00:01Everybody I see that looks at my plane car is always smiling, so it brings happiness to them, and I love bringing happiness to people.
00:08When you see something like this in front of you, it puts a smile on your face, and that's what I'm all about.
00:14My name is Mark Ray. I'm the builder, creator, and developer of The Plane Car.
00:34When people see The Plane Car, they smile, they laugh, they point, they honk the horn, they're waving at me, and it's always the same question, does it fly?
00:53I said, unfortunately, it doesn't, because there's no wings.
00:56What you're looking at is a GMC Sierra 2500 heavy-duty, three-quarter-ton pickup truck with a 1974 Cessna Ram aircraft.
01:15It was a twin prop.
01:18My plane car is 32 feet long, and she's 12 feet tall in the rear to the top of the tail.
01:26It's completely street-legal.
01:32I've got headlights and taillights and turn signals, side-view mirrors, rear-view mirror.
01:40It has seatbelts. It has a horn.
01:44It's got air conditioning. I've got stereo radio, and I've got a backup camera, so if I've got to go in reverse, I can see what's going on.
01:52And as far as the way it drives, it drives great.
01:56I've had a passion for cars since I was a child.
02:03By the time I was 27, I already had owned 400 cars.
02:09I'd buy them, fix them up, sell them, just loved them, just went through them like water.
02:13This is the largest project I've ever had.
02:17I removed the cab, all four doors, the roof, the windows, all that.
02:21I'm very proud of this vehicle. It's a big accomplishment. It took me six months to build this.
02:30When Mark first started building the car, it was just an extension of the kinds of things he's always done.
02:38He has a lot of creativity, and he had already built a boat car and a prior plane car, so it wasn't too much of a surprise that he wanted to extend on that and build an even bigger plane car.
02:52Obviously, on aircrafts, there is no door to get in and get out of on the passenger side.
03:04It's always on the pilot side, so I had this door fabricated with this step to get in and get out of.
03:12It's got LED backup lights, which are really bright at night.
03:17I've got my turn signals. I've got my brake lights, and I've installed a rear video camera.
03:24I found the plane at a boneyard, which is like an auto salvage yard for aircraft.
03:32The owner of the boneyard told me that this particular plane was just recently part of the set of the Black Panther movie.
03:41So I've got a movie prop right here mounted on a GMC pickup truck.
03:47So my plane car is a little famous.
03:50We hop in, we spin around the neighborhood.
03:56We've been to events, we've been to car shows with it.
04:02Here's the other door, the escape door, the escape hatch.
04:06Here's my jet fuel.
04:08Had to find a place to put my gasoline in.
04:10The 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
04:27so that my passengers could get in and get out without bumping their heads.
04:33I would say I spent anywhere from 8 to 10 hours a day for 6 months, Monday through Friday.
04:43The attraction that this thing draws is incredible.
04:46It's just so much fun.
04:48I mean, how do you not smile when you see something like this, you know?
04:51I've been asked by people if ever I wanted to sell my plane car or my boat car, and in the past I'd say no.
05:02But then people come along and make me an offer I can't refuse.
05:06So if the price was right, I would sell it.
05:10And I'd probably just go out and build another one, bigger and larger.
05:19Building this plane was a lot of fun.
05:22It took a lot of imagination.
05:25A lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of effort.
05:30And I really had a blast building it.
05:33It just rides down the road smoothly.
05:36And I should say it flies down the road smoothly.
05:41And I'll be right back.
05:45And we'll see you next time.
05:49And I'll see you next time.
05:50Bye-bye.
Comments