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Meet the Famous 27-Foot Wienermobile by Oscar Mayer

For over 125 years, Oscar Mayer has been one of America’s most popular meat and cold cut production companies. Apart from their famous hot dogs and sandwiches with ham, the Chicago-based food maker is renowned for their greatest branding contribution which is the custom-built Wienermobile they built in 1936. The folks from Gear Patrol have recently taken a ride with the vehicle and it turns out it’s quite cool.
The Wienermobile 1 photo
Photo: Screenshots from Gear Patrol's Youtube Account
Initially, it was designed for the Chicago of the 1930s, but nearly 90 years later the famous car is still rolling around spreading fun, handing out Wiener Whistles and making everyone smile. As you probably already figured out, the car was custom-built to take the shape of a giant hot dog on wheels. However, its size has grown significantly over the years, as the vehicle is now 11 feet (3.35 meters) tall, 27 feet (8.2 meters) long and just over 14,000 pounds (6,350 kg).

Powered by a 6.0-liter V8 engine, the massive wurst’s shell is made out of custom-made fiberglass, while inside there’s a ketchup-and-mustard-styled carpet, hot dog-shaped dashboard and blue sky ceiling. Gear Patrol had the chance to ride along with two hotdoggers, “Spicy Salami Spencer” and “Jess Cooking,” who were actually on a long 40,000 mile road trip.

The Wienermobiles go way back

Before you watch the Gear Patrol’s video, let us look back in history for a second here. The first version of the hot dog-shaped famous vehicle was created in 1936 by Oscar’s Mayer’s nephew, Carl G. Mayer, and variants are still used by the Oscar Mayer company today. In the 1950s Oscar Mayer and the Gerstenslager Company created several new vehicles using a Dodge chassis or a Willys Jeep chassis. One of these models is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Minnesota.

Late 60s and the beginning of the 70s new Wienermobiles were built on a Chevrolet motor home chassis and featured Ford Thunderbird taillights. The 1969 vehicle was also the first one to travel to foreign countries. With the years passing, more efficient vehicles were built, switching to fiberglass and styrofoam models, with the latest models having GPS navigation device, an audio center with wireless microphone and a horn that plays the Wiener Jingle in 21 different genres.

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