Master mechanic makes space-age vehicles suitable for alien invaders from normal family cars

A Florida-based custom car designer is creating vehicles that are out of this world, by giving normal road models an extraterrestrial twist.

Outlandish Michael Vetter takes ‘donor cars’ from paying customers, and makes a series of modifications to create his extraterrestrial vehicles – or ‘ETVs’ as he calls them.

The 42-year-old family-man, who owns custom garage The Car Factory in Micco, Florida, came up with the idea after the birth of his daughter, when he was unable to squeeze her car-seat into his sports car.

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Master mechanic Michael Vetter begins the process with ordinary family cars before extending the chassis

The old body is stripped off and an extra section is welded in place to make the car longer

Michael Vetter has described his space-age creations as ‘Extra Terrestrial Vehicles’

Vetter said: ‘My wife Shannon and I had our baby girl.

‘We had driven and owned many two-seater sports cars as this is what we do for fun and work.

‘We do not drink or smoke, so our social time was mostly cars.

‘Once we had our little girl we could no longer drive a two-seater and be together.

‘At this point I started drawing up sports cars with a back seat for the baby seat.

‘These cars ended up looking too weird to consider a sports car so I went completely off the deep-end and decided futuristic could work.

‘I used a Chevrolet Aveo when building the first ETV.’

Vetter’s wacky-looking creations are always road-worthy and can hit speeds of up to100mph.

He started building the ETVs in 1998 as his sole source of income.

And now he has converted everything from a Toyota Prius to a Porsche Boxster into one of his futuristic models, which have sold from as much as $75,000 to a staggering $250,000.

The horsepower of his space-age road cars have ranged from 95bhp to 300bhp and the creative process begins with splitting the original car in two.

Video: The masterful mechanic shows off his ETV cars on the track

The bodies are made out of fibreglass and are lifted onto the car before they are sprayed

Once the body is mated with the chassis, the car starts to look like something from a space movie

The curved fibreglass shells are designed to make the car look look like something from the next century

Vetter said: ‘The modifications I make to the donor car usually include cutting the car in half and stretching it to get a longer wheel base.

‘I use steel tubular metal to build a complete new frame inside of my custom fiberglass body.

‘I fiberglass this frame to the body, and then weld this frame to the donor car in at least 20 places.

‘I try to find headlights from other cars.

‘The ETV glass however has to all be custom made. This is a very expensive endeavour.

‘Next I usually build my own door hinges from scratch out of steel and or aluminum.’

The futuristic cars sell for between $80,000 and $250,000 from his car factory in Micco in Florida

All of Vetter’s creations are road legal and can travel at a maximum speed of up to 100 mph

Vetter’s donor cars include a Porsche Boxter and even a hybrid Toyota Prius

Vetter has been making his unusual vehicles full time since 1998 with a wide range of engines

The ETVs have engines ranging from a sedate 98bhp to a quite insane 300bhp unit

In keeping with the futuristic design, the cars have gull wing doors made famous by Mercedes in the 1950s

Because the bodies are made of fibreglass it is very easy for Vetter to develop new designs

Vetter welds a tubular steel frame to the chassis which then holds the car’s body safely in place

According to Vetter the cars can even be supplied in a right-hand-drive version for the UK and Japan

Vetter got the idea for his unique cars after his wife gave birth to their first child

The car’s headlights are normally sourced from other vehicles, but the glass is an expensive custom job

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