Regulation of the Day 223: Fred Flintstone Cars

Sebastian Trager is an engineer in Germany who loves The Flintstones. He recently built a replica of Fred Flintstone’s car that looks almost exactly like the original. The only significant nod to modernity is that instead of being foot-powered, it has a 1.3 liter engine. Regulators, ever afraid that someone, somewhere might be having fun, quickly told Trager that he may not drive his car on German roads.

One reason is that German regulations require all cars to have windshield wipers. Trager didn’t think to install them, mainly because his Flintstone-mobile doesn’t have a windshield.

Other items are more substantive. Looking at pictures of the car, it also lacks side and rearview mirrors, and seatbelts. One imagines that it also lacks airbags. It also lacks turn signals, though Trager could use hand signals to alert fellow motorists when he’s about to turn.

After all the work Trager put into his creation, hopefully he’ll find a way to get at least some use out of it. It would be a shame to see this sparkling example of German engineering go to waste.

Or maybe he should have followed movie buff Paul Harborne’s example and created a replica Ghostbusters car instead.