Grassroots Motorsports

Register Log in to GRM
- Community

Birthdays
Recently on the Classic Motorsports forums

Subscribe get a full year for only $23.95 Sample Free Test Drive—no strings attached

Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » Hot Tub Car concept

March 25, 2010 3:05 p.m. ClemSparks SuperDork

Yeah...so I've had this goofy-a$$ idea for a long, long time and will probably never act on it, but it's so fun to talk about I just have to.

I was reminded of the idea by the topic about the ebay '57 caminomachino: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/something-the-general-...

So...I always thought it would be fun to gut the interior out of a car and fill it with water and have a mobile hottub.

This would be for humorous/entertainment purposes only and would almost certainly involve friends scrambling to gather enough money to make bail before the night was over.

But here's what I'm thinking:

Get some sort of majorly high rate springs on whatever you use (bonus for '60s-'70s Cadillac or Lincoln). Gut the interior. Get a 5 gallon bucket of caulk and go to town on the doors and floors. Reroute any necessary wiring outside of the tub zone...keep in mind, the dash will be flooded, most likely.

Now...you could either have the driver IN the hot tub or have him partitioned off, depending on your level of bravery (I say go all in!).

I doubt a heater core would put out enough BTUs to keep the water warm...but maybe it could...or mount the radiator IN the car/water...that might do it.

Who's going to do it? And what other conceptual ideas can we come up with.

I put this in off topic, so don't be shy ;)

Clem
March 25, 2010 3:09 p.m. ClemSparks SuperDork

Oh...and just so you know that this is typical for me...another related idea is "SCUBACAR."

That is a car filled to the sunroof with water and the driver and passengers would be wearing self contained underwater breathing aparati. Or maybe snorkles sticking out of the sunroof.

Yes...I would love to do that for a parade or something. Ooooh...that's almost reason enough to do it...a parade!

Clem
March 25, 2010 3:23 p.m. Dr. Hess SuperDork

Get a 70's Caddy. On a good day, they got 8MPG. 6 on a bad day. That's a lot of BTU's for radiator heat. Route that through the tub zone and it would provide plenty of heat. A standard hot tub heater is like 3-6KW, and it needs to run about an hour a day to keep the tub warm, little more in the winter, little less in the summer. Now figger that a Caddy 472 is probably dumping 50 KW of heat at any given moment if you stomp on it and it should bring that tub up to temp in no time. Of course, you'll need jets and air bubbles and such, so you'll need some type of pump system. You might get by with just dumping the water pump output directly into the tub system. Maybe add some type of manual bypass to a conventional radiator for when it was hot enough. Otherwise, line from the water pump or block outlet (depending on flow direction) to the tub area to soothing massage jets, suction at the bottom.
March 25, 2010 3:27 p.m. neon4891 SuperDork

I have noting usefull to add, but that sounds awsome.
March 25, 2010 3:41 p.m. Trans_Maro Dork

Once you've parked it but before you've filled it, put some blocks between the frame and axle to support the hottub.

Your spring rate is now very close to infinity.

It's still mobile but it couldn't be a hottub AND mobile at the same time.
March 25, 2010 3:50 p.m. Chris_V SuperDork
March 25, 2010 4:35 p.m. neon4891 SuperDork

now to make one with a DMC
March 25, 2010 5:07 p.m. Toyman01 Dork

Top Gear water filled cars.
March 26, 2010 1:05 a.m. BobOfTheFuture Reader

Dr. Hess wrote:

Get a 70's Caddy. On a good day, they got 8MPG. 6 on a bad day. That's a lot of BTU's for radiator heat. Route that through the tub zone and it would provide plenty of heat. A standard hot tub heater is like 3-6KW, and it needs to run about an hour a day to keep the tub warm, little more in the winter, little less in the summer. Now figger that a Caddy 472 is probably dumping 50 KW of heat at any given moment if you stomp on it and it should bring that tub up to temp in no time. Of course, you'll need jets and air bubbles and such, so you'll need some type of pump system. You might get by with just dumping the water pump output directly into the tub system. Maybe add some type of manual bypass to a conventional radiator for when it was hot enough. Otherwise, line from the water pump or block outlet (depending on flow direction) to the tub area to soothing massage jets, suction at the bottom.

So, will that mean in the end you would end up with an old school caddy with esentially its own cooling tower, like a nuke power plant?
March 26, 2010 6:45 a.m. John Brown SuperDork

neon4891 wrote:

now to make one with a DMC

OOOH! Hot tub time machine!
March 26, 2010 7:56 a.m. mw Reader

I had always planned to do it with a pickup and my plan was to reroute the exhaust up through the bed. The exhuast wouldn't actually go into the water, but the pipes would be in the water to provide heat. It's not quite as awesome as your idea, but probably wouldn't destroy the vehicle. Actually, I just got my first pickup truck this week and it's got a pretty stiff suspension...
March 26, 2010 9:16 a.m. Trans_Maro Dork
March 26, 2010 9:18 a.m. DukeOfUndersteer SuperDork

In reply to Trans_Maro:

saw that pic, first thing that came to my mind was a banjo playing....
March 26, 2010 9:36 a.m. Chris_V SuperDork

I used to do a lot of custom paint and bodywork for a car accessories shop. They sold hot tub kits for minitrucks, and actually built a few as show trucks in the '80s. All they added to handle the weight in the back was air shocks. For some reason they always had hot girls in the hot tubs at the truck shows in the summer...
March 26, 2010 9:39 a.m. pinchvalve SuperDork

My buddy wired an old hot tub himself. Big 220v line running into a homemade control panel on the side. NO ONE got into that thing!
March 26, 2010 10:44 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork

I'm shocked
March 26, 2010 2:16 p.m. Gimp Dork

If you get it up to 88mph, do you then have a Hot Tub Time Machine?

You'll need to log in to post.