The prank day has been popular around the world since the 19th century but surprisingly little is known about the actual origins of this tradition. Perhaps a well-orchestrated prank in itself? The tradition goes that an April Fool’s Day joke is revealed by shouting “April fool!” at the recipient of the joke who becomes the “April fool” with all pranks and joking ending at midday.
The best regarded April Fool’s Day joke was from 1957 when the BBC current-affairs show Panorama broadcast a hoax report into a Swiss family who harvested their spaghetti from a so called “spaghetti tree”. It’s reported that hundreds of viewers phoned the station to question the authenticity of the story or to ask for more information about how they could grow their own spaghetti tree!
Here are our favourite 2021 April Fool’s Day attempts from the car world.
Volkswagen jumped the gun a bit in regards to the release date of their so called 'joke'. Changing the company's name to Voltswagen to align the brand with its new EV car direction was great in theory and did fool much of the world's news sites (not us, we could smell something a little April Foolsie about it), the company retracted its statement and apologised for lying. If only they had waited until April 1 for the big reveal!
British lightweight sportscar maker Caterham Cars announced the launch of a product to help its drivers get in and out of their iconic Seven model – Seven Lube. The release stated that getting in and out of the low-slung, narrow-bodied sportscar with its doorless, open-topped cockpit has always been a little tricky, especially for beginners new to the vehicle.
The Seven Lube is an oil-based cream designed to grease the user lightly in order to aid a quick and satisfying entry to the Seven’s driver and passenger seats.
Caterham CEO, Graham Macdonald, said “We hope that with this new product – which has been developed over the last 17 months by our world-class engineers – we can make getting in and out of a Seven just as easy as any mainstream vehicle. And still easier than a Kamaz truck, which requires you to climb a ladder.”
Seven Lube is priced at £7.77 per tub and each light greasing over clothing should be possible with a single, walnut-sized glob of the product.
MG has decided to have a bit of fun on April 1 with their top-selling small hatchback MG3 being given the all-terrain treatment. MG suggests that this all-terrain version would be great for those who have trouble finding a parking spot or have too many potholes on their commute. We do know that if MG did release a hardcore version of the MG3 Aussies would love it.
More will be added to our list as the rest of the world ticks over 12pm on April 1st.