Deathmobile Tribute Car

Up for sale is a tribute to the Deathmobile, as seen in the movie Animal House. A group of friends thought it would be cool to build this tribute Deathmobile for our local parade 10 years ago. We had planned to junk it after the parade. The car received so much attention that we kept it. It is a blast to drive and show off as people are so emotional when they it. This car has received numerous awards at car shows and parades. It has been loaned out to a dozen toga parties over the years and also been used by businesses to draw attention to the business. It rode the ferry to Put-In-Bay and drove around the car parade on Sunday afternoon, stopping traffic in its tracks. Most recently, it was loaned to the Greater Cleveland Film Commission for their fundraiser, where they celebrated their 20th anniversary and the 40th anniversary of the movie Animal House. It was the center piece of the party, sitting on the front lawn of the Mather Mansion in Cleveland.

My friends and I are decent fabricators. We found a 1989 Crown Vic as a donor car and went to work. The construction of the car is all steel so you can pile people on top of the car when riding in parades. We used a projector connected to a laptop to broadcast the movie on cardboard, where we traced the quarter wings and grille and cut them out with a plasma cutter. We made a hatch in the top of the turret and one on the trunk as in the original movie car. The car is painted with Sherwin-Williams industrial paint in semi-gloss black. It has held up very well. We have also added a few features to the car. We have a built-in 1kW Honda generator in the trunk. There is a large power inverter inside the car. We used them to run smoke machines, of which there is a brand new smoke machine behind the grille. There is also a large amp and radio (I think the radio is inop), with smaller speakers that we placed on the deck around the turret to blast the movie songs and also the many classic quotes, such as, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son”! We have also installed a train whistle made out of PVC which we run on a regulated CO2 tank. It is also set up for dual batteries, although we have just one brand new battery in it now. The car runs well and sounds great as the pipes are straight and exit in front of the rear tires. The trans fluid is brown but the car still drives. This is not a show car as we built and painted it in 2 weeks-worth of long nights. If we knew we would receive such an emotional reaction when people see it, we would have started with a better car. The donor car runs good but the underneath had rust. The interior is also pretty much stripped, but functional. The steel mods are super strong and can be climbed on without worry of damage. One thing to note is that the hood was bent at the hinge recently. If I were going to keep it, I would replace it, however, it isn't real visible when driving by in a parade. We hate to sell it but we want someone else to have as much fun with it as we did. We just don't have a place to store it any longer. Disclaimer: this car is obviously no longer street legal. It does have a clear title in our name. It is also not weather resistant.

All money raised from the sale of the car will be donated to a local organization which supports 30+ charitable organizations within our community. I can't begin to tell you how much fun we have had with this car. People love the movie and have such an emotional reaction when they see it. Thanks for looking. Please let me know if you have any questions.