Feel Like You’re Driving A Real-Life Hot Wheels Car With This Automecca Sports Van ‘Brubaker Box’
BY COLLIN WOODARD SEPT. 16, 2025 5:27 PM EST
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Hyundai is doing its best with cars like the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, but sadly, even those cars aren’t truly insane. They’re real cars that are generally pretty practical, while just so happening to look a little different than the rest of their competitors. If you want something that looks like a real-life Hot Wheels car, you’re going to have to get a little more creative. Like buying this Automecca Sports Van that’s currently for sale on Bring a Trailer. I mean, just look at it. Now that’s a wild design.
Also known as the Brubaker Box (after the original designer, Curtis Brubaker), the Automecca Sports Van was built on an old Volkswagen Beetle chassis, looked like a spaceship on wheels and only had a single sliding door on the passenger side. Is it the most practical design ever? Not at all, but it looks cool as hell, and sometimes, sacrifices must be made in the name of fashion. It’s also only powered by an old Volkswagen 1.6-liter flat-four, so it definitely isn’t quick (even if the listing says the engine was rebuilt in 2022), but are you really going to mind the slow acceleration when you’re driving an ultra-rare space van?
One rare space van
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Speaking of rarity, Brubaker reportedly only built three of them before he realized the company went bankrupt, and he sold the design to Automecca, which rebranded it as the Sports Van. Automecca then only built about two dozen additional examples before it, too, gave up on the Sports Van. So we’re talking about a vehicle that’s one of fewer than 30 that were ever built. Unlike other similarly rare vehicles, though, you should be able to do all the work to keep it running yourself if you want, since it’s pretty much just an old air-cooled Volkswagen underneath the futuristic bodywork.
Inside, the dash layout is, uh, “minimalist?” Yeah, we’re going to go with “minimalist” here. It has all the inputs necessary for driving, and that’s about it. Is it attractive? Not really, but it’s functional. Move past the front row, though, and you’re greeted with a glorious red lounge area that’s very 1970s and looks ridiculously comfortable (as long as you don’t bring a blacklight anywhere near it). Oh, and you do get a Brother Aquatron VX-33 8-track player, so if you’ve got an 8-track collection you’ve been itching to listen to on the road, this van is pretty much perfect.
Sadly, while the Sports Van absolutely screams “real-life Hot Wheels car,” and one of the two roof-mounted surfboards literally says “Hot Wheels” on it, as our friends at the Autopian pointed out a few years ago, Hot Wheels never actually turned the Brubaker Box into an official Hot Wheels car. That really is a tragedy. Still, how cool would it be to own such a rare, wild design?
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Ford Once Made A Mile-Long Factory To Build Bombers Faster Than Anyone Thought Possible
BY BENJAMIN GRACIAS AUG. 24, 2025 3:05 PM EST
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By the middle of 1938, Europe had begun inching toward destruction. Adolf Hitler had taken over Austria, the beginning of Germany’s bloody campaign that would pull the continent into the chaos of World War II. Across the Atlantic, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt understood the need for the American military to be prepared for the coming war, something the country had failed to do before World War I. He petitioned Congress for 10,000 new airplanes, a big ask given that the country was still in the throes of the Great Depression, and nowhere near the military powerhouse it is today. Its Army Air Corps ranked even lower, with a meager arsenal of outdated planes.
Congress reached a compromise, approving just over half of the requested number of planes to be built over the next five years. However, the tide of war was in Germany’s favor, and by 1940, the Nazis had conquered Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It was only a matter of time before the U.S. would be drawn into the war, which happened in December 1941, when Germany’s ally Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Knowing this threat, Roosevelt pushed Congress again, this time asking for 50,000 planes a year. The task seemed impossible to many, but by 1944, America was churning out nearly twice that amount of bombers every year.
All or nothing!
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Roosevelt achieved this feat by turning to an industry known to produce complex machinery on a large scale. Automakers are known for their engineering expertise and ability to produce a large number of components in a short time. Car companies took to building bombers and weapons. The B-24 Liberator became the go-to plane due to its long-range ability, making it a formidable asset to deal with enemy forces across the Pacific Ocean, as well as Britain’s affinity for the heavy bomber in the fight against Germany.
Consolidated Aircraft held the contract to build B-24 bombers, but its output was anything but efficient (read painfully slow). The company built aircraft outdoors on makeshift rigs where workers spent hours attaching a single engine.
Ford was one of the carmakers approached to make parts for the B-24. In early 1941, Ford executive Charles Sorensen visited the Consolidated factory and was appalled by what he saw. Highly experienced in the field of production and assembly, Sorensen sketched a production line for the B-24 that night by breaking down the massive bomber into sub-assemblies that could be built like cars on a moving production line. Ford decided to be more involved. It declared that it would not build B-24 bomber parts; it would build the entire B-24.
A factory large enough to accommodate 70 football fields
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In February 1941, the Army awarded Ford a contract to build B-24 planes, and the carmaker began construction of a massive production complex west of its home base in Detroit. The Willow Run plant grew to become the world’s largest factory at the time. It featured an unusual 90-degree turn, giving it a unique L-shaped layout. It solved two problems — avoiding stretching into a planned airport and having the entire facility inside one county, which helped save on taxes.
By late 1941, and $47 million later, the Willow Run factory was operational. It was expensive, but not as expensive as a $90-million F-35 fighter jet crashing straight out of the factory. Ford even built an adjoining airfield so that the bombers, fresh off the assembly line, could be tested for fitness on the runway before being sent to war. Having a Short SC1 vertical-takeoff fighter jet that didn’t need a runway would have surely saved Ford money.
To give you a scale of the operation, a B-24 bomber is 66 feet, 4 inches long, with a wingspan of 110 feet. The Willow Run factory, meanwhile, spans 3.5 million square feet. To staff this mega factory, the government provided assistance by transporting and housing much of the workforce and their families.
The factory produced a bomber an hour
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The Willow Run factory was a turning point for the aircraft-building industry. It was the first time that instead of a bomber plane being constructed in one place, it was built by sub-assemblies being mated together on an assembly that stretched for a mile. Construction saw fuselages, wings, and tail sections come together at critical junctions, taking the shape of a bomber as it moved forward. Initially, production was slow. However, as efficiency improved, production shot up as well. By 1944, Ford was making one bomber every 63 minutes. At its height, the Willow Run factory produced 428 bombers in a single month.
It wasn’t easy, though. With no usable blueprints from Consolidated, Ford’s engineers had to reverse-engineer thousands of bomber-part drawings before an assembly line could be set up. It came to a point where engineers were drawing up miles of technical schematics every day. Ford management had to navigate both the government and Consolidated Aircraft, which still held part of the original contract.
Constant design changes from Consolidated caused hurdles, while congressional investigators found that meddling from the original contractor was causing delays. Eventually, complete control of the plant was handed over to a single plant manager, and from then on, production began to stabilize. Once the red tape cleared, Ford’s methods began to shine, and Willow Run became the most prolificAmerican factory during World War II.
An industrial ecosystem
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The workforce at Willow Run became a symbol of America during the war. As men were conscripted for war, women filled their places on the assembly line. Thousands of women entered the workforce, taking on jobs like riveting and spot welding. While some sources dispute this, Ford says the iconic ‘Rosie the Riveter’ poster, which went on to symbolize women taking on traditional men’s roles and become an iconic part of pop culture and the feminist movement, was inspired by Rose Will Monroe, a worker at the Willow Run plant.
People from all over the U.S. settled in Michigan, attracted by the promise of urban life and steady pay. Employment peaked at 42,000 before tapering off as production efficiency improved. Ford used every resource available to ramp up production. An example is using little people to climb inside the bomber’s wings to hold parts in place.
The plant’s sheer size meant that managing the workforce required unusual solutions. The Willow Run plant site had an on-site hospital and a recreational field, and hordes of buses ferried workers every day from Detroit and surrounding towns. Willow Run wasn’t just an industrial experiment; it was a social one.
An enduring legacy
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By the end of World War II, the Willow Run factory had produced over 8,600 B-24 bombers. Production stopped a few months before the war ended in August 1945, but the B-24 already was on its last legs before that.
By 1943, the U.S. military had already started testing its new B-29 Superfortress, which offered a long range, could carry a bigger payload, and fly higher in the atmosphere as well, thanks to a pressurized cabin. For the time, it probably had a cockpit as cool as the one on the F-22 Raptor fighter jet. The B-29 was used to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to Japan’s eventual surrender to the Allies.
The Willow Run factory was eventually sold off to other carmakers. Today, a portion of it serves as the Michigan Flight Museum. However, its legacy remains as the birthplace of mass-produced aircraft. The mile-long factory helped win World War II, one bomber at a time.
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These Are The Car-Related Movie Mistakes That Really Bother You
BY BRAD BROWNELL MARCH 14, 2025 10:30 AM EST
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Sometimes movies get things wrong about cars. Heck, the cars don’t even have to actually be present in the movie for it to be wrong. The 2013 film “Dallas Buyers Club” is a period piece set in 1985, so how did Matthew McConaughey’s Ron Woodroof get a Lamborghini Aventador poster to hang on his wall when that car wouldn’t be launched for nearly three decades? This is just one of many Hollywood automotive mistakes that our readers pointed out this week when we asked which car-related movie mistakes bothered them most. Maybe Hollywood should hire the staff and commentariat of Jalopnik.com to help them with their car questions, because we certainly know a lot more about automobiles, how they work, and continuity errors than anyone at a movie studio seems to. So without further ado, here are my favorite picks from your automotive movie pet peeves.
This is one of the most-answered questions I’ve ever asked, and there were way too many good ones to fit in this post, so go check out the comments section of the question post for all the suggestions missed. I promise, it’s worth it.
Flippin’ Aston Martins
In Casino Royale, after Vesper gets kidnapped and Bond chases after the villains in his Aston Martin DBS. He’s supposedly going fast enough that he catches some air on a hill but when he jerks the wheel to avoid running over Vesper the DBS somehow flips and rolls while executing a simple accident avoidance maneuver that’s not that dissimilar from what you might see on MotorWeek. All resulting in a barrel roll (admittedly quite spectacular and rivaled only by the minutes-long rollover scene in Talladega Nights.)
At the very worst that should have been a spinout and instead, an exotic car somehow failed the Moose Test. That scene, as a car guy, always bother me.
Suggested by LarriveeC05
Clean 911
The self healing Porsche 911 in Commando. The car goes on its side, but Arnold pushes it over and we see a damage free car on his departure…
Suggested by Mikeuptain
Fast and Furious wasn’t a documentary?
That whole first race in Fast n Furious where Brian was racing his Eclipse against Dom. After hitting the Nos, his tuning computer reads danger to Manifold…Ok like which manifold? intake, Exhaust? and then the floor in the passenger seat falls off, like what?
Suggested by Agon Targeryan
Downshifts at Daytona
Downshifting in a situation where they are supposedly already driving as fast as possible.
Also somewhat related – when the dubbed engine sound doesn’t match the vehicle. This happens way more often than you might expect.
Suggested by Stephen
Better burnouts
OK, you know what I absolutely hate more than anything else? When there’s tire marks on the road from the previous takes…. “OK, great burnout scene, but lets do it one more time in the exact same spot”. Whether it’s parallel stripes from a burnout or fun swirls from something more intense, it always kills the mood for me. Just pick a different location, dammit!
Suggested by Kumciho
Forever fuel
That movie fuel never degrades. You often see it in Zombie movies or other similar world-as-we-know-it-ended type movies. Someone comes upon a car that’s been sitting for years, they find a battery (if they even bother to address needing a battery), they hop in, start it up and away they go! That is just not how octane-based fuel works, let alone the sea of other issues that come with an engine that has sat for years, mice chewing wires and nesting in things, moisture-related damage, etc, etc.
Suggested by Dakiraun
NASCAR engine in an EV
Gotta go with the E-Tron in the avengers making V8 noises. It seems small, and is overdubbing cars incorrectly is a running hollywood theme but this is supposed to be Tony Stark’s super cool high tech expensive future car. Like it being an EV was the entire point they picked it and yet…vroom vroom.
Suggested by JaredOfLondon
Pull up like skrrrt
Squealing tires on dirt/gravel roads. Grinds my gears every time.
Suggested by Thomas Hajicek
What’s the payload capacity of a Ford Ranchero?
In Goldfinger, crushing a 5000lb Lincoln Continental (plus anonymous mobster and what apparently should’ve been another 2000lb of gold based on value), and placing the cube in the bed of a Ford Ranchero with an 800lb payload. Odd Job should’ve been driving one of the very first lowriders.
Suggested by Maymar
Dude, where’s most of my car?
Continuing to drive a car that has no source of fuel, among other issues. See: ‘View to a Kill’
Suggested by 007 Guest
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Alleged Horse-And-Buggy Thief In Way More Trouble Than If She Had Just Stolen A Car
A buggy isn’t legally a motor vehicle, which makes things much worse for the thief in court.
BY AMBER DASILVA JANUARY 26, 2024 7:30 AM EST
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A Michigan woman allegedly stole a horse and buggy from an Amish couple while they shopped at a Walmart last weekend. The appeal of the crime is obvious — no USB cables to mess with, no sensors to fool, just hop in and go. Yet, if you’re looking to follow in this woman’s footsteps, a word of caution: The penalties for stealing a horse and buggy are much, much worse than just stealing a car.
First the details of the case from the local Sturgis, Michigan, Fox affiliate, Fox 59:
Police in Sturgis, Michigan, about 90 miles south of Grand Rapids along the Indiana border, were called to a local Walmart on Saturday after an Amish family reported that their buggy and horse had been stolen.
A truck driver, who was parked nearby, told investigators that he saw it happen and gave a description of the suspect.
Police said they had already made contact with the suspect, a 31-year-old Sturgis woman, earlier in the day at the same Walmart. They did not detail the circumstances surrounding the earlier encounter.
Later in the evening, the horse and buggy were found unoccupied nearby, police said. The woman was found at a nearby motel and taken into custody without incident.
Sounds like the suspect’s life might not be going great. It got much worse when she decided to go low tech with her larceny. In fact, she’d be in way less trouble if she’d just stolen a car.
The distinction between the two comes from an odd bifurcation within auto theft law. Stealing a car with the intent to take it from its owner forever is different — and more harshly penalized — than nabbing one for a simple joyride. Within Horse Law, however, no such distinction exists. Steve Lehto, former Jalop contributor, broke it all down.
Had this woman stolen a car for a joyride, she may well have been charged with a misdemeanor. Had she stolen one with the intent to deprive the owner of it permanently, she’d be charged with auto theft — a felony, sure, but only one felony.
Instead, by stealing both a horse and a buggy, this women managed to be charged with two felonies. Larceny of livestock — the horse — is unambiguously a felony offense in Michigan. Regular larceny — the buggy — can be a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the value of the item stolen, but Amish buggies don’t come cheap. It’s entirely possible that this woman could be convincted of two separate felonies from one single Walmart visit.
So, for the enterprising thieves in the audience, stick to cars. Horse and buggies are slower, harder to hide in a garage, and much worse for you if you get caught. Plus, a car is a lot less likely to kick you.
Read More: https://www.jalopnik.com/1810735/car-movie-mistakes-reader-answers/
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