There's no doubt that people love modifying their cars. The aftermarket tuning scene has never been bigger, and events like the yearly SEMA show draw hundreds of thousands of people to appreciate some of the craziest car builds in the world, but there are a select few who like to go even further. We've covered some crazy builds, and we've seen some insane engine swaps, but nothing comes close to being as stupid as this giant roller skate hot rod. Not even driving a GMC Hummer will make you look this dumb, but we live in America after all, and this creation is one of the reasons why this country is so great.
Seeing this giant roller skate car for the very first time must be the same sort of experience Raoul Duke must have enjoyed the first time he popped a tube of ether deep within the guts of some seedy Las Vegas casino. It's huge, obnoxious, and super cool. This crazy creation was cobbled together in the early 90s by legendary whacky car builder Jay Ohrberg, the same guy that's responsible for building the world's longest limousine, and other crazy contraptions.
This giant roller skate was built to pay tribute to classic TV show Mel's Diner, where all the waitresses used to wear the same type of roller skates. Al from the Volo Museum in Illinois found this bold piece of art tucked away in a barn and decided to give it a new lease on life.
The chassis of this roller skate was pieced together from random GM parts, features rack and pinion steering, and doesn't have any suspension to speak of. The small-block 350 V8 engine and transmission is all tucked away within the body of the skate, and drives the rear wheels via a chain. To get up to the driver's seat one has to go through two doors and climb a ladder. The body is built out of fiberglass, and the whole thing weighs about 2,800 lbs. The roller skate hotrod is 14 feet high and 13 feet long and has a maximum speed equal to that of a Mazda MX-5 Miata (20 mph).
A mean-looking scoop pokes out of the roller skate, and feeds cold air to the V8 engine, but with no real top speed to speak off, all one can do is rev up the engine and let those sweet side-exit exhaust do a bit of barking. All we know is this thing won't be doing any moose tests or Scandinavian flicks any time soon.