12.03.2015

THE VW PEA CAR STORY


The VW Pea (sorry, you can't buy one - it was commissioned by Bird's Eye for a commercial) It started out as a VW Microbus, but was modified into a pea.

The Pea car first appeared in a Birds Eye television advertisement in December 2005.

London-based special effects company, Asylum, took six weeks to build the car using a heavily modified chassis from an off-road go-kart fitted with a Honda engine.



Weighing just 750kg, it was capable of 50mph/80.47kph even though it had no gears. Whilst bearing a Volkswagen resemblance, only the headlights were sourced from a beetle. The indicators are of lancia origin, wing mirrors from a specialist shop and all other parts were made to order.


The advert showed the car driving straight from the farmer's field but slowly losing its body parts along the road. The car reaches its destination as just a bare chassis. Then from the back of a refrigerated lorry emerges a brand new pea car. A voice over narrates how vegetables lose vitamins from the moment they are picked whereas Birds Eye peas are immediately frozen thus retaining essential vitamins.”


Pea Car took 6 weeks to build

Pea Car was the brainchild of Matt Waller and Dave Monk, a creative team at advertising agency BBH

The Pea Car concept was then brought to life by the brand team of Muriel MacCallum and Sofia Costa at Birds Eye

Pea Car weighs about 750kg

Pea Car has no gears

Pea Car was based on the chassis of an off-road go-kart that was heavily modified for the purposes for the tv spot

The head-lamps came from a VW Beetle

The wing-mirrors came from a specialist shop

The indicators came from a Lancia



The green paint of the pea car is pantone  369c

The maximum speed of Pea Car is approximately 50 mph

Pea Car is not legal to drive on the roads - all roads used on the shoot were closed off to other traffic.

A stunt driver was used to drive Pea Car

Pea Car had no working doors so the driver has to be secured into the car

Pea Car had 12 panels that were specifically built to come off, including doors and the boot.

All the hub-caps could come off, the sun roof and rear bumper as well as the wing mirror and the exhaust

Pea Car is now on display at the Unilever Ice cream and Frozen Foods Co. in Walton on Thames

1 comment:

zephyr said...

Thank you Kimmer these cars have fascinated me since I seen a picture of it awhile ago I think they are amazing

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