Portland's Best Land Shark Is a Monstrous Hybrid of Pickup Truck and Predatory Fish

Shark Car is an aluminum-and-steel, shark-shaped, waterproofed canopy atop a 1993 Ford F-250.

By Dom Sinacola

In 1994, a cartoon called Street Sharks sought to detail the harrowed lives of four disfigured, mutant shark-men doomed to roam a post-apocalyptic city reminding humanity of the perils of playing God. Two decades later, Jason Wells and Richard Cawley made Street Sharks' warning a reality, in vehicle form. Shark Car, an aluminum-and-steel, shark-shaped, waterproofed canopy atop a 1993 Ford F-250, is a monstrous hybrid of pickup truck and predatory fish. Shark Car was built by Cawley and partner Gustav (together they run co-op Manifestation PDX) in a fit of inspiration following Burning Man. "Once you go to Burning Man everything is inspired by Burning Man," Cawley says. But two years ago, it ended up serving a more practical purpose at a production staged at the Alberta Rose. "For our show J.A.W.Z. the Musical in 3-D, it's how we hauled set pieces," Wells says. "J.A.W.Z.-mobile," "ShART-mobile"—it has many names, but none more apt than Spielberg's original: "Sometimes we call it Bruce."

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Dom Sinacola

Dom Sinacola

Dom Sinacola is a writer and editor originally from the Detroit area, which means that Robocop is his favorite movie, as required by law. He's an Assistant Movies Editor at Paste Magazine, occasionally writes for Kill Screen and FLOOD, and he's edited for/founded plenty of dead publications, because that's the world we live in now. He also co-hosts a podcast about "Pretty Little Liars."

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