The tools of the trade of a car journalist usually aren’t that exciting. You’ll find that many of us carry around flagship phones and Apple MacBooks. Those journalists who are really into photography might also carry camera gear. At least Jason gets heavily into retro computing. Otherwise, it’s a real snoozefest and I’ve decided to do something about it in the most silly way possible. I just turned a gigantic radio control Chrysler PT Cruiser into an octa-core article creation machine and I’m stoked. Here’s how you can do it, too.
It’s no secret that I am a fan of the Chrysler PT Cruiser. I’ve gone up to bat for unloved cars for years because I love the maligned and hated vehicles out there. This was even before I began this career in writing about cars. Well over a decade ago, I was in the tech field and my job was keeping three dozen workstations alive in a call center. A co-worker noticed my love for cars and one day she hauled in a gargantuan Chrysler PT Cruiser and plopped it onto my desk as a present.
Sometimes, journalists exaggerate when they use terms like “huge” or “massive,” but it absolutely applies here. This radio control PT Cruiser from New Bright comes in at a staggering 1/6 scale – it’s over two feet long! (26.5 inches, to be exact).
What did I do with such a girthy piece of hardware? Nothing. The PT Cruiser spent the rest of my IT career being a desk ornament. It was basically my calling card. You knew which workstation was mine because a big PT Cruiser took up a quarter of the desk.
Part of the reason I kept the Biggie PT around was my fascination with its level of detail. In the early 2000s, New Bright made a bunch of these 1/6 scale cars from the Cadillac Escalade to the Volkswagen New Beetle. All of them have an impressive amount of accuracy for what’s ostensibly children’s toys. Take a look at my PT Cruiser here:
These cars weren’t exactly Minichamps or Autoart models here, but they were large enough to park one of those models inside of them! The RC part of the PT Cruiser was also nice. Big RC cars like these are super easy to control and I love the simulated engine noises it makes, too.
Sadly, the PT Cruiser has been living in a closet since late 2020. Working from home meant that I just no longer had a big enough desk. Over time, I’ve also just forgotten that it even exists. That changed a couple of weekends ago when I cleaned out the closet, rediscovering the chunk of scale DaimlerChrysler car.
Coincidentally, I’ve also been getting back into building custom computers. I used to build computers and make computer-inspired jewelry for fun, but then my car collection got too huge and all of my time went to keeping cars alive. Now I have the time to get back into my old hobbies. This made a lightbulb pop on above my head. What if I combined my love for cars and my old love for computers?
A few weeks ago I got back into my computer hobby by building an Asrock Deskmini X300 barebone computer with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT and some sweet RGB. It’s surprisingly quick and super tiny!
With that computer itch really blowing up into my old obsession, I got the urge to build another PC. Now I could have just shoved the Deskmini’s board into the back of the PT Cruiser, but that would have been too easy. The Deskmini’s special micro motherboard also doesn’t allow for graphics expansion. I wanted the PT Cruiser to be as close to a normal computer as possible.
To achieve this, I broke out the measuring tape, where I figured out that the PT Cruiser’s trunk is just large enough to fit a Mini-ITX motherboard with a few millimeters to spare.
Perfect! I’ve been using a Mini-ITX build as my work computer for the past few years or so. Check out the computer I was using for work until last week. It has an anodized aluminum case, a Ryzen 5 4500, and a GTX 1650. It wouldn’t be as great as a gaming rig, but it punches out articles without breaking a sweat.
I swear my favorite color isn’t red, I just end up with red things:
For the PT Cruiser build, which I’ve named the PC Cruiser, I decided to get the most horsepower I could for the least money. But I also wanted to leave the PT Cruiser unmodified. I don’t really want it to be obvious that there’s a computer inside.
That part was easy. I separated the chassis from the body and then removed the rear bench seat. This gives enough space for a Mini-ITX board and a small form factor power supply.
Next came choosing the computer. I really wanted to drop a Ryzen build into the PC Cruiser, but I couldn’t find a cheap one for sale. What I did find was an Antec ISK110 Vesa-U3 mini PC build. This is an old case that came out in 2012, but it had something I really liked. Antec fitted the case with a super tiny 90-watt to 150-watt power supply with passive cooling. That micro PSU would fit into the space where the PC Cruiser’s rear bench used to exist and I wouldn’t even have to cut a hole in the bottom for a fan. Perfect!
The computer also came equipped with a motherboard, an Intel Core I5-9400 six-core CPU, and 16GB of RAM. The whole package was just $108, which I couldn’t pass up.
Upon getting the computer, I first disassembled the entire build, being sure to take the case’s PSU, ports, and switches along for the ride. Then, I tested the naked computer to make sure it worked fine. The little computer was happy! Next, I decided to get a little silly. Antec says its power supply can handle a 65-watt CPU while the motherboard said it supported Intel 9th generation chips, so I decided to get the best 65-watt CPU I could get on a budget.
That chip turned out to be a Core I7-9700, an octa-core processor with a base clock of 3 GHz and an advertised rating of 65 watts. This will be overkill for just writing articles. It was only $90!
Unfortunately, the CPU failed my initial testing. The CPU has a feature that allows it to temporarily boost up to 4.6 GHz. That’s sweet, except for the fact that when it’s doing that it’s consuming more than 65 watts of power. If it stays at 4.6 GHz for too long, the PSU shuts itself off for protection. Oh and the used I7 I bought didn’t come with a cooler, so I’ve temporarily slapped the I5’s cooler on it and it’s not really good enough for the job. At 4.6 GHz the CPU was at 89 degrees Celsius.
So, I turned off the turbo boost. Since then it’s been staying right at 65 watts, barely above ambient temperature, and the PSU is nice and happy.
Installing the completed computer into the PC Cruiser was hilariously easy. I shoved it through the tailgate at an angle, then I plopped it down on the trunk floor. Then I tucked the PSU into the space where the rear bench was.
For ventilation, I’m just leaving the doors and tailgate open. All of the cables also exit out of the open tailgate. When I’m done working for the day, I just close the doors and tailgate. It just works so perfectly as a computer it’s almost as if New Bright made this RC car for this purpose.
What’s next for the PC Cruiser? I’m not even close to being done yet. First, I want to add some RGB strips to brighten up the interior a bit. Then I have a silly plan for the CPU’s cooler.
A month ago, Cooler Master announced its new V-Series air coolers. The headlining feature of these coolers, aside from thick heat pipes, is their car engine-like appearance. Weirdly, this isn’t the first time Cooler Master has tried to get car people into computers by using an automotive-inspired design. The last time was roughly a decade ago. This time the coolers actually look like engine blocks, which is so cool.
Beginning sometime next month, Cooler Master is going to sell these in V4 to V10 configurations and I plan to get the V8 model. When it’s installed into the back of the PC Cruiser it’ll look like the car has twin engines. It’ll have the little fake four-cylinder up front and a “V8” in the rear.
When the car is all closed up you can’t even tell the computer is in there. Another cool part is that since I didn’t break any of the car’s functions, it still works as an RC car, too!
I’ve also left room for expansion. The PC Cruiser has room for a proper small-form power supply (because who knows how long the baby PSU will last). If I go that route, I should be able to slide a dedicated graphics card in there, which will be hilarious. One day I could also just go all out and build a high-end PC in the PC Cruiser. However, I already have a dedicated gaming computer, so I won’t need to go that far.
For now, I’m just enjoying what has been the most fun I’ve ever had building a computer. Now, I finally have a computer befitting my job title and it just so happens to be a car I like, too. Dare I say? The PC Cruiser might be the best use of a PT Cruiser you’ll see for a long while. I can’t wait until I get the PC Cruiser to its final form and get it complete with RGB, underglow, and that engine-like cooler. Oh yeah, the 2000s are so back!
Top graphic image: Mercedes Streeter
Bravo! What a fun build.
This is amazing. Great idea and great execution keeping it simple.
Fun!
I think a desktop could meet 98% of my computing needs. But I can’t pull the trigger based on those final percents. Probably why I can’t have an electric car unless it has 600 mile range and can recharge in 10 minutes.
Joking aside, this may inspire me to build something for my garage computer. I am tired of using my phone for youtube tutorials and music streaming.
As the owner of a matching full size PT Cruiser I love this build.
Next you need to build one with a Chevy pickup where the HDMI port shaped exhaust tips are actual HDMI ports.
Initially I assumed this would be a Pi build. Well done! I was confused what GPU would be running off your 90W PSU, what graphics card will fit that’s an upgrade over iris?
Also, you need the power cord to plug into the gas tank. Make door handles become the USB input. Exhaust for monitor connection. Agreed on using indicators for PC lights.
For cooling, how about some good vents and chrome JC Whitney portholes? Good full authentic!
Also, I love Ryzen builds. I think they are by far the best bang for buck.
The advantage of bing into computers over cars, is that you get to do your tinkering inside where it’s warm and dry, and there’s generally less liquids involved.
You’re still at risk of injuring yourself though, nothing makes you wince like your hand slipping, and a pin on the motherboard going under your nail. 🙁
They way both hobbies are similar though is that for 99% of people they’re just appliances, and for weirdos like us they’re really interesting in all their forms.
That’s so cool, I’m a fan of the PT Cruisers too, and computers!. I wish car makes had kept going with the retro designs the world was a much more fun place in the early-mid 2000s.
Nice work! I’m pretty sure that “Antec” is a more modern version of a variety of system called a “Thin Client” — specifically, a particular model OEM-rebranded variously by Dell, ChipPC, and 10Zig, amongst many, many others. I forget who actually makes em… but I /swear/ I’ve seen that specific case design as a thin client before.
As an aside… here’s a doozy. I’m looking for a fairly large model of an early-90s Escort LX. It was my grandmother’s final car, and the family car I got driven around in for over a decade after she passed into What Lies Beyond. Hers was a ’91 model… silver exterior, Grey and black interior. I don’t have the patience for kits, and I certainly don’t need anything two feet long, but maybe half that ish or a little smaller would be about right. I have a very particular nostalgia project for it…
That RC car seems to have better build quality than the real thing somehow.
Jokes aside, really cool build!
I love this! A really cool manifestation of the colliding of two of the areas of your interest and expertise.
Someone who was also into 3D printing could also do a riff on this by taking whatever size they want of an RC vehicle, ditch the body and make your own custom PC vehicle body to plop on top of a mini/micro PC build mounted on the motor sled.
Next project:Turn a IBM PC-XT into a hoverboard.
I love it!
Big PC guy over here, love building my own and know my way around a dremel. Love this project.
Ooh a computer article.
But will it run Crysis?
That’s pretty cool and I bet you’re the only person to have one. Well at least until this article was published and gave people ideas.
Oh, man, I’ve been out of the game for a while, but that line takes me back to 2007.
Oooh, you could get a mini pallet coaster and trim it out, then put it on top of the motherboard around the heat sink; get some of those super thin zip ties and run them as ‘straps’, so it looks like the PT is carrying a project engine somewhere.
The thermals inside of that thing must be concerning. Coffee Lakes run hot, and the inside of these old R/C cars are just big plastic bubbles. No ventilation.
One interesting thing you could do is that network activity light could be the left turn signals, and the disk usage light could be the right turn signals. The power indicator could be the headlights, taillights, and foglights being on. Most boards let you re-route internal I/O over the pin headers to go to a daughter board for indicator LEDs after all.
Now you’re making me wonder how much it’d be to get a Maistro made Mustang Mach III 1/40 model like I had as a kid and put a Latte Panda in it…
Since it’s running with the tailgate open, the power light should be the dome light.
I was very concerned about thermals at first. The thermals are okay enough for now since the CPU is being throttled and I’m leaving the car entirely open when it’s on. But yeah, I’ll have to revisit that at a later date. The second I give it a real PSU and turn the taps back up I’m screwed in that regard. One of my future plans involves cutting discrete holes into the underbody and mounting case fans.
Got that exact RC car for my daughter many years ago. She would put her Barbies in the driver and passenger seat and chase the cat.
This reminds me of some nerds on YouTube building PCs into 1/14 scale trailers so they can tow them around with Tamiya RC semi trucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jGY9f8AzVg&list=PLehh31QCwQ3pgjHb4d4Ae8ZyaGSU1CyrG
Perfect for writing Autopian content.
Remember, every 100 articles you must change the timing belt.
What happens if I forget to? RIP my RGB. 🙂
Could you put a Raspberry Pi into a 1/24 PT Cruiser, I wonder.
PI Cruiser?
I think a Pi Zero W would fit, and barely run a Linux desktop.
That might be a bit too small. The problem is the cables to connect the power, monitor, keyboard and mouse, plus access to a USB port if you need to plug in a thumb drive.
I’ve got an old R2D2 desk phone that’s about a foot tall and 6 inches in diameter, and had to get a handful of short extension cables with various angled ends to get the port connections where I wanted them (at the backs of R2’s three “feet”). The Pi itself fits no problem, but it takes up a much bigger footprint when you start plugging in cables.
I think it’s a Pi 3, and if I remember correctly it’s got ports coming out of four sides. It handles my 34″ monitor just fine, though.
The Pi has the GPIO pins is the main thing, and newer 4Bs and 5Bs have both Micro-HDMI and DisplayPort over USB-C. The Pi 400 AIO actually uses the DisplayPort over USB-C to plug in a second monitor. With a proper wireless USB keyboard and mouse combination you just need two cables. And Adafruit already sells a right-angled USB-C adapter to fit into tight spaces and USB-C splitters so you can run multiple monitors.
Honestly the biggest problem would be getting a monitor that uses USB-C input. All of the ones I’ve seen are cheap battery powered things meant to be hooked up to tablets.
There’s plenty of cables and boxes that will break out USB-C DisplayPort. I have a USB 3.2 hub that splits into 3x USB and one DP, for example.
When my late, unlamented job gave me a new laptop, it only had 3 USB ports. My cheap Aukey USB hub, an HDMI to USB C adapter and a DisplayPort to USB C adapter resolved my issues.
You think that’s bad, about a year ago I bought an 8″ laptop that everyone just calls the Aliexpress P8 (which I just call a palmtop because it’s damn near the same size as an old Sharp PC-3000) and the thing only has one USB 3.2 port. Thankfully I still have a KVM switch from where I used to run three computers simultaneously at my desk so its not a problem, but it’s still really weird and awkward.
From one SFF enthusiast to another – this is beautiful. Can’t wait to see the final form!
Do a search for “compubeaver”. Yes, someone shoved a computer in their beaver.
That sounds like a scary google on a work network. ha
Did they keep the Teeth?
Rodentia Dentata! What a wonderful phrase!
I am NOT going to Google that at work.
Is that like the legendary “install Linux on a dead badger”?
Well this is pretty awesome. Also, first a New Bright 1:6 PT Cruiser Easter egg a couple weeks ago, and now a full blown article??? You are going to make me find one of these like I had 20 years ago and turn it into a Roomba or something.
When you need a bigger computer, will you upgrade to a motorhome?
Better yet, have the PT pulling a model Airstream, and you could have the keyboard slide out from under it, and the screen could pop up from inside it.
Is there a such thing as a 1:6 Winnebago? I’m afraid to Google that because I don’t want my bank account to cry. 🙂
I suppose it depends on how nerdy you’d like to get. Pretty much any model is going to be smaller than that, probably 1:24 scale. There are loads of those in the $25-75 range, but obviously too small for the PT. But if you had a friend who could 3D scan that and 3D print it, you’d be in business. To me, someone who loves to make things, that would be totally worth it. It might be too much trouble, but it would be amazing to have
So Rad!
I love it! I built a computer inside a subwoofer decades ago, and want to build one in a car wheel at some point for my garage computer.
Great work!