ISSN: 1391 - 0531
Sunday March 16, 2008
Vol. 42 - No 42
Mirror  

Zozo Mobile

Boy Toys By Ding

What do you get when you cross a Volkswagen with a Motorcycle? Nope. Watercycle is wrong. What you get, is called a Zozo Mobile. This ingenious creation is the brainchild of Zoran Jovanovic. Zoran who is a German national who has now made Sri Lanka his home. He runs a water-based adventure company called H20 World in Maldives, and during his free time in Sri Lanka with his two kids, he lets his grey cells come up with ideas like this.

The Zozo Mobile (Named after Zoran himself) is basically the iconic German made Volkswagen Beetle 1300cc, with the front of a Chinese made Loncin 150-6E (the Chinese need to come up with better names, I know) front fitted to it. Think of it as a Blutwurst-Chop Suey of sorts. It's combination of Germen precision mixing with Chinese mass production. Even Swiss geneticists wouldn't have foreseen this.

How did this start? Well in Zoran's own words, "I wanted to have a vehicle to drive around for short distances, without really having to sit inside an A/C car. You can't necessarily have a bike with kids and a wife." He thought about the topless Beetles used in parts of Europe, and came up with the idea of the fusion vehicle.

So he started the process by making sketches of the concept. These concepts were then shown to the mechanical genius Chaminda, who came highly recommended. After that it was a process of cutting, chopping, welding, and lots of fine tuning which resulted in the final Zozo Mobile.

The original engine from the Beetle remains, along with the rear brakes, rear seats and the gearbox. Even the throttle break and clutch pedals are from the Beetle. The front brakes however, are controlled through the handlebar of the bike. This gives the option of selective breaking (front / rear) to the driver.

Zoran's personal fastest on it has been 100kmh, and he says it was as stable as a Beetle could be. And the roof protects little Nikola and Sarah from the elements, who are further secured by rear seat 3-point seatbelts. For a homemade car, this is as perfect as it can get.

Where from here? Well, Zoran is building another one of these things, and has plans to make a VW based dune buggy for running on the sands of Negombo. BoyToys will be bringing you constant updates on how that exciting project is going in the coming months.

 
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