Prius Limo???

In Lass' defense, there is a company in California that claims to be manufacturing a stretch Prius limosine, and promises pictures on their website soon. Have a look at http://www.hybridlimo.com/fleet.htm (scroll to the bottom). Maybe Lass' son stumbled on their prototype? Certainly possible, I guess... will watch the web page and see if the stretch Prius looks like the picture. Of course, Lass is from Orange County, and if I had to make a bet about the first area of the country to actually have stretch Prius limos, the LA area would be a safe guess.

Seems like it would be tough to keep a hybrid engine working well when you add the extra weight of body and passengers. The frame would certainly have to be stiffened and seriously reinforced

Couldn't resist whipping this one up, though, but it is really tough to make the perspective look right!

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lass @ Aug 14 2007, 09:43 PM) [snapback]495940[/snapback]</div>

So, how did the license plate get blanked out? It's not blurred, it's blanked. No numbers. All one color. That's a photoshop job.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rae Vynn @ Aug 15 2007, 09:49 AM) [snapback]496208[/snapback]</div>

The clearly visible seam in the roof and window pointed to by the red arrow in the attached image makes me confident that this image has been altered. Look how different the window appears in that vertical band. Also, there appear to be some clone brush artifacts under the front tire (these are not JPEG compression artifacts, JPEG compression artifacts look like high frequency content taken out of 8x8 blocks).

By the way, zooming this picture with interpolation is not a good way to analyze it as interpolation creates new pixels that were not in the original. You should zoom with no interpolation (nearest neighbor sampling in Photoshop, with an integer zoom factor).

 

You can make a limo out of anything. its just simple body work. The OP's pic is definatly altered though. Its impossible (not totally impossible, but very illegal) to make a 3rd door on a limo. The structural integrity of the car is compromised when you make it a door. Usually on legal limo's the center piece is solid steel to accomidate the added weight, and length. You cant make it a door or else the whole car would fall apart.

 

Lass, has your son seen it again? If so, could they stop and take more pictures from other angles?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lass @ Aug 15 2007, 11:15 AM) [snapback]496226[/snapback]</div>

I don't know much of anything. I don't know you, I don't know your son. I also don't know anything about any Prius limo. But when I look at the picture with "zoom with no interpolation" posted by priusenvy, the image certainly looks "interesting". The possibility that someone doctored the image is more plausible to me than someone modifying a Prius to have three doors.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. I presume the car is in your neighborhood, yes? Get more pictures. Talk to the owner.

 

At the risk of fanning any more flames here, I didn't see where anyone in this thread specifically called you, a liar, Lass, nor specifically said you yourself edited the photo. And if I read correctly, you were sent the photo by your son. So you in fact weren't there to see it taken, either. Which means your son in fact, could have received it from someone else, pre-edited, or, could have edited it elsewhere on his own. (Any digital image, from any kind of digital camera, can be edited. Cell phone imagery included. In fact, the poorer image quality of a cell phone often makes it a little easier to create fun edits like this one, because you don't have to worry about blending photo-realistic details, seamlessly. The grain and lower quality help hide the artists tracks.)

That said, I can easily imagine someone modifying a Prius into a limo, however, as a great novelty limo. I'd like to see one with the hot tub in back! Though the water over the batteries could be a problem.
And where else would a Prius mod be more likely to happen, than in California. So yes, a Prius limo could exist out there, quite easily enough. Would make a great episode of "Monster Garage" in fact.

But even without magnifying the original image, you can see a huge "seam" in the middle window's sill line, roofline and distortions running vertically above and below that, where two parts of a photo were spliced together. The blanked-out license plate is another editing giveaway.
(And I'm sorry Lass, but ANYONE who invests the kinda money needed to make a Prius into a limo, will not end up with a "bad welding job" like that, running through a window.

It is a very fun image, and a clever idea as well.

 

For nobody actually calling you a liar (still) you're mighty quick to call others names.
When you spot the limo again, to photograph and talk to the owner if possible, please try and get a shot with all 3 doors open; many of us would love to see the construction technique and side pillars used to extend the car. Also, if you can, find out what mods were done to the hybrid synergy drive. Does it still operate as a hybrid, or is it a gas limo sporting a Prius body now? I'd also love to know what the seating configuration is, inside. Any jumpseats installed, or just the back bench?
And finally, get a good head-on shot of that center window, so we can see the bad weld in detail.

 

Hate to say it, but I agree with most here, this is a photoshopped image. First of all, stretching a Prius would be very very costly due to the many electrical connections between the front and the back of the car. Also, you would never put a door in the middle, it would allow far too much flex in the body.

So...bzzzt!

 

I believe you lass. I actually count 16 vertical seams in the magnified photo, (several horizontal seams also) which makes me think that they are an artifact of the camera's CCD array (a light sensitive silicon chip). Sometimes these chips (especially the CMOS ones I believe) are fabricated by arranging blocks of smaller sub-arrays and manufacturing processes being what they are sometimes could give rise to the seams in the photo.
Why would you bother with so many (same width) seams in a photoshop edit?
So I come down on the side of "I believe it..."

 

...and, as I've said, the license plate has been blanked out.
It was blanked out using a photo editing program of some kind.
Heck, it could have been blanked out using MS Paint (which EVERY PC has)... so telling us repeatedly that this photo has NEVER been touched (retouched?), is rather ridiculous.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lass @ Aug 15 2007, 03:45 PM) [snapback]496446[/snapback]</div>

Yes well... some of us do this sort of thing for a living, you know.
Working with image editing software.
When I do something like this, I call it "fake-n-bake", and there have been many times I've had to create an entire image (usually some sort of software dialog box) from nearly nothing.

 

Looks nice, wonder what kind of MPG it gets when loaded with people?

To the people debating the 6 door limo:



That's a photochop also???

 

Since I have professional tools available to me, I've enlarged this photo.
I've made absolutely NO changes to it. No arrows, no notes, did not highlight anything.

I'd like to call your attention to the middle door, and where the window meets the door, and also to the license plate. This has been all I've been saying about this photo: