One of the coolest projects I built as a kid was from the book The Buffy-Porson: A Car You Can Build and Drive (see more here). I spent the entire winter when I was 12 building it. The finished car was gloss black and looked very cool. I remember scouring all of the bike shops I could find in Ottawa looking for wire spoke tricycle wheels. I finally found a set of 4 – 12 inch wheels in the basement of some shop on Bank Street (I’m sure all of the shop owners thought I was nuts).
We came back from spending the summer at our cottage that year and someone had broken into our garage and stolen it – I was crushed. I never saw it again.
I came across this picture of a finished (and heavily modified version). Makes me want to hunt down a copy of that book and get me a 4×8 sheet of 3/4″ ply. 🙂
My son and I built one of these madcap racers, still have it and getting ready for an upcoming move, I found the plans in a box. I’m hoping that my son will want to recreate the magic with the heir to his fortune.
I built a Buffy Porson as a child with my father back in South Africa. Its amazing how this project became a milestone in my childhood and serves as a never ending source of insiration and achievement. At the minute, my Buffy is 21 years old, and she’s still in the garage waiting to pass onto my son. If I could fit into her, I would still take her for a spin today!
Greetings,
My 7 year old son has been peppering me with all sorts of impractical plans for building a ridable car out of things like cardboard, legos, pencils, wood and tape. I searched my local library for a book I checked out as a kid, came up Buffy Porson, googled it and hit your blog. Your picture of the book is the only one I could find online, and when I saw it I knew that was what I was looking for! I never did build it. Nor did I finish the steam engine I tried to make out of 8 oz beer cans. My robot never worked either. Gee, I wonder where my son gets it from. Now I get my chance! If I start now, maybe I’ll be done by summer. Wish me luck!
Hi there: I have a copy of The Buffy-Porson, A Car You Can Build and Drive by Peter and Mike Stevenson, in great condition. I was going to put it on Kijiji and just did a search on google to find out more information so I could write an informed comment about it, and found you! I am about 2.5 hours from Ottawa, and would be happy to mail this. I want $12. for the book. Just let me know – this could be the beginning of a deja vu project for you!
Victoria – if you still have the book I would love to buy that from you.
Thanks for the offer Victoria, but I’m afraid my in-laws beat you to it about 5 years ago 😉
Does $12. seem like a fair price for a kijiji listing? Did you build it?Maybe it would be a project for my 8-year old grandson and my craftsman husband to do together. Oh, but then there’s the tree fort, the waterfront slide platform, etc. etc. – too many projects, too little time!