January 4, 2007: Atomic Dog vehicle

[Undertoad]

Sometimes IotD chases lead to some sort of international mystery. What is that thing? In this case, the daily 20minutos.es gallery had the official caption (rude character mapping included):

Automóvil estrambótico. La modelo Caro posa junto al coche de ocio 'perro atómico', en la feria CMT, en Stuttgart, Alemania, hoy jueves 4 de enero del 2007. El coche fue construido por estudiantes estadounidenses. La feria CMT, la más grande exhibición pública en Europa, para productos de entretenimiento, tendrá más de 1.400 expositores de más de 95 paÃ*ses y por ella pasarán 180.000 visitantes.

But I don't speak Spanish, so I gave it to Babelfish, who said this translated to:

Estrambótico automobile. The Expensive model puts next to the leisure car 'atomic dog', in fair CMT, in Stuttgart, Germany, today Thursday 4 of January of the 2007. The car was constructed by American students. Fair CMT, the greatest public exhibition in Europe, for entertainment products, will have more than 1,400 exhibitors of more than 95 countries and through her they will pass 180,000 visitors.

So fishing for more information leads me to the Official CMT site, which turns out to confirm nothing much other than that it is a public exhibition in Europe, and adds no detail on the car.

But "Atomic Dog", which the caption sort of overlooks, is a reference to... well... y'ever hear this?

bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay bow wow yippie yo yippie yay

"Atomic Dog" is a George Clinton song from 1982, which never became a hit single in itself, but became one of the most sampled songs in history, just because of that bit.

So is that a part of it? Yes, that's the whole point of it! Googling for atomic dog car finally resolves the mystery, with a story from the Houston Chronicle last week.

Bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yay!

The bark from funkmaster George Clinton's Atomic Dog has resounded all the way to Germany and will continue echoing in Europe, thanks to a spectacular art car constructed by a group of Waltrip High School students paying homage to the timeless dance classic.

The show-stopping vehicle - which stands nearly 14 feet tall and features dogs, musicians, guitars and spaceships - was recently displayed at the Essen Motor Show in Germany and is now in search of a permanent home on the other side of the world.

The international moment of fame is an honor for the 16 art students at Waltrip High School who invested thousands of sweaty hours building the car under the tutelage of teacher Rebecca Bass, who went to Germany to show off their work.

The honor comes on top of the students' unexpected thrill of meeting Clinton, an icon in funk music who led the bands Parliament and Funkadelic before embarking on a solo career in the early 1980s. The musician came to Houston in June to see the car after reading about it in the New York Times.

And the Chronicle story then includes a much better shot of the thing, to show you what's really great about it:




Wow. Just... wow.

Head to the Chronicle story for a gallery of 8 more shots if you like. Including one of Mr. Clinton admiring the car.