San Diego Automotive Museum

This San Diego Automotive Museum guide centers on Louie Mattar, a local mechanic who spent years rigging his 1947 Cadillac with a chemical toilet, kitchen sink, bar, ironing board and an exterior shower fed by a fifty-gallon tank. In September 1952 he and two companions pointed that car toward New York with a plan to keep the engine running the whole way, rotating through driving, sleeping and cooking shifts rather than ever pulling over. You'll hear how a rolling gas truck kept pace with them on an airfield runway to refuel without stopping. Look for the running board where the shower's water line was fitted.