Imagine the neighbor kid walking up to your kid on his trike and asking:

“That thing got a Hemi?”

Success sometimes leads to silliness and one of the most successful items in the auto industry is the Hemi V-8 engine from Chrysler Group. Close to 50 percent of consumers opt for the fire-breather in vehicles offering the Hemi.

To capitalize on the appeal, and have a little fun, Chrysler launched a contest at the Chicago Auto Show asking folks “What can you Hemi?”

Top contest entries

After sifting through almost 400 entries, the results – in working form – were unveiled last week at Chrysler’s 2006 media preview:

• An 8-foot-long snowblower that shoots the snow from driveway to street a block away – and requires you strap yourself to the handle so the machine doesn’t take off on its own.

• A desk-shaped shredder that doesn’t cut one sheet into tiny strips at a time, but chews up a ream of paper plus the Chicago phone book and spits out clouds of confetti at the flip of a switch.

• A merry-go-round that spins occupants sitting on miniature cars at 8 revolutions per minute, twice the traditional 4 r.p.m. speed.

• A Zamboni machine that lays a new layer of ice on the hockey rink during a one-minute time-out rather than the normal 15-minute break between periods.

• And a child’s tricycle that requires the rider to not only wear helmet and elbow pads, but also a flame-retardant racing suit.

The machines were all powered by a 340-horsepower Hemi and the ideas of five finalists.

Dan Burg, of Lindenhurst, Ill., created the Hemi Zamboni, but was gracious in defeat when Marcus Braun of Vancouver, Canada, was awarded a 2006 Chrysler 300C with Hemi for his winning trike idea.

In addition to a Hemi V-8, the trike came with a 4-foot tall tire in front, regulation size racing slicks in back and a Dodge Viper bucket seat with five-point safety harness to hold the rider in place. Chrysler engineers had 30 days to build it and the four other finalists after they were chosen.

Tearing up the auto circuit

Just don’t look for the machines in showrooms any time soon. Each had a few drawbacks – besides requiring ear plugs to operate.

Though powerful enough to travel on the road, the Hemi trike lacked such essentials as air bag, turn signals and lights, as well as amenities such as radio or cupholder.

And the machine-gun quick paper shredder did not control where the confetti flew. Because the shredder looked like a desk, it came with a Hemi-powered pencil sharpener accessory, though no one in their right mind would dare insert a pencil into a 340-h.p. sharpener without concern for fingers, hand and arm.

Frank Klegon, Chrysler Group vice president of Product Development, said Chrysler plans to display one or more of the inventions on the auto-show circuit next year.

Write to Jim Mateja, Chicago Tribune, 616 Atrium Drive, Vernon Hills, IL 60061-1523, or send e-mail, including name and hometown, to [email protected]

Chrysler concept: The automaker will unveil a concept coupe derivative of the Charger sedan at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

Like Charger, the concept may resurrect a name from the “60s and “70s muscle car era – the Dodge Challenger.

While Charger has four doors, insiders at Chrysler demanded Challenger have two in keeping with the body style favored in muscle-car days. Challenger also was offered briefly as a convertible.

Insiders insist the concept is meant strictly to test consumer reaction. A business case hasn’t been developed, and it hasn’t been given a production go-ahead.But if produced, Challenger would be the fourth vehicle sharing the rear-wheel-drive Chrysler 300 platform with the Dodge Magnum and Charger built in Brampton, Ontario, on three shifts. The plant can build more than 300,000 units and a fourth model would bring it to capacity while spurring interest in the Chrysler lineup.

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(Write to Jim Mateja, Chicago Tribune, 616 Atrium Drive, Vernon Hills, IL 60061-1523, or send e-mail, including name and hometown, to jmatejatribune.com.)

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(c) 2005, Chicago Tribune.

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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-06-24-05 1226EDT