Last week we talked about a spacecraft-looking car that was spotted at a Wendy’s in Ohio recently. It was mystery with so many twists and turns, that the automotive community was left scrambling. We needed to know the story behind this vehicle. Who built it? When? What is it? Why? Thanks to the super sleuth detective work of “oliver@triplezoom” on vwvortex.com, we now have the answer! The vehicle from Friday’s 1A Auto Blog is a Ben-Dera Ford built by John Bender over 3 years in the mid 1990’s.

It turns out that in June of 1998, “Car and Driver” actually featured this vehicle and it’s owner / builder. His name is John Bender and he built this vehicle because well….. he wanted to. In fact, he built a couple of them! I would go into details, but honestly, this article sums it up way better than I ever could.

Pictures borrowed from:

http://www.oliverdueck.com/misc/benderaford/

Which were originally in:

Car and Driver Magazine.