Are you sick of all the non-automotive related thinking you have to do in relation to Groundhog Day? Sure, it's fun we entrust a marmot or whatever to handle our global weather control, but dammit, nobody even brings up cars when talking about them. Yes, Bill Murray let one crash a Ford F-150 in the movie, but beyond that, it's all shadow observations and holes in the ground. Until now.

Here's a really fun groundhog/automotive tie in, decades old, largely forgotten, but due for a comeback: The Dunlop Groundhog!

The Dunlop Groundhog was the mascot of a line of crossply tires from Dunlop– that "crossply" adjective should give you a good idea of the era we're talking about. These may have been a UK market-only thing as well; regardless, America needs it now. A groundhog makes a pretty good tire mascot, at least in name, and that seems to be the mascot's M.O.: hog that ground!

The mascot itself sort of resembles a proboscis monkey/bunny/cyborg hybrid, but I think he's pretty cute. And these old ads are awesome, from back in the day when simple, charming animation was the norm, a far cry from today's impressive but overproduced CG pap. Here, watch a bunch of them:

They sorta remind me of the old Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. That's a good thing. So, happy fast, car/marmot mutant Groundhog Day!