Quirky car designer Mark Ray is flying high on America's roads - driving a converted light aeroplane. The 56-year-old was the brains behind the Plane Car, a fusion of a 2003 Cirrus SR22 and a Chevrolet Tracker - costing $10,000 (£6,500). Mark, of Atlanta, Georgia, who owns a paper shredding company, was already turning heads in a homemade Boat Car, which made headlines earlier this year. But his daughter Brianna, 17, thought he was getting bored with it and encouraged him to start a new project. It took five months to build with Steve West of Flex-Fab, Mike Rivera of Rivera's Upholstery and Brandon Geddings of Controlled Motors.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 People look in the rear view mirror and they see an airplane and they start panicking.
00:05 The plane car is the brainchild of 56 year old Atlanta resident Mark Ray, who has previously built a roadworthy boat car.
00:20 My 17 year old daughter Brianna encouraged me to build something else because she said that I was kind of getting bored with the boat car, which is still a very unusual vehicle, but I came up with the idea of building a plane car.
00:34 The vehicle was constructed from a Chevrolet Tracker and a 2003 Cirrus SR22.
00:40 The Cirrus was perfect for me, it was just perfect and the aircraft luckily enough has a fiberglass body which makes it a little bit lighter weight but much more durable than your average aluminum aircraft.
00:54 Despite having a vision for his project, Mark was happy to let others do the hard work.
01:05 I'm not the type of individual that gets their hands real dirty and involved in ripping metal and cutting things and whatever.
01:13 I'd rather come up with the idea, write the check and then have the vehicle when it's done.
01:19 I went to a body shop and he took the entire body off, it was a coming collision where I live.
01:26 Then I went to another shop, FlexFab, also in my area. They fabricated the two together to make it one.
01:33 The next challenge was to make his creation road legal.
01:37 I put on side view mirrors, tail lights, it has headlights, it has a rear view mirror, it's got a tag light, it's got seat belts and yes it's passed emissions.
01:49 The tail used to come out another 15 or 20 inches, I had to cut that back so that the vehicle would be able to be driven down the street without ripping into other cars along the road.
02:01 And Mark carried out the finishing touches to the plane car himself.
02:05 When I did get the vehicle finished, I painted it myself and I striped it and decaled it myself.
02:11 This vehicle took me about five months to put together, it cost me a little under $10,000.
02:16 Despite the vehicle's unique look, it still acts as a family run around.
02:21 I take my son to school in it and school goes crazy. All the people just go nuts when I show up with that airplane.
02:28 I have a good time, we go out for dinner in it, we come outside and there's a full crowd of people and I have to answer a ton of questions about the plane.
02:37 But that's part of the game, you have an unusual vehicle, you've got to answer a lot of questions.
02:42 But I really do like it a lot and I'm going to enjoy it and pass this one down to probably my son.
02:48 But Mark could be persuaded to part with his unusual mode of transport.
02:52 I've had a few people ask if it was for sale, I told them not right now, but if the right price was offered to me, I'd sell it.
03:00 Maybe, maybe, money talks.
03:03 [Music]