Do you remember your first car? No, not the one you got when you became a licensed driver. I’m talking about the red and yellow car that either you or someone you knew had when you were barely old enough to attend school.
Yes, the Little Tikes Crazy Coupe.
Was anyone else disappointed when they outgrew the childhood toy?
Sure, it might have been difficult to go fast, after all you could only go as fast as your little feet could carry you, but it definitely beat walking!
John and Geof Bitmead outgrew the Little Tikes car decades ago, but their size didn’t stop them from reliving childhood memories.
The Bitmead brothers built an adult-sized Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.
“I just thought, what a wonderful idea to make something like that, but real,” John told BBC in 2014. “And as soon as I thought of it, I knew the car.”
Their version of the iconic red and yellow car is street-legal modified Daewoo Matiz. The car runs on gas, is capable of going up to 70 miles per hour, has airbags, and like the original doesn’t have any windows.
“That was always going to be the main thing, I had to have no windows because that is absolutely what the toy is.”
The project reportedly took the brothers 1,000 hours to complete and cost several thousand dollars to complete.
Initially they hoped to use the car to raise money for charity, but when that fell through they listed the car for sale on eBay. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful at selling their car.
Even though they found it difficult to recoup their money, the brothers’ car brought a smile to anyone who saw the big red car on the road.
“They’re amazed to see the real thing on the road. I’ve seen people with tattoos all up their arms walking along the road just cheering at us,” Geof told the BBC.
“There was that kind of response to it. Everybody recognized it. It’s part of our life. We see these things in people’s front gardens, and now you can see it on the road.”
Share this article if you would drive a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.
