Whomobile Whereabouts?

[davidnagel]

It seems the famous Whomobile is making an appearance for the first time in 20 years at smallspaces event in July.
More info at http://www.hamex.co.uk/smallspace/smallspace-gen/smallspace-gen.html

 

[galacticprobe]

Is this the original Whomobile, or a replica? It looks like it has more pieces on it than the original did. (Or is it the original that's been modified?) Not sure why someone would modify it, though; when Jon Pertwee had it built, it was built to be street legal and was registered as an "Invalid Tricycle" because it was a street-legal three-wheeler. (It's amazing what you can learn from watching clips of 'Blue Peter' and reading interviews in Doctor Who Magazine.)

Dino.

 

[senseidale]

It is a shame the Whomobile is under raps, why don't the BBC try to buy her and have it on show at the DR Who experience in Cardiff or take it on tour, I would to see her.
Dale

 

[domvar]

Is this the original Whomobile, or a replica? It looks like it has more pieces on it than the original did. [/u].)

Dino.

Hi Dino

Which bits do you mean, the black windscreen was removed and replaced with the roof and canopy before planet of the spiders so was done by JP himself or are you meaning something else ?

Dom

 

[tony farrell]

Is this the original Whomobile, or a replica?
Dino.

Hi Dino, Smallspace is Mat Irvine's website - he unequivocally states that this is the real Whomobile - the original you might say!
Tony

 

[galacticprobe]

Which bits do you mean, the black windscreen was removed and replaced with the roof and canopy before planet of the spiders so was done by JP himself or are you meaning something else ?

Dom

I was referring to the "roof" bits on top because until now the only images I've seen of it showed it with an open top:


First seen in "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" with its original windscreen and wide open "cockpit" (windscreen replaced after this story);





all of these from "The Planet of the Spiders", and showing the new windscreen which still has an open top; that last image clearly shows that as you can see through the windscreen from the roof. (All images except for the last two are courtesy of the BBC web site, which took some digging through to find them; I can't remember where I found those other two.) There are others - all over Google Images - all from the same period as the episodes, and all of them show it with the open roof: no covering over it like it has in the photo David posted.

I've never seen it with a covered roof, until now; that's why I was wondering if that cover was a modification to the original Whomobile, or if the entire thing was a modified replica. (The "Danger Ejection Seat" triangle sticker is a nice touch, though, even if it wasn't ever shown with that in any of the episodes. Might try to get one of those stickers for my car just for fun.)

Dino.

 

[Five Fingered Styre]

I've never seen it with a covered roof, until now; that's why I was wondering if that cover was a modification to the original Whomobile, or if the entire thing was a modified replica.

I've only just discovered this but the roof section was there with the canopy from the start.

By complete coincidence I was watching Planet of the Spiders the other day and I noticed for the first time, but you only see it for a split second. Its in its first shot in episode 2, where the UNIT soldier is maintaining (cleaning?) the car. You very briefly see him remove it just before Lupton zaps him.



And then later in the episode you see it again on the floor next to the car and soldier just before Lupton makes off with the Doctor's space wheels.



They probably removed it so you could see more of John Dearth/Pertwee and Sladen during the chase scene.

it is a real "blink and you miss it" thing, it's taken me 40 years to spot it!

I do love this car. As Dale says its a shame its not on display at the Experience...

 

[galacticprobe]

it is a real "blink and you miss it" thing, it's taken me 40 years to spot it!

Wow! I'll say it is, and I obviously blinked when I watched the episode (keep me away from all angel statues!), and it was some time ago that I'd seen it (sometime in 1988, I believe, so you can understand why I didn't remember it).

Thanks for those screen grabs and pointing that out to me, Styre!

I do love this car. As Dale says its a shame its not on display at the Experience...

Yeah; I agree as well. But I believe Mat Irvine actually owns the Whomobile, so he would have to work out some sort of "lend/lease" agreement with the DWE to have it on display there. (And I think they would have to take exceedingly great care of it while it was in their possession!) The trouble is, it does belong to a private owner, so the DWE wouldn't be able to keep it on display forever; when the owner wanted it back, they'd have to return it. But at least it is making an appearance for the public. (Maybe if someone from here gets to see it they could mention something about letting the DWE display it for a short while - or periodically, during certain months of the year - and see what Mat Irvine's reaction to that is?)

Dino.

 

[Five Fingered Styre]

it is a real "blink and you miss it" thing, it's taken me 40 years to spot it!

Wow! I'll say it is, and I obviously blinked when I watched the episode (keep me away from all angel statues!), and it was some time ago that I'd seen it (sometime in 1988, I believe, so you can understand why I didn't remember it).

Thanks for those screen grabs and pointing that out to me, Styre!

I only noticed it for the first time last month. I'm old enough to remember watching Spiders when it went out (I was three and its responsible for my life long fear of Spiders... I always wanted thank Barry Letts for that ) and I have lost count of the amount of times i'd watched it since then. I'm a huge Whomobile fan (Like I said I was three when it first appeared, it was a flying space car... I never stood a chance... )and i've poured over pictures of it over the years and i'd never spotted then roof before...

I do love this car. As Dale says its a shame its not on display at the Experience...

Yeah; I agree as well. But I believe Mat Irvine actually owns the Whomobile, so he would have to work out some sort of "lend/lease" agreement with the DWE to have it on display there. (And I think they would have to take exceedingly great care of it while it was in their possession!) The trouble is, it does belong to a private owner, so the DWE wouldn't be able to keep it on display forever; when the owner wanted it back, they'd have to return it. But at least it is making an appearance for the public. (Maybe if someone from here gets to see it they could mention something about letting the DWE display it for a short while - or periodically, during certain months of the year - and see what Mat Irvine's reaction to that is?)

Dino.
[/quote]I'm planning on going... Not sure if its Matt that owns the car though...

I really hope its still a runner...

 

[lorisarvendu]

Referring back to earlier comments about CO making a model of the Whomobile. Although the original prop is now in private hands, as pointed out any company (CO or whoever) who wanted to make and sell a model would have to apply to the BBC for a licence.  But not only that, they would have to clear it with whoever owns the copyright on both the design and the concept, in the same way that Terry Nation's estate own the rights to the character of the Daleks, but the BBC own the copyright on the Dalek design.

Compare the Australian series K9, where the character was owned by Bob Baker, but the design by the Beeb; and the Yeti, who are owned by Lincoln & Haysman (they also own the character of the Great Intelligence, but nobody owns the design, since a disembodied Intelligence doesn't have a design...unless it's owned by whoever designed the original Invisible Man!  ;D )

 

[timewomble]

I'm pretty sure that the Whomobile actually went through two stages. One with a completely covered roof and one with that kind of quarter-cylinder shaped windscreen. I either read it in an interview with Jon Pertwee or saw him say it on TV somewhere. I don't expect I'll be able to track it down now though. :-(

 

[galacticprobe]

I'm planning on going... Not sure if its Matt that owns the car though...

Well, I was guessing at that, though I have heard that it does have a private owner. Since Mat Irvine was bringing it out, I just guessed that he was the owner. If he's not, maybe he could take the suggestion to the actual owner?

I really hope its still a runner...

It should be. It looks like whoever does own it has been keeping it in top condition. I can't imagine the owner spending that much effort to keep the vehicle looking so great, and not spending some time to keep it in running order as well. (For all we know, the owner could have enough property so he can take it out for a spin every so often, and still have it be out of the public eye.)

Oh, and for what it's worth... I've always been horribly arachnophobic, and "Planet of the Spiders" made my skin crawl! I was in the military almost eight years before I'd gotten to see this episode and I still wanted to watch it from behind the sofa! (There; I admitted it, and I'm not ashamed of it at all... mostly.)

I'm pretty sure that the Whomobile actually went through two stages. One with a completely covered roof and one with that kind of quarter-cylinder shaped windscreen. I either read it in an interview with Jon Pertwee or saw him say it on TV somewhere. I don't expect I'll be able to track it down now though. :-(

i don't think you need to track that down, timewomble. When it first appeared in "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" it had the quarter-cylinder windscreen you mentioned (and that's how it appeared on 'Blue Peter' when Jon Pertwee drove it onto the set). It had that new covered, split-down-the-center-like-a-SHADO-Moonbase-Interceptor windscreen when it made its next and final appearance in "Planet of Spiders". So you're right about it having gone through two versions/stages/revisions.

Dino.

 

[mark]

Referring back to earlier comments about CO making a model of the Whomobile. Although the original prop is now in private hands, as pointed out any company (CO or whoever) who wanted to make and sell a model would have to apply to the BBC for a licence.  But not only that, they would have to clear it with whoever owns the copyright on both the design and the concept, in the same way that Terry Nation's estate own the rights to the character of the Daleks, but the BBC own the copyright on the Dalek design.

Actually now that you mention this, it got me thinking.

JP had this car specially built for himself, not sure if he designed it personally or left that to the guy who built it. So that said, the BBC would probably never had any say as to any merchandising consideration?

I mean, it was Jon's car, his idea and all, it just featured in DW. I'm wondering if the copyright would have been Jon's and when he passed the vehicle on, the copyright now belongs to the owner of the Whomobile, sort of hand-me-down copyright?

I don't know anything to do with legal stuff, I was just curious.

 

[tony farrell]

A very recent picture of Matt Irvine with the Whomobile in readiness for its appearance at the "smallspace" event (the spring clips holding the canopy are clearly visible):



Tony

 

[galacticprobe]

Well, it really makes sense for the Whomobile to have a roof when you think about it. It's got windscreen wipers, and it's "street legal", which means that Jon Pertwee intended to drive it wherever in all kinds of weather; so a roof would be necessary to keep the weather out. That is, unless it was a nice day and you wanted to go for a spin with the top down/removed.

Interesting to see how those spring clips/latches hold the roof in place on the windscreen/canopy (which still looks like someone stole it from one of the Moonbase Interceptors!), and how the other latches hold the canopy closed.

And anyone that goes to the Smallspace 4 show, need we say it? (Take loads of photos!) ;D

Dino.

 

[tony farrell]

Well, it really makes sense for the Whomobile to have a roof when you think about it. It's got windscreen wipers, and it's "street legal"... Interesting to see how those spring clips/latches hold the roof in place on the windscreen/canopy (which still looks like someone stole it from one of the Moonbase Interceptors!), and how the other latches hold the canopy closed.
Dino.

Another photo (courtesy of Matt Irvine) with the fully enclosed canopy fitted:

It's a pity Milton Keynes is too far away for me. As well as Matt, Mike Tucker will also be there and they'll have a selection of models by the late Ian Scoones as well! So, to echo Dino, anyone that does make smallspace 4, please post pics!

 

[barryrwuk]

I'm not really sure where to post these pictures. I know they aren't directly connected to Doctor Who.

However, they are of interest to fans of The Whomobile.

This is a car called 'Xpac 400'. It was designed by George Barris, an American who was considered an 'Imagineer of America’s Future' - whatever that is. He instigated the Kustom car and hot rod revolution in post-war America.

The 'Xpac 400' was, apparently, made by Barris in 1963 - of all years. It was actually a hovercraft that could lift itself off of the ground. It was, however, considered a failure as a vehicle. Surely this was inspiration for The Whomobile. Who knows?

Um... anyway:









Barry 

 

[kingpin]

A word of caution whenever citing anything to George Barris, he has made a career out of intentionally distorting information about famous movie/television cars, suggesting he's done everything from design them to build them... Taking credit away from the people who actually made them.

Whether he really made that vehicle is something I'm not aware of, but he's claimed to have been the man behind the screen-used Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters and the DeLorean from Back to the Future when he wasn't involved with either production.

 

[davidnagel]

Um, was this posted in this forum at all?

[youtube]L-gOA4NcF4o[/youtube]

 

[galacticprobe]

A word of caution whenever citing anything to George Barris, he has made a career out of intentionally distorting information about famous movie/television cars, suggesting he's done everything from design them to build them... Taking credit away from the people who actually made them.

Whether he really made that vehicle is something I'm not aware of, but he's claimed to have been the man behind the screen-used Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters and the DeLorean from Back to the Future when he wasn't involved with either production.

Easy, Kingpin; it may not be Barris making those claims, but others. Things like that happen to famous people, and have done so from at least the mid 1860s in the US. Some "outlaws" have only killed a dozen or so people before they were caught and hanged, yet even today if you mention names like "Jesse James" some people will tell you that he killed over 40 people before he was stopped. Lighthouse Keeper Ida Lewis saved 18 people in her career at Lime Rock Lighthouse (now the Ida Lewis Lighthouse/yacht club), yet at the time people told stories that she saved hundreds. All you have to do is gain a little notoriety and before you know it people are attributing things to you that you've never done, and then others get upset thinking that said famous person is taking credit for something they haven't done. (Now if you're talking about Thomas Edison, then that's another story. Just about every patent he filed was on a design that one of his workers came up with; and they were given a choice, either sign everything over to Edison, or lose their jobs. So Edison got rich, and famous, on other peoples' work, while those people eked out a meager living.)

I've been poking around George Barris' business' web site, and nowhere on any page is there a claim to have made or designed ECTO-1 or the Delorean. There is a page that lists the cars that he has made, and none of those are included there: http://www.barris.com/carsgallery/tvmovie/cars-tvmovie.php. (One of my favorites is the 'ZZR' from the film "Out Of Sight", mainly because the car is just outrageous and the film is the epitome of corny campiness.) He has made custom cars for celebrities as well as for some film and TV work, but his site is not claiming ECTO-1 or the DeLorean in that list.

Anyway, you can get to the main page of the site from the link above (just turn down your computer volume first; the music, while uplifting, is rather energetic and loud!).

Dino.