Genius Car Designer Builds 32ft Long 'Plane Car'
INGENIOUS car customiser Mark Ray has indulged his latest flight of fancy by building a brand new plane car. Mark is known for turning heads in his home town of Roswell, Georgia with his unusual car designs, having previously showcased a boat car and his fusion of a 2003 Cirrus SR22 plane with a Chevrolet Tracker. But since selling his original plane car and deciding he needed to go bigger for his next project, Mark has created an even more ambitious plane/car hybrid that measures an incredible 32ft long. Mark told R.Rides: “When people see the plane car they smile, they laugh, they point, they honk the horn, they are waving at me."
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Everybody I see that looks at my playing car is always smiling.
00:05 So it brings happiness to them and I love bringing happiness to people.
00:08 When you see something like this in front of you, it puts a smile on your face and that's what I'm all about.
00:28 My name is Mark Ray. I'm the builder, creator and developer of the playing car.
00:35 When people see the playing car, they smile, they laugh, they point, they honk the horn, they're waving at me.
00:47 And it's always the same question, "Does it fly?"
00:53 I said, "Unfortunately it doesn't because there's no wings."
00:56 What you're looking at is a GMC Sierra 2500 heavy duty, three-quarter ton pickup truck with a 1974 Cessna Ram aircraft.
01:15 It was a twin prop.
01:17 My playing car is 32 feet long and she's 12 feet tall in the rear to the top of the tail.
01:26 It's completely street legal. I've got headlights and tail lights and turn signals, side view mirrors, rear view mirror.
01:39 It has seat belts, it has a horn, it's got air conditioning, I've got stereo radio and I've got a backup camera.
01:48 So if I've got to go in reverse, I can see what's going on.
01:51 And as far as the way it drives, it drives great.
01:56 I've had a passion for cars since I was a child.
02:03 By the time I was 27, I already had owned 400 cars.
02:09 I'd buy them, fix them up, sell them, just loved them, just went through them like water.
02:14 This is the largest project I've ever had.
02:17 I removed the cab, all four doors, the roof, the windows, all that.
02:21 I'm very proud of this vehicle. It's a big accomplishment. It took me six months to build this.
02:30 When Mark first started building the car, it was just an extension of the kinds of things he's always done.
02:38 He has a lot of creativity and he had already built a boat car and a prior plane car.
02:44 So it wasn't too much of a surprise that he wanted to extend on that and build an even bigger plane car.
02:57 Obviously, on aircrafts, there is no door to get in and get out of on the passenger side.
03:04 It's always on the pilot side.
03:06 So I had this door fabricated with this step to get in and get out of.
03:12 It's got LED backup lights, which are really bright at night.
03:17 I've got my turn signals, I've got my brake lights, and I've installed a rear video camera.
03:25 I found the plane at a boneyard, which is like an auto salvage yard for aircraft.
03:32 The owner of the boneyard told me that this particular plane was just recently part of the set of the Black Panther movie.
03:41 So I've got a movie prop right here mounted on a GMC pickup truck.
03:47 So my plane car is a little famous.
03:54 We hop in, we spin around the neighborhood, we've been to events, we've been to car shows with it.
04:00 Here's the other door, the escape door, the escape hatch.
04:07 Here's my jet fuel. Had to find a place to put my gasoline in.
04:15 The hardest part of building this plane car was where to cut the floor and how high to mount the plane on top of the truck chassis
04:28 so that my passengers could get in and get out without bumping their heads.
04:34 I would say I spent anywhere from 8 to 10 hours a day for 6 months, Monday through Friday.
04:43 The attraction that this thing draws is incredible.
04:46 It's just so much fun. I mean, how do you not smile when you see something like this, you know?
04:52 I've been asked by people if ever I wanted to sell my plane car or my boat car.
04:59 And in the past I'd say no.
05:02 But then people come along and make me an offer I can't refuse.
05:06 So if the price was right, I would sell it.
05:11 And I'd probably just go out and build another one, bigger and larger.
05:16 Building this plane was a lot of fun.
05:22 It took a lot of imagination, a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of effort.
05:29 And I really had a blast building it.
05:33 It just rides down the road smoothly.
05:36 And I should say it flies down the road smoothly.
05:39 [Music]