QUIRKY car designer Mark Ray is flying high on America's roads - driving a converted light aeroplane. Mark was the brains behind the Plane Car, a fusion of a 2003 Cirrus SR22 and a Chevrolet Tracker - costing $10,000. Mark, of Atlanta, Georgia, who owns a paper shredding company, was already turning heads in a homemade Boat Car, which made headlines earlier this year. But his daughter Brianna, 17, thought he was getting bored with it and encouraged him to start a new project. It took five months to build with Steve West of Flex-Fab, Mike Rivera of Rivera's Upholstery and Brandon Geddings of Controlled Motors.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 00;01;10;12 00;01;12;22 People look in the rear view mirror and they see an airplane
00:03 and they start panicking.
00:07 00;01;12;22 00;01;17;22 The plane car is the brainchild of 56 year old Atlanta resident
00:17 Mark Ray, who has previously built a road worthy boat car.
00:20 00;01;17;22 00;01;21;22 My 17 year old daughter Brianna encouraged me to build something else
00:24 because she said that I was kind of getting bored with the boat car, which is still a
00:29 very unusual vehicle, but I came up with the idea of building a plane car.
00:34 00;01;21;22 00;01;29;22 The vehicle was constructed from a Chevrolet Tracker and a 2003 Cirrus
00:39 SR22.
00:40 00;01;29;22 00;01;36;22 The Cirrus was perfect for me, it was just perfect and the aircraft
00:45 luckily enough has a fiberglass body, which makes it a little bit lighter weight, but
00:50 much more durable than your average aluminum aircraft.
00:56 00;01;36;22 00;01;50;22 Despite having a vision for his project, Mark was happy to let others
01:04 do the hard work.
01:05 00;01;50;22 00;01;54;22 I'm not the type of individual that gets their hands real dirty
01:10 and involved in ripping metal and cutting things and whatever.
01:13 00;01;54;22 00;02;00;22 I'd rather come up with the idea, write the check and then have the
01:18 vehicle when it's done.
01:19 00;02;00;22 00;02;04;22 I went to a body shop and he took the entire body off.
01:24 It was a common collision where I live.
01:26 00;02;04;22 00;02;08;22 Then I went to another shop, FlexFab, also in my area.
01:30 They fabricated the two together to make it one.
01:33 00;02;08;22 00;02;14;22 The next challenge was to make his creation road legal.
01:36 00;02;14;22 00;02;18;22 I put on side view mirrors, tail lights, it has headlights, has a rear
01:44 view mirror, it's got a tag light, it's got seat belts and yes it's passed emissions.
01:48 00;02;18;22 00;02;25;22 The tail used to come out another, I'd say 15 or 20 inches.
01:53 I had to cut that back so that the vehicle would be able to be driven down the street
01:58 without ripping into other cars along the road.
02:00 00;02;25;22 00;02;30;22 And Mark carried out the finishing touches to the plane car himself.
02:04 00;02;30;22 00;02;36;22 When I did get the vehicle finished, I painted it myself and
02:09 I striped it and decaled it myself.
02:11 00;02;36;22 00;02;40;22 This vehicle took me about five months to put together.
02:14 It cost me a little under $10,000.
02:16 00;02;40;22 00;02;45;22 Despite the vehicle's unique look, it still acts as a family run
02:20 around.
02:21 00;02;45;22 00;02;50;22 I take my son to school in it and the school goes crazy.
02:26 All the people just go nuts when I show up with that airplane.
02:28 00;02;50;22 00;02;54;22 And I have a good time.
02:30 We go out for dinner in it.
02:31 We come outside and there's a full crowd of people and I have to answer a ton of questions
02:36 about the plane, but that's, you know, that's part of the game.
02:39 00;02;54;22 00;03;00;00 You have an unusual vehicle, you got to answer a lot of questions,
02:42 but I really do like it a lot and I'm going to enjoy it and pass this one down to probably
02:47 my son.
02:48 00;03;00;00 00;03;05;00 But Mark could be persuaded to part with his unusual mode of transport.
02:52 I've had a few people ask if it was for sale.
02:55 I told them not right now, but if the right price was offered to me, I'd sell it.
03:00 Maybe, maybe.
03:02 Money talks.
03:03 [music]