Why you might ask, and I hope you do otherwise I'm kinda in the wrong place, and the very short answer that my brief career as a sculptor was boring making stuff that either stood still on the ground or hung on the walls so I remembered all those hoony days with motorcycles and cars when I was a youth and decided to make rolling artworks that actually did something useful.
Partly, or maybe even wholly, this goes back a few years to when I built a prop for a children's TV show in which I took all the mechanicals out of a rusty old A30 and hard bolted them, as in no suspension, to a light gauge steel frame and then proceeded to add all the prop stuff but it was also drivable, if you were careful, and I even drove it up and down the road a few times. But the clincher was when the producer arrived in his Cadillac, I kid you not, (And I knew him from way back as he used to have a neighbour of mine do work on his 70's style apehanger and long, long forked Harleys so I knew he was a bit used to silly slightly dangerous vehicles) I told him it was drivable and he should have a go. A big smile appeared on his face and I said you have to be careful though as the brake and clutch pedal were reversed, the seating position was a bit high and forward and the throttle was set using the old choke cable not to mention that without suspension, a la tractor, one needs to go easy getting going and slip the clutch rather alot.
Anyways this chap hopped on and though he set the throttle a little fast it'd be fine if he was easy on the clutch... but he wasn't and the bloody thing almost leapt off the ground, actually I think it did leap... and so did he! He got off that seat so bloody fast it was hilarious and meanwhile the poor little car thingy kinda idled across the road.
And when I got bored with Rich people and the artworks they'd buy I remembered that incident and knew making art from cars would be neato 'cause when the people bought them they'd also actually have to drive them and risk wreaking all that investment in having fun.
So as you can see from the photo I've also got a carry van and that'll be used for car building too. And while the Jimny really is a rusty old bit of crap, as I've just finished pulling all the bits off it I want, all they really are for is laying out so I can build around it all then later I'll get bit's that actually work... after salvaging from this what actually does.
There we go, I've introduced myself, and I hope you don't mind that I'm stretching the off road thing just a wee bit.
Cheers, Sean.