When it comes to hot tubs, people usually want a lot of jets, a lot of space for their friends and maybe some cool lighting or sound features. Duncan Forster and Phil Weicker, on the other hand, want another, slightly more unusual hot tub feature: speed.
Forster and Weicker are hoping to set the world record for the World’s Fastest Hot Tub, and while that may sound crazy, it’s a dream that’s been in the works for more than a decade.
The story starts in 1996, when the duo were working on their undergraduate degrees at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. The pair acquired an abandoned 1982 Chevy Malibu, cut off the roof and transformed it into The Carpool, which they say was the “world’s first driveable, fully operational hot tub.”
(The reasoning behind the project, they say, is inspiration from an Ernest Hemingway quote: “Always do sober what you say you’d do drunk, that’s the only way you’ll learn.”)
After its creation, the Carpool made appearances at parties, football games, shows, anywhere it could be gawked at and admired. Once such place was the Canadian International Auto Show, at which the Carpool was a prize exhibit. It was there Forster and Weicker met representatives from the Southern California Timing Association, the organization that oversees Speedweek, a pillar of the land racing community. They invited Forster and Weicker to enter the Carpool into that year’s Speedweek event and hopefully land that world record.
However, it wasn’t meant to be. After years of war and tear, there was no way the Carpool could travel to Utah for the race.
The car may have been retired, by the dream was not. In 2008, Forster and Weicker acquired a 1969 Coupe DeVille convertible and spent the next six years restoring it and transforming it into what they now call the Carpool DeVille.
Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign launched this summer, the Carpool DeVille is all set to test the waters, so to speak, on the 2014 Speedweek course in August.
Will the Carpool DeVille make it through the course? Will Forster and Weicker finally accomplish their dream? Only time will tell.
