Speaker 1: I guess what, well, what's that mango? So you know Carhart, right,
Speaker 1: like the pants company, the pants guy. I think they
Speaker 1: do more than just pants, right, like all kinds of clothing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I know the company. Yeah, so I think
Speaker 1: of them as this sort of workman brand, and I
Speaker 1: was looking up the business. It is fascinating. So Carhart
Speaker 1: was founded in Detroit in late eighteen hundreds by this
Speaker 1: guy named Hamilton Carhart. He launched his clothing brand with
Speaker 1: just two song machines and five employees, but as his
Speaker 1: business grew, he really got enamored with this whole startup
Speaker 1: scene in Detroit, and in he actually started manufacturing cars
Speaker 1: under the car Heart brand. How in the world you
Speaker 1: go from making like pants and stuff like that to
Speaker 1: making cars? So they actually made cars. Yeah, But the
Speaker 1: weirdest part is that the vehicles weren't made for the
Speaker 1: same audience as his clothing. Like the company had this
Speaker 1: showroom at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, which
Speaker 1: is so fancy, and they really set out to appeal
Speaker 1: to the aristocracy. So when um fancy dignitaries royalty came
Speaker 1: from abroad like car Hard, cars were actually sent to
Speaker 1: meet them at the pier and escort them to the hotel.
Speaker 1: Why have I not heard this before? I know I
Speaker 1: was thinking the same thing. But the company only made
Speaker 1: a few models and in business was so bad that
Speaker 1: Hamilton's decided to close it up. But you know, according
Speaker 1: to the Automotive Hall of Fame, less than five car
Speaker 1: hard cars were built in total, and none are known
Speaker 1: to exist today. None. But that's just the first of
Speaker 1: nine great stories you've got about cars today. Let's dig
Speaker 1: in y hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend man Gush Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof
Speaker 1: glass reading the golden book he got off of eBay.
Speaker 1: It's called Tristan flash it over here it's called Herbie
Speaker 1: gets a Special Friend. And man, he is truly invested
Speaker 1: in this book. He's been reading this thing for hours now.
Speaker 1: That's our friend, that producer, Tristan McNeil. I love that
Speaker 1: it takes some hours to read a golden book. And
Speaker 1: speaking of Herbie, did you actually watch those movies growing up?
Speaker 1: I mean I might have watched them, I have to
Speaker 1: be honest. I remember kind of a little bit about them,
Speaker 1: but not that much. I don't remember that much about him,
Speaker 1: so I do remember watching them and loving him. And
Speaker 1: you know, we're always looking for the kind of classic
Speaker 1: Disney movies for a movie night with our kids, and
Speaker 1: for some reason, Henry and Ruby refused to watch it.
Speaker 1: And it kills me. I mean, I think that they
Speaker 1: only have like enough love for cars from the movie
Speaker 1: Cars in their hearts. But uh, you know that didn't
Speaker 1: stop me from looking up a fact about the movie
Speaker 1: for this episode. So did you know that the VW
Speaker 1: Bug wasn't actually the initial choice to be Herbie. I mean,
Speaker 1: it seems like the obvious choice because it actually looks
Speaker 1: like it has a face. But now I wasn't aware
Speaker 1: of that, So that's what I was thinking too, And
Speaker 1: I just assumed the movie was written with the Volkswagen
Speaker 1: Beetle in mind. But apparently the cars had to audition
Speaker 1: for the role, and according to the l A Times,
Speaker 1: about a dozen cars, including Toyotas, Volvo's MGS Fiats and
Speaker 1: a Pearl White Beetle audition for the role of Herbie.
Speaker 1: So apparently the crew came by, they kicked the tires,
Speaker 1: they checked out the steering and testro of the models,
Speaker 1: but when they walked up to Herbie, they actually couldn't
Speaker 1: help but pat and stroke the parked bug, Like that's
Speaker 1: how the decision was made. They just fell in love
Speaker 1: with the thing. And you know, we grew up with
Speaker 1: a white box e Volvo that was our family car
Speaker 1: for like seventeen or eighteen years. And I am curious,
Speaker 1: like if a Volvo had been in that starring role
Speaker 1: and had gone bananas and gone to Mark Monte Carlo,
Speaker 1: like if people would have embraced the movies with the
Speaker 1: same figure. Maybe so well, I mean, I know, Herbie
Speaker 1: was obviously a car who got by on his charm.
Speaker 1: But I've actually got a story about a car that's
Speaker 1: basely the opposite. Now. That was James Dean's Porsche, which
Speaker 1: also went by the nickname Little Bastard, and boy did
Speaker 1: it earn this nickname. So after Dean died in an
Speaker 1: accident and it it was sold for its parts, and
Speaker 1: basically it sounds like the car revolted against this. According
Speaker 1: to a Mental Flaws article, it fell and crushed a
Speaker 1: mechanic's legs. And then here I'm actually just going to
Speaker 1: quote the piece because it's pretty ridiculous. So it says
Speaker 1: a doctor who bought the engine was killed in a
Speaker 1: car accident. Another victim who bought the transmission was severely
Speaker 1: injured in a crash. The tire sold from Little Bastard
Speaker 1: blew out, simultaneously injuring the buyer. While the shell of
Speaker 1: the car was being transported, the truck carrying it crashed.
Speaker 1: Thieves were injured trying to steal the car. The car
Speaker 1: was even lended to a highway safety exhibit in which
Speaker 1: the garage that housed the car burned down in a fire.
Speaker 1: Like you can't make this stuff up. And of course
Speaker 1: now the location of the car is completely unknown. I
Speaker 1: guess nobody wants to know that they have any part
Speaker 1: of this. I love the idea that this car is
Speaker 1: like so gangster. It also feels like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just hiding out on a beach with Elvis and Tupac
Speaker 1: kind of drinking and telling war stories. You know, are wonderful.
Speaker 1: Researcher Eves found me this next story. And actually I
Speaker 1: forgot to mention this, but this is actually Eves Jeff
Speaker 1: COT's last episode helping us with nine Things, So we
Speaker 1: should take a second to thank her. That's right. She's
Speaker 1: gonna be helping launch and shape some new shows here
Speaker 1: at how stuff works. Well, it should be a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. But anyway you were saying, yeah, so Eves
Speaker 1: found the story about the Nature Mobile. It was invented
Speaker 1: in two thousand nine, and basically it's a Flintstone's car,
Speaker 1: but it's powered by a horse, like a like a
Speaker 1: carriage or what uh kind of. So here's a description. Basically,
Speaker 1: this Iranian engineer put a horse on a treadmill, and
Speaker 1: he put this treadmill inside a box on wheels. So
Speaker 1: basically the driver and the passenger are sitting up front,
Speaker 1: the horse in the back, and to get it to move,
Speaker 1: you switch the treadmill on and wait for the horse
Speaker 1: to just start trotting. And I don't understand anything about this.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't you just ride a horse instead? That's a
Speaker 1: good question. But it's got twenty years. It goes up
Speaker 1: to twenty eight miles per hour, and like an electric car,
Speaker 1: the movement and the breaks kind of recharged the treadmill's battery.
Speaker 1: For anyone who's concerned about the horse though, and I
Speaker 1: do think we should all be concerned for this horse.
Speaker 1: The engineer wants to assure you that he spent more
Speaker 1: than two years adding things on to make the horse comfortable.
Speaker 1: So apparently there's this cold water jacket that gets applied
Speaker 1: to the horse so it doesn't overheat. There's a bag
Speaker 1: that collects the horses emissions as he puts it, and
Speaker 1: it cleanly stores the waist under the treadmill. And they're
Speaker 1: actually photos of this thing in the Guardian. It is
Speaker 1: completely transparent so people can see the horse and it's
Speaker 1: kind of beautiful actually, but it isn't made for roads
Speaker 1: and highways. It's supposedly more of a way to get
Speaker 1: around villages, which you know, brings me back to the
Speaker 1: same point, like, why don't you just ride the horse? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not sure why this one didn't take off.
Speaker 1: This is a really interesting idea. But well, here's a
Speaker 1: crazy one I just learned about, and it's more of
Speaker 1: a way to soup up your car. But it's called
Speaker 1: the bolster and it was designed by this engineer named
Speaker 1: Charles Foury in South Africa, and the bolster was a
Speaker 1: way to protect yourself against carjackings, which were happening with
Speaker 1: some frequency in Johannesburg at the time. That this was created.
Speaker 1: So tell me what does the bolster do? Well? Just wait,
Speaker 1: for only seven hundred dollars, you get a pair of
Speaker 1: nozzles that pointed out from underneath your car, and if
Speaker 1: you felt unsafe, you could hit this small foot button,
Speaker 1: you hit the gas pedal and then massive flames would
Speaker 1: shoot out from under your car. So it's basically a
Speaker 1: flamethrower for your car for only seven hundred bucks Manga.
Speaker 1: So do they sell well despite that very reasonable price?
Speaker 1: In my opinion, apparently not. Just a few hundred of
Speaker 1: these things were sold and the company unfortunately went out
Speaker 1: of business, and supposedly there are still a few cars
Speaker 1: in South Africa that have these things attached to them though,
Speaker 1: So just a warning to any would be carjackers in
Speaker 1: Johannesburg who also happened to listen to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: It's good to know and I'm glad you were thinking
Speaker 1: about then. So have you seen those bikes in Panama
Speaker 1: that are completely kidded out? I don't think so. So
Speaker 1: they're just like bicycles and this idea of the bolster
Speaker 1: just remind me of them because they have these uh
Speaker 1: outrageous modifications on them, like They've got sirens and air
Speaker 1: horns and boom boxes. Some have like vending stalls in
Speaker 1: front of them, a giant sculptural artworks. It's really amazing.
Speaker 1: But you know, I could see some of these having
Speaker 1: flamethrowers as well. Yeah, they need to take it to
Speaker 1: the next level, all right, So where do you want
Speaker 1: to go from here? So how about covering a guy
Speaker 1: named Houdina, which I know sounds like Houdini, but it
Speaker 1: is not, though it is equally magical in this guy,
Speaker 1: Francis Houdina designed a driverless car and this is in ninety.
Speaker 1: Basically he had an antent on top and a second
Speaker 1: car behind the driver of this car maneuvering it so
Speaker 1: you could like blow the horns, which gears turned the
Speaker 1: wheel all from the second car. And while this doesn't
Speaker 1: seem that amazing now, was obviously a huge deal. And
Speaker 1: so there's some New York Times reporting on it, and
Speaker 1: this is our quote. It was as if a phantom
Speaker 1: hand were at the wheel. So they were pretty enamored
Speaker 1: with it, and very smartly Hudna sat in the passenger
Speaker 1: seat of this driver of this car the first time
Speaker 1: his ghost car took a drive, just in case he
Speaker 1: needed to take the wheel, and apparently he definitely needed
Speaker 1: to take the wheel. So here's what Jelapnick says about
Speaker 1: it and the first ride through New York City. Quote
Speaker 1: the radio car Korean from left or right down Broadway,
Speaker 1: around Columbus Circle and south on Fifth Avenue, almost running
Speaker 1: down two trucks and a milk wagon, which took to
Speaker 1: the curbs for safe At st Judina lunged for the
Speaker 1: steering wheel, but could not prevent the car from crashing
Speaker 1: into the fender of an automobile filled with cameraman. It
Speaker 1: was at forty three Street that a crash into a
Speaker 1: fire engine was barely averted. The police advised Judina to
Speaker 1: postpone his experiments. So what happened then, Like did the
Speaker 1: car ever go under production? And I guess Judina kept
Speaker 1: working on improvements and taking his car on tour. They're like, um,
Speaker 1: there's this report from Virginia and the thirties. It called
Speaker 1: the car one of the most amazing modern spectacles that
Speaker 1: people have ever seen. And this car keeps quietly surfacing
Speaker 1: in other places. But I do think like World War
Speaker 1: two and uh, the drying up of funds might have
Speaker 1: put a damper on that research. I still can't get
Speaker 1: over this name. Like this, this magical car is invented
Speaker 1: by somebody named Houdina. But is there what you're saying?
Speaker 1: There's there's no relation to Houdini, So that's what I
Speaker 1: thought initially, and then I looked more into it, and
Speaker 1: apparently there's a story there too. So apparently Harry Houdini
Speaker 1: hated Houdina and he stormed into the Houdina Company and
Speaker 1: tried to get them to change their name. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't just because he thought they were in fringeing on
Speaker 1: his name to sell us possessed car. It was more
Speaker 1: because he was irritated that his mail was actually ending
Speaker 1: up at the wrong address. Like he was just baffled
Speaker 1: that the mail was going to the wrong place and
Speaker 1: he was upset about it. So in the end, he
Speaker 1: was just really annoyed that he could make the Houdina
Speaker 1: Company disappear. All right, Well, speaking of remote control cars,
Speaker 1: did you realize they actually use remote control cars in
Speaker 1: the Olympics during the track and field events? No? I
Speaker 1: had never heard that, And apparently this has been happening
Speaker 1: since at least the two thousand eight Olympics. But Obviously,
Speaker 1: the worst part of shot put, javelin and the hammer
Speaker 1: throwing is having to go retrieve your shot put javelin
Speaker 1: or hammer, and the remote control cars can do just that.
Speaker 1: There were these beautiful and apparently very pricey little vehicles,
Speaker 1: and one thing they aren't though, is self driving. So
Speaker 1: a track official guides of the car to the javelin
Speaker 1: to be picked up for this very official reason, And
Speaker 1: when one shot putter said she wanted to buy one
Speaker 1: and hope to test drive it on the field, the
Speaker 1: officials said it was too expensive to let her take
Speaker 1: it for a spin. I mean, that's so ridiculous. It's
Speaker 1: just a remote control car. But I mean, is there
Speaker 1: one auto manufacturer or like toy company who's responsible for
Speaker 1: making these? There might be, but the Olympic rules actually
Speaker 1: prevent any logos or sponsorship. So even though one set
Speaker 1: of rcs looked a little bit like many coopers and
Speaker 1: another look like pickup trucks, no one really knows who
Speaker 1: makes them. That's pretty fun. Well, you know, I know,
Speaker 1: we've got two more facts to go, but before we
Speaker 1: get to them, let's take a quick break. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius, where we're talking cars. So I
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out what my last fact should be,
Speaker 1: and I've got a bunch of short ones and honestly
Speaker 1: just can't pick among these mango So you know, my
Speaker 1: take with this is always just to real them off.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, here are some of the things that
Speaker 1: I just thought were so interesting. Jaguar cars used to
Speaker 1: be called SS cars, but changed their name because of
Speaker 1: the Nazi Association. Really why Yeah, apparently they used to
Speaker 1: specialize just in motorcycle side cars, so the original name
Speaker 1: of the company was Swallow Side Car Company. That's where
Speaker 1: the SS comes from. But in the forties they changed
Speaker 1: their name for obvious reasons. Yeah, that makes sense. So
Speaker 1: what else you got? Well, Mazda had to recall cars
Speaker 1: once because of spiders. Apparently they were called about a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand M six sedans because yellow sack spiders loved
Speaker 1: the smell of the gasoline so much that they'd climb
Speaker 1: into the engines and block event with the webs that
Speaker 1: they'd weave, which sounds impossible but I guess it's true.
Speaker 1: So they actually had to recall them twice. But I
Speaker 1: think my favorite story I stumbled into is about the
Speaker 1: law marquises and it's a car from eight eight four.
Speaker 1: It was creative for the Count de Dion, and basically
Speaker 1: it's a steam car and it runs on coal, wood
Speaker 1: and bits of paper, and it takes the car about
Speaker 1: half an hour to really rev up, but then it
Speaker 1: can actually cruise at about thirty eight miles an hour.
Speaker 1: And you should note the verb in the tents that
Speaker 1: I use there, that's can cruise. Because even though the
Speaker 1: car won the world's first automobile race back in eighties seven,
Speaker 1: it was last sold in two thousand eleven for four
Speaker 1: point six million dollars and apparently has the distinction of
Speaker 1: being the oldest known running automobile. Oh that's really cool.
Speaker 1: That's still runs. You know, I actually had a story
Speaker 1: about Sarah Kanigg and her dad who supposedly wrote the
Speaker 1: super famous Volkswagen Lemon newspaper ads. You know, it's a
Speaker 1: great bit of Madman history. But actually want to save
Speaker 1: that story, it's so good for another time and just
Speaker 1: give you today's t man. What a tease you're leaving
Speaker 1: us with that, U. That is a good one that
Speaker 1: we'll have to get to that well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Eaves for all her wonderful facts. We
Speaker 1: wish her the best of luck, but we're excited to
Speaker 1: see everything she does here at House Stuff Works, and
Speaker 1: as always, thanks so much for listening. We'll be back
Speaker 1: with a full length episode tomorrow. M