Prius Limo???

The owner runs a computer shop out of Utica, NY. His domain is
registered by 1and1 aka Schlund, centered in Pennsylvania [and is
also who used to host Priuschat before it moved to liquidweb]. Not
clear why the pix are hosted there.
.
But heck, if someone can start making a convertible Prius, even if
it's a bit of a quick hack to start, a limo version is within the
realm of possibility. Prius frames are *incredibly* stiff, as you
can see farther down in the page where I'm sitting on a lone A-pillar.
.
_H*

 

This hi-res image is posted over on motivemag.com:




In case deep linking is not allowed, here is the link: http://rem.alexsark.com/durbo2nr/Car/Detroit/P8190095.JPG

Look at the middle door, at the jog at the bottom of the window opening, and the crease at the bottom of the door, and tell me that you don't think this was a Photoshop edit.

 

After looking at these pictures for a while I can almost tell you how the thing was built.

1. The rear end is a 04-05 Prius cut somewhere in the middle of the front door.

2. The front end is a 06-07 Prius cut somewhere in the middle of the rear door.

This would explain the color difference as well as the rear tail light and front hybrid emblem.

3. The middle door section is made with a rear prius door.

This would explain the need to make that weird looking curve in the door. The back of the rear door is higher than the front so you would have to dip it back down to make a nice straight line toward the rear. THe front part of the rear door would not need reshaped because its already in line with the rear of the front door. Confused yet?

Since the middle section is a combination of two different shades of silver the owner just tried to blend them together instead of painting the whole car.

4. The center window must come from another type of car or custom made. haven't really figured that part out.

5. The roof is made from the two cars and the antenna was left because of, well, two antennas are better than one!

Oh and after seeing the high res pics I agree that the two dots are a sunshade.

Did I miss anything?

We need to see if we can get this guy to come to Hybridfest 2008.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Aug 20 2007, 06:37 PM) [snapback]499498[/snapback]</div>

Yup, the groove on the middle door is fuzzy up close.
Otherwise, it's a pretty darned good PS.

 

I also looked closely at the (original) photo. My first three reactions were that it is a fake. I agree that the jog looks like a paste seam, and the license plate looks an oddly smooth grey.

But I blew it up (without interpolation, just a visual zoom), and I am now on the fence after my fourth view, or maybe leaning toward non-Photoshop. If you look closely, you can see the fingerprint of JPEG compression--the 8x8 cells that are the artifact of lossy JPEG compression. It so happens that there is a pair of these cells right over the plate, so it makes the plate appear to be a smudged grey; but a close examination shows it to not be uniform other than within the 8x8 cells.

Also, if you look along the side (including the "jog") the 8x8 pattern remains, and explains some of the otherwise odd hard lines between cells.

There are two possibilities. First, that this file was compressed into a JPEG file AFTER being photoshopped (possible but it would require a sophisticated con artist who knew what people would look for, like the 8x8 cell structure), or that it was in fact NOT photoshopped and the JPEG compression results in the artifacts that make it appear to have been edited.

As to the reflection of the tree lines, I am unsure... the convex curvature of the hood on the car the photo was taken from might explain it.

I think the jury is out, and it is by no means so clear that it was edited. I AM still confused by the pixelation of the date/time stamp.... is that typical? My phone lacks the ability to add such a stamp, so I am not sure what it SHOULD look like.

 

OK, Lass... I'm adding my apologies for doubting you. You son's photo was apparently not photoshopped.

The big question is, who would stretch a Priius like this and why? I could understand a limo service wanting to market a hybrid-stretched limosine to customers, but this just looks like some guy moving coast to coast. Even more curious is the fact that he's carrying a lot of weight. How?

Dan

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TheForce @ Aug 20 2007, 10:16 PM) [snapback]499537[/snapback]</div>

This is what I was hoping to get by posting these pictures here... Some information on how this car was stretched, and the construction behind it.

Unfortunately, too many people are too eager to call BS without talking out of their butt, without adding any relevant info to the conversation. The same thing happened at thecarlounge.net, but at least the morons there have conceded that it isn't a photoshopped image.

I wasted my time getting a membership here hoping someone would have some technical info on this vehicle. Where else would I go other than a Prius forum?

I am genuinely intrigued by the fabrication behind this, but nobody here seems to care. Back to TCL I go. Good day to you all.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(N8802B @ Aug 20 2007, 10:04 PM) [snapback]499601[/snapback]</div>

Hey, I resemble that remark!

 

Not to call anyone a liar or anything, but if you look closely in the greenhouse of the original photo, you can see redundancies, including two rearview mirrors.
Also, in the second set of photos, the front passenger door wouldn't open. The door frame seems to disappear around certain parts of the door panel. Good chop, though.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(danoday @ Aug 21 2007, 01:00 AM) [snapback]499598[/snapback]</div>

Someone from Missouri:
[attachmentid=10803]
[attachmentid=10804]

Because they're from Missouri? I do not know?!

 

OK while I know that everyone isn't on the internet, but IF these existed, wouldn't this person have been on this forum? I mean the Prius isn't a really HUGE community. Some mention would have to have shown up here.

 

I love this picture! :lol: Have you seen pimp my ride? I wish they can pimp up a Prius! Maybe all of us can write a letter to the producer of the show.

 

It seems to me that the creator of this limo used both a front and a rear door for the middle door. The front of the middle door is the front of the original rear door while the rear of the middle door is the end of the front door.
Instead of making the door/window connect in a straight line the designer added the little notch in order to get just one deviation from the Prius' original smooth line. As for the roof, the Prius has a rounded top and if you cut a curve apart, move the two bits apart and try to connect them, it's easier to continue the radius of the curve than it is to change the radius of the two pieces (well, it is if you have to do it on a metal object, if it was a snow sculpture...).

 

Slightly OT...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AlphaTeam @ Aug 21 2007, 07:36 AM) [snapback]499655[/snapback]</div>

But PC membership number is no where near the number of Prii that have been sold in the US. I ran into a smart young fellow who also happened to be a Prius owner for two years who had never heard of PC.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lass @ Aug 21 2007, 12:45 PM) [snapback]499884[/snapback]</div>

I guess anything is possible, but a company doing this would need to pass a simple cost/benefit analysis on manufacturing these animals... I don't know that there is any money to be made doing what they are doing. Based on what we surmise about how the middle door was created, it looks like they'd need two Prii to make this. Maybe they got two junked ones? Possible, but how many limo manufacturing companies are going to search for two Prii to make one vehicle.

It is more likely that this is a one-time thing, and was made by someone as a lark. Your son may have seen it in California before it moved cross-country to Pennsylvania.

One way to answer all of these questions would be to track down the plate, and find out who the registered owner is. A simple phone call might clear up our questions. Not sure how legal this is, but some states have their databases available.

So, what do we know? The carrier mounted to the back of the car has a Missouri plate on it. The plate number appears to be "8CF 35N", although the N is obscured... could be an M. The plate has a registration sticker with the month August on it, although the year isn't visible. Anyone in Missouri know what whether the sticker for 2007 is red, or is 2008? Even if we don't have the last letter, the possibilities are very limited... there can't be too many Prii with the information we do know; should be easy to limit it to this one.

Anyone on the list in a position to get that information and make a discrete phone call to the registered owner? I wouldn't recommend posting the owner's information here, but you should be able to get the information about where the car came from pretty easily.

Of course, from the load it appears that the owner might be moving, and may not be in Missouri anymore. The information should still be on record, though.

Dan

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(oly_57mpg @ Aug 21 2007, 01:54 PM) [snapback]499819[/snapback]</div>

Ya BUT.... the majority of people that drive them....just think of them as cars or just like it...but not are crazy like the people here. To make a Prius limo you have to be crazy nuts about the car. The jury is still out on my opinion. Two relatively newbies post about it. I really hate to be that skeptical a-hole but...still a lot of questions to be answered.

 

Looks like Kris Altmiller "photo shopped" this in his garage.

I used photo shop to brighten the image so we could take a more clear look.

[attachmentid=10812]

 

Have anyone noticed the cargo carrier on the newer images?

I doesn't seem to be mounted with a hitch. And id seems to be able to carry a lot of cargo!


Stein