Towns Interstyl Hustler 4 Wood Goes for a drive 

Gotta love turn signals that sound like a heat seeking missile alert

Imagine the splinters you'd get in a crash.

That’s the car I used to draw as a kid 😂

I love it when just about 32:25 he goes by a van and you can hear them laughing over the sound the car makes.

Hi, Just watched the video, thank you for being so complementary about my car ( his name is Fouie) A couple of small comments, there is no metal or fibre glass sub structure under the wood other than the two mini subframes, they are joined by 18mm marine ply box sections not fibreglass. The steering column is Triumph Dolomite and you missed the Ford Capri bits. It was great fun to build and own and it has always been head turner. Fouie has never been very quick, a little engine is working hard as Fouie weight is one and a half times more than a standard mini. Great video about a great little car. Angie

This is the car I imagine LGR drives.

When I saw this for sale a couple of weeks ago I thought two things: - That's never going to sell and - I want one

my first thought was it looks like the cabs from Total Recall with Arnie

It looks like a hearse imitating a coffin.

Wow! I remember reading articles about those in the eighties but I've never seen one. That would be the star of any car show. Fantastic. There was a guy who built a car completely out of wood. Wooden body, wooden wheels, even a wooden engine. The only problem was it wooden go. I'll shut the door on my way out. Bye.

What in the name of

Imagine local speed camera verifier looking at the pictures asking the sarge was there a hurricane that day as a wooden greenhouse just been caught speeding. Love it.

How is nobody talking about how it’s literally called “hustler 4 wood”🤦🏼‍♂️

At least you won’t have to worry about rust! Termites maybe but not rust! 🐜

It looks like the TopGear HammerHead Eagle i-Thrust if just James May designed it! 😂

Fancy failing the MOT due to woodworm!

When you want an Aston-Martin Lagonda (known as The Anteater here in the States) and a woody wagon in the same car, very interesting things can happen!

I can scarcely believe the stuff permitted on British roads, even back then! Takes guts to drive it on public roads today; Cheers!

I’d never heard of this amazing example of British engineering and eccentricity until watching this video. My reaction went from “What on earth is that?” To “Where do I get one?” In the space of about six minutes. The strangest thing is that I live in Moreton in Marsh, where William Towns lived and had his workshop. Makes me proud. Thank you for this lovely dose of education 😊

'A hearse for Smurfs..' 😂 Would that be a Smearse?...

That car is simply incredible. Those "windoors" look like the one my uncle had back in the 80's on his shop's display cabinets. Even the lock! Brilliant video

What the.........!!!!! Is this what happens when golf buggies grow up? Loved the review, a refreshing change from the 'normal' boxes with wheels.

Wow what can I say? Did expect that, top notch content as usual. Needs to go to a museum so it can be appreciated by all. What a labour of love the couple who built it must of got massive satisfaction from it. Nice one Matt 👍

It looks like a stereo cabinet on wheels.Imagine it catching fire, it would be like a bonfire with all that wood.Ugly, but a certain charm.

Full of admiration for the builder, what a top job, one of the best built British cars of the 80's 😉 I recognised the switches, they were our work's car of choice at the time, when was the last time a Strada was seen in the wild?

This car is just utterly delightfully bonkers! Kinda Nissan Prairie meets Tesla Cybertruck with a bit of yacht thrown in I guess?

It's a Johnny Cab from "Total Recall" :D

“Building a car is surprisingly difficult , even when the parts are in front of you”........ I can scarcely manage furniture, when it is in self build form. There are always bits left over.... or bits missing. Mercy Mercy.....

The smiles per miles value is through the roof 😁😎

A certain Lazy Gaming Reviewer would love this.

I got the Fiat Strada switches straight away, I remember playing with them in a family friends car in the early 80s. They were very unhappy with their Strada, it gave them endless trouble. Love the fluorescent interior light, it's made by Labcraft. looks like it has outstanding visibility with all that glass!

I built a Wooden Hustler in 1986 and used it as an everyday car for about ten years. It was built entirely of wood, there was no steel or fibreglass frame to the body. It certainly didn't retain the floor pan from the original car, I don't know where you got that idea from. As I recall there were 86 panels or thereabouts. The Weller wheels were not part of the kit, which was best thought of as plans and glass, although Towns did supply some lights, which weren't specially good quality. I think they were probably trailer lights. I didn't build the instrument panel out very far from the bulkhead as there was a tendency to kick it when getting in and out of the car. I had the switches fitted to a panel on the side. It's certainly true that everyone looked at it and wanted to ask about it. I definitely felt rather like a goldfish in a bowl! The visibility was certainly excellent and it was fun to drive. It did have issues though as it was a lot heavier than a standard body, and the cooling wasn't very good as only about two thirds of the radiator vented to the outside, although a cowling on the top part did help somewhat. I didn't have issues with it rattling though, which you mention several times. As you say, I suspect that few were ever built. I've never seen another one, apart from the prototype and now the one in this video.

You wooden want to be in a crash?

I think he could at least have made the steering wheel square as well as the road wheels for consistency!

"Some friend in a shed knocks out something..." It looks like said friend put wheels on said shed and called it a car.

This thing looks like a cartoon car from the 1970's and I really want one now.

I like the fact the car has a fire extinguisher for those small emergencies.

This gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, like being in a boat on Lake Windermere in the 80's - nice one Matt

I remember these! Saw a 6 wheeler at a kit car show many years ago - I think that was possibly a woodie too. Fantastic car, you are picking some great vehicles to "go for a drive" with!

Best Goes for a drive episode EVER! Came home tired and exhausted, saw your new installment and it made me smile again, thank you! Incredible this car, so well made and so unique

I think this is the first time you've reviewed something I've never even heard of! Such an interesting idea. I think the wiper is from a Citroën Visa, as it lacks the washer tube found on the BX and CX.

OMG I F-ing love it! Back when cars were actually interesting and had style. I'd love something like this (maybe with an electric motor) to scoot around my town.

Thank you for a really good video. Fascinating how versatile wood (and Mini) can be. Really enjoyed this.

I do vaguely remember seeing this car as a magazine or newspaper photo decades back. For some reason I thought it was a one-off built and designed by schoolkids in South Wales. Maybe a school bought the kit and assembled it as a Design and Technology project, and a local paper took pictures and wrote an article about it, which was then picked up by the national press. A truly comprehensive, informative and interesting vid - very well done. Kit cars are certainly a part of British motor history, albeit as you say, with variable quality - and many were bought , but fewer were actually completed. Certainly this one would make a very good exhibit for a car museum or for a collector to take to car shows where it would get a lot of interest; it's certainly very original, a bit wierd and beautifully made. I'm also not quite so sure about the practicality as a daily driver, despite the Mini underpinnings. Safety in a collision would be my biggest concern.

did anyone else physically jump at the reflections of the cars in the other lane? looked just like a head on collision for half a second!

They also did a jaguar based version the highlander with 6 wheels and a V12

My school teacher built one in the 80s as a project. Great to see one again

Hi Matt I can vaguely remember the 6 wheeled one like this,it's a great video to watch,almost everything made of wood.

Looks like an A-Level Craft Design & Technology project! I thought "Talbot Tagora" when I first saw the front quad headlights.

It looks like someone looked a shipping crate and thought “what a waste, I reckon I could do something with that”.

The front wiper on that car is from a Citroen Visa. My 1982 Visa Super E had exactly the same straight wiper arm and big blade. The rear lights are Triumph Dolomite and the exterior mirrors look very much like standard issue BL door mirrors seen on everything up to the early '80s when they got replaced by cheaper plastic ones that snapped off very easily. Clearly the person that built this one did a lot of parts shopping at their local BL dealer, which makes a lot of sense as, if you're buying a lot of stuff, you can usually wangle a good discount. The front seats in this one are also BL items, as is the steering column, not Mini, as they had the light switch on the dashboard at the time, but Triumph Dolomite again, that rotary light switch was a Triumph-only item, one of very few items not shared across the whole BL family, though I imagine you could use a variety of columns from the BL range to tailor the driving position to best suit you when you were building it... The Hustler 4 wood actually was crash tested in comparison to the Mini, and did rather better than the stock car, especially in terms of side impact intrusion, though this was a vehicle built by the team at Interstyl and the results would be very dependent on the woodworking skills of the builder. William Towns was very keen on vehicle safety and paid to have all versions of the Hustler crash tested at a time when most production vehicles weren't to a high degree. They all did well in the tests, showing how much care he had put into the design as regards crashes, and there is evidence that the Hustler range may have been one of the first vehicles that was designed and digitally crash tested before any had been built. A lot of the principles that went into the design and development of the semi-monocoque construction in the Hustler would be seen again in the Africar vehicle project that, sadly, got killed off by the major manufacturers, even though it was precisely tailored to the requirements of the African vehicle market...

This appeared on carandclassic yesterday. I went back and looked at it about 10 times. I love it!

Love this! The future was so much cooler In the past, and for that matter what happened to the robot, diagonal zips and jet pack they promised me? Thanks matt!

I think that car made it into production as the Citreon C4 Grand Picasso 🤣

The 1982 brown tint glass was on every expensive hifi system. Love the car, great video.

What a treat that was, great stuff. The moment you stepped in it I thought hang on the switchgear is from a Strada as my dad owned one, and at night you couldn't find the switches as none were illuminated. I reckon a firm building conservatories should buy this what a superb promotional item to have parked up outside the business (weather permitting!). Many thanks :)

Gosh, I remember the Hustler featuring in Autocar back in the day, had totally forgotten about it. Must also admit that I'm sad enough to have recognised the switchgear as Fiat Strada...

Great review Mat, I'm still smiling. Reminded me of the electric car Top gear made. Although you think it's quite strong I wouldn't like to test being t boned with a Landcruiser etc 😯

Absolutely bonkers - only in Britain ! I love it ! Lots a rattling going on, but then again; its a driving wedgy cupboard !!! One of the coolest cars, ever ! The craftmanship is out of this world, Im so impressed!

This is beyond awesome, so quirky, rare and the only one I have ever seen!! Looks like a Lagonda with those headlights! It looks like the taxis used in Total Recall. Awesome video Matt

Lovely piece, your knowledge is truly impressive - even down to the detail of the canteen chairs of the original prototype! A couple of notes: The wooden Hustler really was wooden throughout - with mini-subframes bolted directly into a wooden chassis. No fibreglass pan or steel frame (at least, that was the original design, your builder may have improvised). Re. the amphibious version, it was a Hustler body wrapped around an Argocat (www.argocat.com/ ) - another of my dad's creations.

I like how you’re showing off his obviously tidy wiring. Whilst showing everything is the same colour....

I imagine the person who built that car had immense fun building it and designing the modifications to the base kit.

Absolutely smashing! I knew the switches looked familiar, just couldn't place them. I absolutely love this!

This is amazing (except for the horrendous rattles - probably to be expected)! For those who couldn't afford a Matra Rancho, here's your wooden kit replica! Never knew these existed, bit before my time although I was quite into kit cars in my mid-teens.

It's the Cyber Trucks grandfather.

I remember the Hustler from my childhood, especially the six wheeler. I don't recall ever seeing the wooden one in my Dads kit car magazines. My Dad and sister had a Midas each. He had the Gold, she had the Bronze. I wasn't keen myself due to mobility issues and the sill was high on the Midas Gold, but then the seat was low. I always loved Minis, as did they but only so they could cannibalise them for parts. The Midas Bronze was Mini based but the Gold was Metro based and had a highly tuned engine which flew like shit off a shovel once he put his foot down.

Yes i saw one for sale down at my local IKEA store. It was a flat pack kit in the coffee table and home ware department

Very different, would turn more heads than any Ferrari etc. 32:25 someone laughing?

i've never seen this in my entire life, looks like something from blade runner lol by the way, you should really get ahold of a Renault Twizy, i presume that the drive will be a pain to record!

I wonder if this inspired Edd China with his creations? I found the windoor concept so much funnier than I probably should have - my wife agreed - and that indicator noise really takes me back to the one our Vauxhall Carlton's made when it was towing a caravan. Haha touch wood!

Wow just wow. Well done Angie and Don amazing work. 'Window cleaners here!' 'Tell him to do the front, sides and the Hustler. Thanks' Back in the early 80s, you'd be classed as a nutter for building a wooden car, now you'd be classed as soooooooo cool.

Wouldn't want to drive one on the motorway, could easily get boxed in....

No triangles of doom. Just two corners of disappointment.

I worked for the company that imported plywood parts for what was called 'the Africar' for production in Africa. They never moved from storage whilst I worked there and had been there for years. It looked very much like this...maximum use of an 8x4 sheet of exterior plywood.

What a lovely car and what ingenious people who put it together!

There is one near me. The people had it in the 80's when I was growing up and they still have it and use it today....it is just a white one though.

Brilliant video, I've always been curious about these... !

Hello, I was at a party last night and I was speaking to the previous owner of this exact car! I’ve seen this about the village where I live in Milton Keynes! Great little thing 👍👍

I love it. In them days, it was about a kind of imagination and a hint of unique too. Groovy little thing. Great video mate

There was a car built in Antigua and Barbuda in the late 70s to early 80s called the Hustler. In it's early iterations, it was built on a VW Beetle chassis but later I think on the mini platform. It was made of fiberglass. I was a boy at the time so don't remember the details but our school took us on a field trip to the factory to see the production process

Saw one at the Manchester Evening News motorshow at Platt Fields park in 1979. Never seen one on the road unsuprisingly enough. I remember them being advertised in all the custom car magazines in the early 80's.

My first car was a Mini, amazingly it's still about allthough the MOT failure history begs the question would I ever buy it back. As I move ever forward in my years I've always wanted to either get another Mini or have something Mini related/kit esque and something like this would be incredible. I dream one day of opening my own bakery/patisserie and would love a fleet of Mini vans as a delivery fleet but imagine delivering freshly baked bread in the mornings driving that thing around the estates, can't imagine cream cakes would fair too well in a mobile greenhouse though......... Interestingly, it's come up in my feed an interview from the 70's with the cars designer showing some other twee cars he designed.

Being a kid of the 70s I love it😍

Awesome car and great video Matt! I had battenberg cake yesterday too, love it 👍

I love that rather ominous fire extinguisher in the window

Never heard about this car! Looks like a nice piece of furniture with wheels. I really love the looks and would even risk to bite into the wooden dashboard in a crash!

Man what a fun car. I cant imagine just the views you get driving this hardwood beauty

I just love the viewing angles!

The only Hustler I remember had colour photographs 😉 in it. Thanks for sharing 👍

I think I would add a couple of sun visors and move the Mirrors up onto the windscreen frame. I’d certainly look into getting it vinyl wrapped for extra weather protection, very quirky car though, love it.

Followed one heading north up the M1 - somewhere between Leicester and Sheffield. early-mid 80s as was on the bike. Didn't know what it was beyond being a decent if weird looking homebuild. Hustled(!) nicely at around 75 so would keep up with the 1.6 cortinas of the time

seen one of these cars a few times at the kitcar show, beautifully made

I saw one of these when they were new. It was parked in a secondary school and I initially thought it had been built as a project by the woodwork students.

wow, talk about completely different! those seats look gorgeous! ( thanks for the battenberg reference matt,lol)

had to google this and found the version I like the most - the Hustler Holiday. Like a MPV made from Legos - love it!

there is a 6 wheel version I belive in stone Staffordshire! It has brown tinted windows on it see it once in a blue moon. its always great to see it

"so what do you drive then?" "I got Wood" "No, seriously"

I love the size of the windows!

Loved the Towns Hustler, esp the 6 wheeler since I saw some at a car show when I was kid, thought the one with roof that turned into a boat was fantastic.