Parker Brothers Concepts are a Florida based company fast developing a reputation for producing often road-worthy and always fun concept vehicles. Shanon and Marc are two brothers that work seamlessly together utilising each of their specific skills to produce some fine looking vehicles that are bound to put a smile on your face.
Shanon is the company’s chief designer, while Marc is the practical one – he is tasked with the head-scratching role of staying true to his brother’s designs, yet making them workable. The final result is a set of fantastic vehicles that look like they have jumped straight off the page of a Marvel comic book.
Parker Brothers came to my attention when I heard about their pretty amazing looking Batmobile Tumbler that the brothers built for the 15th anniversary Gumball 3000. In charge of this monster of a vehicle, Team Galag with tongue firmly in cheek, described the process as a decision they’ve “regretted from the moment we made it”.
The Tumbler is a scale model of the original Batman vehicle and the project cost has been a phenomenal $1.55 million. This amazing vehicle, the TG1, weighs over 2 tonnes and has a twin turbo 3.8 litre V6 engine under the mass of carbon fibre. With a top speed of around 100mph and 750 horsepower emanating from that V6, this street-legal beast is not just for show.
AutoTrader
One of the oddest ideas the boys have come up with is the AutoTrader concept. From within the huge melting pot of vehicles that AutoTrader sells and features, was born the AutoTrader.com concept that Marc describes as an “old school, open cockpit roadster with a futuristic edge.”
With a huge trust in the reliability of Apple, all centre console gauges and other information is displayed on an iPad mounted in the centre of the dash. The vehicle is no slouch either with a 700 horsepower producing engine.
Cobra/White Lightning
As collaborations go, the one between Parker Brothers and the rapper, 50 Cent must rank as pretty unexpected. But 50 Cent likes his cars and has more than 50 cents to burn. He commissioned Parker Brothers to build a Formula One racing car and jet fighter inspired street-legal vehicle. The futuristic looking vehicle features a Top Gun style touch-screen display. The rapper has now christened his unique vehicle White Lightning.
50 Cent’s car collection also includes a Bentley Mulsanne, Lamborghini Murcielago the ubiquitous Range Rover, two bullet-proof Chevrolet Suburbans and a Yamaha YZF-RI motorcycle plus a couple of other Parker Brothers built vehicles.
Green Machine
For some reason this is the one that really fascinates me, I don’t know whether it’s the bright green colour or the fact that it’s a trike, but I think it looks great fun – apart from that rather unique steering idea that has been incorporated into the design.
The Green Machine is based on the notion of creating an adult version of a kid’s 3-wheeler bike that the guys grew up playing with. These kid’s bikes are known as Bigwheels.
The adult version has a full Harley Davidson (what else?) Evo engine under its shell. But what of that steering system? Trikes either have a steering wheel or standard motorcycle handlebars, but not the Green Machine. This trike has two chrome levers to control the direction in which the rear wheels point.
It looks so good I wouldn’t be surprised to see that the guys have changed the lever steering to something a little more likely to enable the Green Machine to become street-legal given time. Who wouldn’t want to ride such a beast along a sunny American desert highway?
All in all it looks like Shanon and Marc and the team behind Parker Brothers Concepts probably de-stress after the annual summer holidays by going back to work. Nice work if you can get it, as they say!
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