[UPDATED] All Hail the Chicken Car!

By Elina Shatkin Mon., May 16 2011 at 3:32 PM

The Chicken Car.

[Update: Even more advanced Google searches than the one we previously conducted reveal that the car was supposedly built by Steve Cantin of PetSitterVideos, who brought it to LA for use in a movie, where it was impounded, sold at auction and bought by race car driver Tommy Kendall. This was back in 2006, when Cantin was trying to get his car back from Kendall. The Trans-Am champ and his brother supposedly named it El Gallo and drove it around the country. Unclear who owns it now.]

We have no idea why this exists or where it's from, but we can, without a doubt, say that it is the best food art/automobile hybrid ever conceived in the history of humankind. Spotted yesterday in a Santa Monica parking lot, it's hard to miss this Oldsmobile 98 with its bright, sunshine yellow body and four-foot chicken head perched on the roof, proudly if inscrutably surveying the city's sad phalanx of gray and black vehicles. A beautiful tail sprouts from the trunk, completing the theme that dominates the car from stem to stern.

We know almost nothing about the car. Maybe it's the coolest, if most gas-guzzling, food delivery vehicle ever, but there are no ads anywhere on its body. Sporadic sightings indicate it has been around since at least 2005 and it hasn't always looked this good. Harry S. Truman wanted a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot, but we'll take a chicken in (or is that on?) every car.

If you have any further info about the Chicken Car, drop us a line!

For more photos, turn the page.

Tags:

Chicken Car, Elina Shatkin, Food Art, Oldsmobile 98, Steve Cantin, Tommy Kendall

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Gizelle

This car belongs to Barry Weiss of Storage Wars. He drove it in won of the episodes.

Rachellobato97

It was on an episod of storage wars barry was driving it.

LIBERAL_SLAYER

I wonder if Barry Weiss actually owns the car, or if he rented it for the episode. He seems like the type of guy who would buy that car just for the fun of it. There are other photos on-line when the car was not only beat up, it was wrecked. Somebody has spent some money restoring it. However, there is another web site with a picture of the Chicken Car and the site owner said they drive by the call all the time and it's always parked on a street in front of a small house in Santa Monica, CA so I don't see Weiss as the actual owner.

Just saw the McDonalds Chicken McNuggets commercial today (Superbowl Sunday) and the car is indeed in the commercial.

Diane2551

I saw the car on storage wars, driven by the guy named Barry

Glaegeler

The car is in the new McDonald's commercial for the chicken bites

Danmaynard

We know Steve and have contact infoSend an email Dan@dmaynard.net

Leelee

The car is now appearing in McDonalds commercials for Chicken McBites. http://www.popisms.com/Televis...

I also saw the Storage Wars episode, which is why I recognized it.

Kittyromeo

This car was in Columbus Ohio back in the 90's when it was owned by a local artist. It could often be seen parked on High st. In Clintonville, just north of the Ohio State University. Glad to see it still exists and has been restored to its former glory.

Hotcowgirl

just saw this car on an episode of Storage wars. It was awesome

I don't think this is the first iteration of this car. I have a picture from 2000 of a different Olds 98, different side markers and no body stripe. But the Tommy Kendall part of the story is very interesting, considering the pics that I have are from California Speedway.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/z...

Young John Yellowcake

Harry Truman?! It was Herbert Hoover who made the remark about chickens in pots and cars in garages. Confusing those two political and personality opposites is like mistaking Ronald Reagan for Jimmy Carter ... or a yellow Olds 98 dressed as a chicken for a bureaucrat's gray sedan. I have spoken.