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Yep – That Was A Banana Car
May 9, 2012
Bet you looked twice. Yep. That was a big banana car slipping along in Flomaton and splitting down Highway 29 through North Escambia on Tuesday. The official name of the vehicle is (are you ready for this?) – Big Banana Car.
It’s operated by two brothers that thought the idea of a car that looked like a banana was appealing. Actually they first considered a peanut, but later felt shorted by a bag of 59 cent peanuts that only contained 218 peanuts when their previous bag contained 223. Seriously, it drove them nuts.
“I wrote a stern letter to the company asking them to account for this deplorable discrepancy but never heard anything back,” said Steve Braithwaite, driver and builder. “I no longer wanted to build a big peanut car.”
Then a few days later, he picked up a banana at a convenience store and he was ripe with ideas. He’d always loved all things yellow and had fallen in love with yellow hot rods after the movie “American Graffiti”.
“As I viewed it from all sides I started to see that it would be a perfect shape for a car. I pictured where the wheels would go and where the occupants would sit. Where the engine and bumpers would fit,” Braithwaite said.
“Why not build an enormous banana car and drive it around the world?”
The Big Banana Car will peel out of the Pensacola area today, headed toward a night stop in New Orleans. By May 12, they will slide into New Orleans for the 25th Annual Art Car Parade.
Reader submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
13 Responses to “Yep – That Was A Banana Car”
I saw it on I-10 passing through Vidor, Texas the other day on my way home from work, needed a good laugh and got one.
One of these was in an accident and the peel was all over the highway, but when the police arrived they had apparently >slipped< away. Okay, I'll quit now.
The only thing missing is ice cream, whipped cream and cherry’s……..That way they could hop in the car and say “Let’s split”…..
Man would that be a cool rig truck!!
I saw it on I-10 close to Mobile around 1 P.M. today………………
Enough with the jokes…It makes me want a banana sandwich…little bit of mayo on white bread…WOW …gotta go I am hungry
I think this is the wave of the future. Soon there will be uh…bunches of these, some will be over powered so you can “peel out”.
REGARDING:
“- – - felt shorted by a bag of 59 cent peanuts that only contained 218 peanuts when their previous bag contained 223. Seriously, it drove them nuts.”
Not that I’m taking it seriously, but methinks the peanuts were sold by weight rather than number and the average weight of the individual nuts in the first bag was probably slightly lighter than the average peanut weight in the second bag. This would mean more of the lighter nuts in the first bag to equal the weight of the heavier nuts in the second bag.
Still, who would want a peanut car? Everybody knows you’re supposed to crack them. Conversely, everybody knows not to step on a banana peal.
David for heavy nuts and ripe rides,
remembering that banana trees are lilies
and the fruits are berries
My family and I saw this too! Too funny! We slowed down to ride beside them for as long as we could; we even took a picture!
And then we watched it “split.” (I couldn’t resist either!)
It slipped by the Flomaton PD.
I really do like yo banana car because I luv bananas tewh.
That car has real “appeal” !!!!
(couldn’t resist)
Hope he finds a roof, it might be rainy today.