Pennsylvania Man Builds Giant Street Legal Replica of a Classic Bumper Car

Dan Hryhorcoff of Justus, Pennsylvania, used his down time during the COVID shutdown to build a gorgeous giant street-legal replica of a classic bumper car, specifically a Lusse Auto Skooter from 1953.

I just decided I wanted to build a car. I’m not an artist. I can’t come up with my own design so I copied something and uh I wrote them. When we were kids and people still do they all enjoy them and it looks like a car close enough anyway that I could get it legal on the road.

Hryhorcoff consulted with Knoebels, a local amusement park in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, to find out the specifications for the project. He also used the engine from a Chevy Aveo to power the bumper car.

I went to Knoebels and took a lot of the measurements and pictures. I made templates and came back and formed each piece out of styrofoam and then made a mold and I made the parts. It’s all fiberglass parts. ….I started out with a Chevy Aveo for the back end of it. …then I bought a motorcycle front end there’s a single motorcycle wheel in the front and that allows it to make a really tight turn so it’s registered as a three-wheel trike.