Life behind the wheel of a Wienermobile

Every car guy or gal secretly dreams of having a ride so spectacular, so over the top, that every other car becomes essentially invisible when it rolls down the street. And everyone can’t wait to see it up close and learn all about it.

That’s what happens when Jessica Smith and Matt Heng show up in their Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, a giant 27-foot-long, 7-ton hot dog on wheels.

“It’s really hard not to have fun in it. People are always happy, always smiling when they see it,” said Smith, a Chicago area native. She, like Heng, who hails from York, Neb., was among the 1,500 or so recent college graduates who applied for a job as a “Hot Dogger,” as the driver/caretakers of the Wienermobile are called.

From that pool of applicants, only a dozen candidates make the cut, and then after two weeks of training, including 40 hours learning to drive this promotional behemoth, they actually get paid to drive it around the United States for a year, meeting and greeting people at all kind of events.

“It is our own personal car and our company car,” Heng said, noting that they drive the vehicle everywhere, to and from official events and to their meals and lodging at each stop. They were in Wichita last weekend to take part in the local St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

The original Wienermobile was built in 1936, the brainchild of Carl Mayer, the nephew of Oscar Mayer, and was built on a custom chassis, with open cockpits at both ends. It was primarily used in the Chicago area. In the 1940s, an enclosed cabin was added and the Wienermobile toured throughout the Midwest and in the eastern United States.

World War II sidelined the Wienermobile and it wasn’t until 1950 that a new generation of them was launched, this time built on a Dodge chassis. Newer versions were added every few years, with the latest generation hitting the road in 2004, based on a General Motors W-series chassis, powered by a 6-liter modified Chevy Vortec V-8 engine.

“It has 300 horsepower … and a 6-speed automatic transmission. It’s fun to drive. It handles really well because it’s built on a truck chassis,” said Smith. “People give us lots of room on the road. They’ll let us take up two or three parking spaces,” added Heng.

The current Wienermobiles are built by Prototype Source, a Santa Monica, Calif., company. The fleet consists of six full-sized Wienermobiles and a couple of smaller versions based on smaller frames, one being a food truck.

The Wienermobiles receive regular maintenance at Penske auto centers and every 35,000 to 45,000 miles, they are brought in for major work, which may involve new drivelines and/or interior upgrades, said Smith. This particular Wienermobile is designated a 2012 model, she said.

The 8-foot-wide fiberglass body offers the drivers excellent visibility, with an aircraft-like cockpit surrounded by oversized windows. Solar panels run along the top of the body, sending electrical power to a black box arrangement that converts the DC power to alternating current that operates a big screen TV, a public-address system and other features.

Access to the surprisingly plush interior is via a large gull-wing door that swings upward at the rear of the passenger side of the vehicle. Inside are six comfortable captain’s chairs upholstered in ketchup-red velour and mustard-yellow high grade vinyl. The headliner is decorated with a blue sky/white cloud mural, and vivid multi-color carpeting further brightens the space.

A “bun box” in the shape of an oversized hot dog rests atop the conventional dash board, and a removable “bun roof” brings additional sunlight into the cabin.

And of course, in addition to a standard horn, the Wienermobile can play nearly a dozen different varieties of the “I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener” song over the PA system.

The designated Wienermobile pilots spend half of their tour in one region of the country and then move on to another region for the second six months, Heng said.

“I was lucky enough to get to be featured on national Fox News,” he said. “They followed us around Washington, D.C. for 48 hours and then a month later, I got to drive through the tunnel into Manhattan and Times Square when the spot premiered on TV.”

“When I was in Southern California, we got to drive some local Ronald McDonald House families. I met two of the greatest families,” Smith said. “It was my best week ever.”

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Life behind the wheel of a Wienermobile."