Detroit man crosses border in minivan with 2 front ends – 1 made in Canada, 1 in the United States

When Zach Sutton drives down the street in his Chrysler minivan, it’s hard to tell whether he’s coming or going.

The Detroit man drives Bak2Bak, named after what he created by welding the fronts of two vehicles together. The front half is an old 1993 Dodge Caravan, the back half is a 1991 Plymouth Voyager. Together they look like two conjoined vehicles that can drive in either direction.

The decisive argument: the front half of the vehicle was built in Canada, the second in the United States.

For Sutton, who works in Detroit’s auto industry alongside Windsor residents crossing the border, it’s an unexpected act of vehicular diplomacy.

“It’s a model of what we might want to be, in a weird way,” Sutton said after traveling to Windsor to speak with CBC News.

“Working together as brother and sister countries.”

Sutton crossed the border for the first time with his Franken car on Tuesday. No stranger to DIY, the 29-year-old mechanical engineer is part of the Detroit Freakbike Experience, a group that builds bikes from unexpected parts and designs.

In addition to “crazy bike creations,” he does sewing, woodworking, metalwork, and “anything else I can do with my hands.”

Sutton says he thought about building the vehicle with two front ends because he likes automotive projects, but they tend to be “a bit insular, so I wanted something that everyone could appreciate and understand.”

“Silliness and fantasy are things universally appreciated.”

He built the vehicle in three days at the i3detroit Community Workshop in Ferndale, a makerspace where people with engineering-oriented minds complete creative projects. There, Sutton used a laser to split the vehicles in half.

When he put the two front pieces together, “they matched almost perfectly,” he said. “It was very satisfying.”

Bob Katovich, fellow community workshop space builder and Detroit Freakbike Experience member, helped Sutton with the division.

“We had to remove everything from the inside and take everything apart,” Katovich said. Once the vans were cut in half, “we had to figure out what to do with the back halves.” They loaded them into a van, which was “kind of a surreal, ridiculous experience.”

Sutton removed everything under Voyager’s hood. Its headlights became the vehicle’s taillights. The rear vehicle’s steering is locked, making everything drive like a regular vehicle. The fuel tank is located in the Voyager’s engine compartment.

There are only two seat belts, Sutton said. Four people could fit in the off-road vehicle, but it would be a tight fit.

At the border, he said, crossing was easy. The guards simply asked him “the usual questions.”

When people see it, he says, they are “either very confused” or “laugh and take pictures.”

“The second day I had it on the road, someone took it and put it on Instagram and it got millions of views,” he said.

“I didn’t really build it for anyone but myself. I just wanted to ride it and have fun with it.“