Car Spot: Oscar Mayer’s Wienermobile

Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wiener …

What kid growing up in the 1960s doesn’t know the Oscar Mayer jingle? Food was fun then and so was Oscar Meyer’s Wienermobile, this week’s car spot, or is it a truck spot, or RV spot, or food spot?

It’s sort of all of those laid atop a fiberglass bun. I stopped everything to see it at a local grocery store since I hadn’t been this close to one since I was a kid. At the time Oscar Meyer was based in Madison, Wis., where I grew up, but let’s be frank (sorry) Oscar Mayer no longer calls Wisconsin its home, after the company closed its Madison plant in 2017.

The vehicle has evolved over the years from Carl Mayer’s cobbled-together original 1936 vehicle. It has used Dodge, Jeep, and Chevy chassis. There was even a prototype built on a Mini Cooper platform. The current versions ride on a custom chassis and are powered by a 6.0-liter 300 VORTEC V8 connected to a 6-speed automatic. Its custom fiberglass Dog is 27 feet long or, 60 hot dogs if you’re into measuring it like that, 11 feet high (24 hot dogs), and 8 ft. wide (18 hot dogs).

Inside, fun nods to the snack can be found throughout, from hot-dog-shaped dashboards and keys to floors painted with ketchup and mustard-colored swirls, plus a horn that can play the Wiener jingle in versions ranging from rap to Cajun.

I got excited one time when our daughter Meg sent me a link to a site where you could apply to drive one of the six Wienermobiles for the summer, but dog gone it, you have to be a college-age kid and I’m a bit past that. One cool thing they did at this recent stop was hand out whistles which we snagged. And then I found out wife Ann has an original one from 40 years ago. FUN, FUN, FUN!

RELATED Spot: The Bootmobile

Thanks for stopping by and reading about this spot. I have lots of others on our site so go and check those out. Come back next Friday for another one of my spots, along with some of its history, and have a great weekend. Hopefully grilling out and eating hot dogs.

Side note: Mr. Savage on Wheels, Mark Savage, test drove a Wienermobile more than 30 years ago with his kids aboard. Says it was a blast, but you’ll have to dig through some old Milwaukee Sentinel archives to find his story. Sorry!