Move Over!!!!!!

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Don’t you sometimes want more attention? Aching to simply blow people away? The people at Banshee Horn LLC might just have the thing for people who want to be noticed. It is called the Banshee Horn, and it does what the name says. The folks promise in an email to TTAC that the gadget helps you “warn motorists up to 3 blocks away” with a pain-inducing 139 decibel horn.

The howling horn is a project funded through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com, where the project had attracted 205 backers at the time of this typing, creating an investment of roughly $20,000 (that should barely cover the lawyer’s fees for the patent…) You can still be an investor into Banshee Horns, and rich dividends are being offered: A $69 investment gets you one Banshee Horn, a large cap $575 investment will net you ten horns delivered to you doorsteps.

According to the emailed message, “the project was targeted towards motorcycles, but we’ve had many people purchase the system for their cars.”

The goods folks at Banshee better avoid getting attention from China. Here, the horn is the favorite instrument of communication with other drivers, bicyclists or pedestrians, and an eardrum-shattering 139 dB horn should cut through the din for a while. According to repeated rumors, the capital of China will soon be renamed to “Honking.” Rigging up a 555 timer, a compressor, and an airhorn will take a Shenzhen tinkerer the better half of half an hour.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Rpn453 Rpn453 on Jan 21, 2012

    I've had air horns on my vehicles for about fifteen years now. I even had two compressors running four horns on my last vehicle. I don't find them to be useful in accident avoidance. The two people who have smoked me in that time gave me very little time to react; certainly not enough to use my horns while I was trying to avoid them or minimize the impact. What they are useful for, is saying FU to someone who cut you off or crossed right in front of your right-of-way. A ten to twenty second blast while following or until they're completely across the intersection gets the point across, obviously accompanied by high beams if at night. The most enjoyable are the ones who cross in front with their windows open!

  • Joeaverage Joeaverage on Feb 22, 2012

    We had a fellow running around town with freight train horns in his truck. One evening my kids and I were playing Frisbee in the street and I saw him coming. As he approached I gave him the "trucker blow your horn signal" and my kids about wet their pants. Hilarious...

  • Ashwath-Shetty Ashwath-Shetty on Mar 02, 2012

    Hi, My name is Ashwath Shetty and I am new here in this forum. Hello to all members and i hope i will have a great time with you guys. Regards, Ashwath Shetty

  • "scarey" "scarey" on May 26, 2012

    Honk if you're horny !

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