A YouTuber armed with a 1988 Ford Festiva and a workshop filled with lasers might have created the world’s thinnest street-legal automotive—-though it required some severe work to get it there. Tyler Fever, who runs the YouTube channel Prop Division, took the already tiny Festiva and chopped it to items, finally making a roughly shopping-cart-sized contraption that resembles one thing out of The Flintstones. One way or the other, Fever even managed to suit two seats into that tiny automobile. Extra surprisingly nonetheless, he claims he managed to get the little demise lure totally insured.
All of this, he says, was a part of an effort to make what calls the world’s “most pathetic automotive” much more ridiculous.
“We’re going to make it even smaller and extra pathetic trying,” Fever says within the video.
I Constructed the THINNEST Road Authorized Automotive
Making a tiny automotive even tinier
Even unmodified, the Festiva actually isn’t massive. When it was launched in mid-1987, it was already one of many smallest mass-produced automobiles ever constructed. It wasn’t precisely a success, both. The automotive was discontinued within the Americas in 1993, however lived on in different markets. Nonetheless, its tiny stature makes it an amazing base for constructing a ludicrously skinny automotive.
To begin, Fever stripped out all the inside of the automotive, leaving solely its empty husk. A part of that undeniably cathartic course of concerned utilizing a tank of liquid nitrogen to freeze cussed components and make them simpler to interrupt off. Then, utilizing a robust metallic laser and a CNC cutter, he and his crew sliced the automotive straight down the center. The lasers had been so highly effective that they ended up chopping clear by means of the metallic and continued into the bottom under. Evidently, assume twice earlier than attempting this at dwelling.
It grew to become clear early on that the Festiva’s authentic engine wouldn’t match within the slimmed-down mannequin. To repair that, Fever eliminated it and changed it with a motor from a robust electrical grime bike. That had the additional benefit of not simply being compact but additionally providing a chargeable battery. However the tiny new kind issue shortly launched different unexpected issues. Most evident, the shrunken body meant the steering wheel was impeding Fever’s capacity to make use of the brake pedal. That was solved by taking a noticed and easily chopping the steering wheel in half, leaving a futuristic half-wheel harking back to what you’d discover in some Tesla fashions. Even minimize, Fever nonetheless needed to barely shimmy and duck each time he tried to show the automotive.
Fever additionally wanted to revamp the dashboard to make sure the automotive could possibly be thought-about avenue authorized. He customized 3D-printed brackets for the lights, mirrors, and different security options, then powered these parts utilizing a 12 volt battery. That battery was robust sufficient to run the headlamps and horn, and even managed to juice a pair of cellphone chargers.
Once they reassembled the 2 halves of the automotive, the crew was left with one thing cramped, however not a lot that it was undrivable. They even included a tiny area straight behind the motive force the place a passenger, on this case Fever’s cameraman, might crouch.
After a number of extra exams and a vivid yellow paint job, it was time to take the automotive out for a drive round Nashville, Tennessee. Virtually instantly, the tiny automotive began turning heads. Fever drove it on public roads, took it to a fuel station, and even drove over a serious bridge coming into downtown Nashville with none challenge.
Regardless of being hacked collectively in solely a few weeks, it appeared to drive remarkably properly. The automotive additionally proved remarkably adept at maneuvering and parking within the metropolis’s generally traffic-packed areas. In a single clip, Fever may be seen taking the Festiva up a parking storage ramp and nestling it between a Jeep and a sports activities automotive. And whereas it undoubtedly isn’t probably the most sensible alternative for getting round city, Fever says the truth that it managed to drive in any respect counts as a win.
“This was a profitable venture I feel,” Fever stated. “I’m really blown away by how properly it drives on the road and everybody loves it.”
2025 PopSci Better of What’s New
