Steve Braithwaite, Coopersburg, has spent more than two years building a banana car that he plans to drive around the world.

The car, which literally is a giant banana, was built on the frame of a late 80s/early 90s Ford F-150 pickup and seats four."I have always been into building hot rod cars and for a while, I had been wanting to build something unusual," wrote Braithwaite on his website.Braithwaite and his brother, Spade, plan on leaving for their four-month worldwide journey in the spring of 2012.The starting point for Braithwaite's journey will be auctioned off on eBay and he has listed two potential routes on his website but the specifics are somewhat of a mystery."What will happen is that as we start traveling, we'll meet people who will suggest places for us to go and they'll (hopefully) have friends that can put us up and that will mostly dictate our route," said Braithwaite.Braithwaite told the TIMES NEWS that he will drive the car from the starting point to New Jersey, where it will then be put on a "'RoRo' roll on, roll off ship" to cross the Atlantic Ocean. On the way back, he said the car will be put in a container to cross the Pacific.Although the Braithwaite brothers have not yet begun their trip around the world, the banana car has been busy traveling around the United States. Thus far, the car has made appearances in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.Some may think that Braithwaite is "going bananas" but at least it's for a good cause. The purpose of the banana car is to promote DVT awareness, a condition that afflicted his mother.DVT, deep vein thrombosis, is a vascular disease that results from a blood clot. Thus far, Braithwaite has raised over $1,000 for DVT awareness, according to his website.Find Braithwaite's journey "a-peel-ing"? Visit his website at

http://www.bigbananacar.com or check out his Facebook page for more information.