Homeless man builds himself a car so he can find work.

Blind_Io

Blind_Io

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42329229/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

This is Orismar de Souza, a homeless man in Brazil, who decided to build the car he couldn't buy using junk, spare parts and a hammer and chisel. Four years later, the "shrimpmobile" has him back on his feet.



Souza, 35, had to panhandle in the Brazilian city of S?o Jos? de Piranha and go hungry for four months in order to raise the initial $270 he needed for sheet metal, which he cut into shape using a borrowed hammer and chisel. He scrounged a 125cc motorcycle engine, and gathered other junked parts from all over the region.


While Souza had decorated and traded metal cans as a child in exchange for food and clothes, he had no other experience in working with metal, and almost gave up when the steelwork became too difficult.


"Nobody believed, everybody laughed at me," Souza told Globo.com. "I was very humbled by this, but I won and I built my car alone with my own hands. "


By December, Souza was able to replace the motorcycle engine's kickstarter with a car ignition, and add in a gearbox with reverse. The mostly Fiat shrimpmobile can reach 50 mph on the highway, and Souza has been able to use it to find a home and a job in the local sugarcane fields.


Souza says his next goal will be to save enough money to have a garage for his creation. We wouldn't bet against him.
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https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blind_io/2011/03/30/110329-jalopnik-brazil-1.grid-8x2.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blind_io/2011/03/30/110329-jalopnik-brazil-2.grid-3x2.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blind_io/2011/03/30/110329-jalopnik-brazil-3.grid-3x2.jpg

Damn, I'm lucky if I can get through a basic fluid change without making a mess of it.
 
Stuff like this keeps me with hope for humanity.

Orismar de Souza, I salute you.
 
Pfft.

When he builds himself a laptop out of baked bean tins, sewing machines and bits of goat and posts that car on here, then I'll be impressed.

Kidding.

That much determination and ingenuity is made of deep-fried, sugar coated win!
 
Now that is what call moral fibre - good man, this bloke makes me think that the world is actually a better place than the Politicians seem to make out it is.

Exemplifies all that is good in the human spirit - overcoming adversity to create something worthwhile.
 
That's just damned impressive. I was expecting a go-cart with a tin roof.

laxmax613 said:
some auto company should give him an engineering job. seriously.
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Bet that car holds up better in a wreck than those Chinese sedans.
 
With build quality like that he could get a job at Mastretta.





But seriously, someone must have given him a job by now?
 
Damn, FIAT design reached an all-time low... :p
Seriously: read about it a few days earlier and no updates on his story so far. Really hope he gets a job or something.
 
Almost as cool as that African kid who built himself a windmill.
 
Because he *gasps* can actually work!

What business leader actually does that...phaha...
 
This could only happen in S. America (or maybe Africa). In the rest of the world, the bureaucrats would prevent him from driving it on the road. Good for him though.
 
I don't know about that.... I think kit car laws in the US are actually pretty flexible. It's certainly possible to road legalize a machine you've cobbled together yourself over here. Probably depends largely on the state though.
 
flexible, eh? so if i, for instance, imported an Alfa with the wheels and doors taken off and reassembled it, would that count? it arrived in multiple parts....
 
You would probably have to change the motor. Kit cars are kit body work typically fitted to an existing numbered chassis with an EPA-approved production motor.
 
THGL said:
This could only happen in S. America (or maybe Africa). In the rest of the world, the bureaucrats would prevent him from driving it on the road. Good for him though.
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You?d be surprised.
In fact, I don?t know how he is still driving on this thing. He will be fined, towed, etc etc etc as soon as a cop in a bad mood sees him.
 
It doesn't look like it's big enough to sleep in. It looks like a Wagon R.
 
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Why didn't I do that back when I was homeless?

Oh, right - the state of California makes it an expensive, time-consuming hassle to build your own car. But things worked out for me anyway, just as I'm sure they'll work out for Orismar.

Well done, man! :cheers:
 
I'm adding this to the encyclopedia of reasons that I have for Top Gear to do a Brazilian road trip.
 
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