► Coolest ever promo stunts (quite literally)
► The best car-related ice creations
► From ice sculptures to functioning vehicles
As unavoidable as overeating, overspending and oversleeping, the season for Christmas-themed marketing stunts is upon us. Lexus is the latest, revealing a set of wheels and tyres made entirely from ice, but they’re not the first manufacturer to turn to frozen water to promote their wares. Here are a few of our favourite icy promos.
Cool rims, bro
Talk about driving on ice. For Christmas 2015, Lexus has created what is claimed to be the first ever set of functional wheels and tyres made from frozen water (with a few strategic acrylic inserts to help bear the car’s weight). The product of three months of testing by specialists Hamilton Ice Sculptures, the wheels were fitted to a Lexus NX (like our long-termer), stored at -30°C for five days and then driven for real in London.
Jaguar F-Sleigh
The most Christmassy Jaguar concept car ever, revealed not in sheet metal, composite or even clay, but as an ice sculpture. Shaped like an F-type convertible but with skates for wheels (although some F-types we’ve driven have felt so tail-happy the handling’s probably not all that different), it features an open luggage compartment and relies on a jet engine rather than reindeer for propulsion.
It’s called the Jaguar F-Sleigh. Well, it’s no worse a name than F-Pace…
Canadian Tire Ice Truck
An ice car sculpture is all very well, but automotive products firm Canadian Tire went one better back in 2014 to create a functioning vehicle bodied by frozen water. Built as a publicity stunt for a battery designed to work at sub-zero temperatures, the Ice Truck was built over the (heavily reinforced) steel chassis of a Chevrolet Silverado. The igloo-like body, created by sculpture pros Iceculture, weighed more than six tonnes. Even more impressively, the whole caboodle actually drove.
Ford’s motor show icebox Focus
The self-proclaimed ‘coolest car’ at the British motor show in 2006, this full-scale replica of the Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet was created by a team working 40-minute shifts inside a giant freezer for a total of 160 hours. The sculpture weighed 6.5 tonnes. Only marginally heavier than the real thing, then.
Skoda’s monster ice cream van
A minor deviation from the main theme here, but Skoda’s mutant 21-foot-tall Mr Whippy van is hard to ignore, and not just because it’s bright pink. Claimed to be the world’s biggest ever ice cream truck, it was constructed for a 2013 television advert for the Skoda Octavia vRS and toured the UK the same year, serving up as many as 6500 free ice creams.
Nissan Ice Cube
Far too good a pun for Nissan to miss, the Ice Cube encased the company’s blockiest ever car design within an actual block, with a surface design carved by celebrity tattoo artist Henry Hate. Lit from within by colour-shifting light units, it remained on display on London’s South Bank in February 2010 until time and temperature took their course.
Any smashing ice cars we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below.