“It’s not for everyday driving, obviously,” Michael Manning says as he stands in front of the 100-foot-long (30.5-meter) car that he helped to restore.
It’s hard to disagree. After all, can you imagine trying to park this thing outside Walmart, or visiting a drive-thru, or attempting a three-point turn, or going just about anywhere in it?
Awkward driving maneuvers aside, the super-stretched limo, which comprises six Cadillac Eldorados, has just been awarded a Guinness World Record. We don’t need to tell you which one.
The American Dream, as it’s called, has 26 wheels and enough space to hold around 75 people. It includes a waterbed, a swimming pool with a diving board, a jacuzzi, a mini-golf course, and even a specially strengthened helipad. And yes, it has a working engine, too.
The creation of car collector and builder Jay Ohrberg, the automobile originally measured 60 feet (18.3 meters) when he built it in 1986.
Apparently considering it to be a little on the short side, Ohrberg later added another 40 feet (12.2. meters) to its length.
For reasons that aren’t immediately clear (though the inability to go anywhere in it may have been one of them), the absurdly long vehicle was eventually abandoned in a New Jersey warehouse.
A while later, Michael Manning, owner of a technical teaching museum in Nassau County, New York, spotted the car on eBay and decided to take it on as a restoration challenge.
But in 2019, a lack of funding resulted in Manning putting it back on eBay. The listing was spotted by Michael Dezer of Dezerland Park Car Museum in Orlando, Florida, who then bought The American Dream and invited Manning to become part of the restoration team.
First, they had to get the dilapidated car to Orlando, a process that involved splitting it into two pieces and loading them onto trailers for the long drive south.
After three years of work and costs totaling more than $250,000, the restoration job is now complete.
Manning and his team even added a tiny bit to the length of the vehicle to break The American Dream’s own record as the world’s longest car. It’s now on display in Orlando for visitors to enjoy.
As for the vehicle’s future, Manning appears keen to keep on going, saying, “Eventually we’re going to extend it.”
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