I don't know about you, but during my early years, I spent more time scooting around in a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe than I did riding in the back of my mom's VW Scirocco. My legs whirling like Fred Flintstone, it was a toy that cemented my fascination for the automobile; a feeling shared, I'm sure, by many throughout the world. If only someone made a working Cozy Coupe for adults, with an engine that detached us from reality and made us feel like we're back on our parents' driveway, racing dastardly villains.

That dream has now been realized by a couple of British blokes, who ran up a $50,000 bill at work while creating an adult-sized Cozy Coupe out of a Daewoo Matiz.

John Bitmead, 48, and his brother Geoff received permission from their boss, Nigel Douglas of Attitude Autos in Oxfordshire, England, to work on converting the tiny Daewoo into a lifelike replica of the adored toy. It wasn't an easy job, either, taking more than 1,000 man-hours that consisted of stripping the interior, removing the roof and rear doors, chopping the entire car in half, shortening it, then stitching it back together again. Next they cut the front doors to the desired shape, added a fiberglass seat, some roof pillars, and the best part — the classic yellow roof.

Not only is the Cozy Coupe all grown up, it's also road-legal. It took five months to complete and is beginning to draw plenty of attention for the British company that creates bespoke vehicles for promotional use, perhaps making the $50,000 in development costs a little easier to swallow. Under the hood it features Daewoo's 0.8-liter, 3-cylinder engine, and the Bitmeads claim to have tested the machine on the highway, saying it scared the bejeezus out of them.

As a kid, your Cozy Coupe might have beaten Dick Dastardly with ease. But with a 0-60 mph time of 17 seconds, this grown-up Wacky Racer might leave you screaming for Muttley.

Photo: Attitude Autos via Facebook