OK, before you say anything about the absurdity of a motorized shed, take a look at it and squint your eyes a little: Does it really look any different than any SUV you ever saw? Didn't think so.
You've heard of the tiny house movement, but this one actually does move, and at a surprising speed. The shed set a land speed record (asterisk: for sheds) earlier this month at Pendine Sands in Wales, a seven-mile stretch of beach famed for speed since Sir Malcolm Campbell piloted the Blue Bird to a series of land speed records there in the 1920s.
The man who built the shed, Kevin Nicks, hit 80 mph in the structure last year at Pendine, which was a record in its own right. This year, he hit 100 mph on his first day out. On the second day, he got it up to 105 mph. Apparently before Nicks came along, Edd China from TV's "Wheeler Dealers" held the shed speed record at 58 mph.
Nicks, 53, from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, spent the past year and 13,000 quid to equip the shed with a 450 bhp engine from an Audi RS4. And he even managed to get the shed approved as road legal, which he says is a world first. Note that it even has a license plate in the photos.
It has air-conditioning, electric windows, and "a very tricked suspension system where I can lift the car up and sit it down on the ground. I've got quite a good trick that I do with that."
Nicks says the shed "wasn't originally built for racing." Huh, you don't say.
"My friend was building hot rods, and I got car-building envy. I didn't have any money, though, and couldn't pay anyone to build it for me, I built everything myself in my own driveway."
So first he put the underpinnings and drivetrain of a Passat in the shed, but that engine blew, so he spent the winter working on the suspension and installing the twin-turbo Audi engine. The shed is "very heavy and has no aerodynamics, though, so the engine had to work hard."
Here's more about that, from an interview Nicks did with CBC Radio:
"If I take anybody in it, they always say to me, 'It's not what I expected.'" [Wonder what they expected.]
"I've driven thousands of cars, and it is by far the most comfortable because you've got so much space around you. It's quiet. Now, it's incredibly fast. But it's the acceleration that's fast. I've never driven anything so fast.
"The problem I have, obviously, is aerodynamics, because I don't have any. So the acceleration up to 80 is phenomenal. But then it's like trying to drive through tar the faster you go. I had to more than double the horsepower to gain an extra 25 miles an hour."
Nicks describes long hours working on the shed, including a Sunday in which he worked 27 hours straight. He doesn't talk much about the bodywork, or rather the carpentry, but that must be pretty good. Consider that 105 mph is the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane, which can inflict major siding and roof damage.
The British embrace the spirit of speed, from supersonic car pilot Andy Green, to the "Top Gear" blokes, to all the tinkerers on Pendine Sands like Kevin Nicks.
"I had an amazing time there, making people smile," he says. "It's a magical track.
"A lot of people lead humdrum lives, just going to work and coming home. Look what I've been doing this weekend. If you have enough dedication, you can do anything."
The video at top from the shed's Pendine run is rather brief, but here's a more complete look at the shed from 2016:
You've heard of the tiny house movement, but this one actually does move, and at a surprising speed. The shed set a land speed record (asterisk: for sheds) earlier this month at Pendine Sands in Wales, a seven-mile stretch of beach famed for speed since Sir Malcolm Campbell piloted the Blue Bird to a series of land speed records there in the 1920s.
The man who built the shed, Kevin Nicks, hit 80 mph in the structure last year at Pendine, which was a record in its own right. This year, he hit 100 mph on his first day out. On the second day, he got it up to 105 mph. Apparently before Nicks came along, Edd China from TV's "Wheeler Dealers" held the shed speed record at 58 mph.
Nicks, 53, from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, spent the past year and 13,000 quid to equip the shed with a 450 bhp engine from an Audi RS4. And he even managed to get the shed approved as road legal, which he says is a world first. Note that it even has a license plate in the photos.
It has air-conditioning, electric windows, and "a very tricked suspension system where I can lift the car up and sit it down on the ground. I've got quite a good trick that I do with that."
Nicks says the shed "wasn't originally built for racing." Huh, you don't say.
"My friend was building hot rods, and I got car-building envy. I didn't have any money, though, and couldn't pay anyone to build it for me, I built everything myself in my own driveway."
So first he put the underpinnings and drivetrain of a Passat in the shed, but that engine blew, so he spent the winter working on the suspension and installing the twin-turbo Audi engine. The shed is "very heavy and has no aerodynamics, though, so the engine had to work hard."
Here's more about that, from an interview Nicks did with CBC Radio:
"If I take anybody in it, they always say to me, 'It's not what I expected.'" [Wonder what they expected.]
"I've driven thousands of cars, and it is by far the most comfortable because you've got so much space around you. It's quiet. Now, it's incredibly fast. But it's the acceleration that's fast. I've never driven anything so fast.
"The problem I have, obviously, is aerodynamics, because I don't have any. So the acceleration up to 80 is phenomenal. But then it's like trying to drive through tar the faster you go. I had to more than double the horsepower to gain an extra 25 miles an hour."
Nicks describes long hours working on the shed, including a Sunday in which he worked 27 hours straight. He doesn't talk much about the bodywork, or rather the carpentry, but that must be pretty good. Consider that 105 mph is the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane, which can inflict major siding and roof damage.
The British embrace the spirit of speed, from supersonic car pilot Andy Green, to the "Top Gear" blokes, to all the tinkerers on Pendine Sands like Kevin Nicks.
"I had an amazing time there, making people smile," he says. "It's a magical track.
"A lot of people lead humdrum lives, just going to work and coming home. Look what I've been doing this weekend. If you have enough dedication, you can do anything."
The video at top from the shed's Pendine run is rather brief, but here's a more complete look at the shed from 2016:
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