Did you ever drive one of these red and yellow tike cars when you were a kid?
Photo by Brett Jordan
They are pretty popular with the kiddos here in the U.S.
A British man has made an adult-sized version and is driving it on the roads throughout England.
Listen to this video to learn more.
Use the transcript that I created below to read along and help you understand it better.
I give explanations for some highlighted vocabulary words and phrases below.
What do you think? Would you drive this car? Tell me in the comments section!
Transcript of video by Lisa Biskup
Transcript
For many people, this is their first car. But now, there’s a grown-up version, and this one’s got more than pedal power.
John Bitmead has created a real-life, road-worthy, little tikes car. It takes petrol, has a tax disc (vehicle license) and goes a bracing 70 miles an hour. But the question is, “why?”
“I just thought, what a wonderful idea, to make something like that, but real.”
“Yeah!”
“Um…and as soon as I thought about it, I thought, I know the car. I know the car straight away. It’s got to be one of these.”
It took a thousand hours and more than £4,000 to make.
“What were the things that you really wanted to maintain about the original car, like what were the things that you were really glad your were able to kind of work on and keep?”
“The main thing is that I like the windows.”
“Although today, I have to say, I think that that could have been a nice addition.”
“Yeah, that was always going to be the main thing. I had to have no windows, because that is absolutely what the toy is.”
It’s just like the original, except there’s now an airbag, proper lights, and better mirrors.
They are going to use it to raise money for charity.
“Children’s charities, primarily. We are going to do the John O’Groats to Land’s End run, but in thirty days.
“Wow!”
“So every day, we can go so far, stop in a big town, and so we have been raising that total, really.”
For now though, John’s just enjoying being a big kid on the road.
~ Charlotte Stacey, BBC News
Vocabulary
a grown-up version: refers to the version or model of the car that he has made for adults; a grown-up is an adult
pedal power: pedaling is what you do when you ride a bike, you pedal (verb), using pedals (noun), in this car you have more than pedal power means you don’t have to just pedal to make it move, you have an engine, like a real car
road-worthy: describes the fact that this car can go on the road, it is worthy of being driven on the road, it’s not a toy
bracing: invigorating or refreshing, describes that going 70 miles per hour in this car is exciting, you might have to brace yourself or prepare yourself for it
straight away: used more in British English; we’d say right away, it means that you know something (or do something) immediately
proper lights: real lights; proper means that you are using real lights; if something is proper it is correct and works well
to raise money for charity: to gather money (by doing something special) for charity organizations; a charity organization is a nonprofit organization that helps society in some way; children’s charities help children in various ways, like around issues related to their health and well-being, education, etc.