, there have been concerns regarding the safety of the smoking vehicle. Prokop needed to get permissions from the Swiss Technical Inspection Authority to be able to drive it on the streets. It wasn’t an easy job, as officials weren’t enthusiastic about his little project at first. But when they saw that he was ready to make any changes they asked for, they realized he was actually serious about his idea. Prokop’s oven-car is now officially registered as a “Sedan with a wood oven.” To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t mind a car like his at all, if I lived in such a cold place. Heck, I wouldn’t even say no to a few roasted marshmallows as long as I’m inside.

via National Post