A TEAM of maverick mechanics have completed an incredible transformation of a classic Rolls Royce once owned by eccentric British aristocrat, Lord Tredegar. Dubbed the Rolls Royce rat rod, the car takes its inspiration and design from traditional rat rods, which typically involve customising cars from the early 20th century. Mechanic Sam Hard, from Farnham, Hampshire, headed up the team responsible for the audacious build, which proved a big hit at the recent SEMA car show in Las Vegas.
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MotorTranscript
00:00In the end what it boils down to is enjoying yourself and making people
00:06smile. I'm pretty sure at SEMA 2016 we did that one of the most craziest cars
00:10that anyone would dare to build.
00:18The conventional ratrod to the man that loves his Ferrari and Lamborghini they're
00:23just another rusty car on the road. We try to put our own interpretation on what a
00:27ratrod should be you know maybe a royal ratrod or a ratrod rolls-royce you know if you're going to
00:31wrap on a rolls-royce these bodies are aluminium you can't make them rust anyway so what can we do
00:36we can put our own interpretation on it big engine expose welds cut the roof down original seats
00:42original steering box original grille original body panels we didn't put any paint on it you know
00:47same with the ratrod style but we're just here to have fun. This incredible ratrod began as a 1936
00:55rolls-royce it was created by an international team including Sam Hard where we got the inspiration
01:02from building the rolls-royce ratrod was actually at SEMA in 2015 I was there helping a friend of mine
01:08build a car for SEMA and at the time I was had a few two million lemonades and I was talking to a
01:14pretty few celebrities and I pretty much put my foot in it. Sam had entered himself and his team
01:20into a competition to build a ratrod to show at the following year's SEMA event. While the end design
01:26was a team effort American Michael Lightbourne had the idea of using a rolls-royce he sourced the car
01:33and convinced the owner to part with it. Sam and his dad Derek helped raise sponsorship and sourced parts
01:41and the customizing work was carried out at Street Toys in Mexico by Jesse Gonzalez and his team.
01:48It's got LS6 I mean that engine's a freaking powerhouse big block Chevy it's got hillboard
01:53fuel injection again that kicks up another 80 to 100 brake horsepower how fast can it go 0-60 I mean
02:00it's kind of how big your cojones are is how to answer that question I mean it's just quite scary to
02:05actually put your foot down on a car that's number one got down a minion frame you don't want to twist it
02:09even though it has to be strengthened unbelievably well I mean this car probably weighs under you know a
02:15ton and the power to weight ratio is probably like a Ferrari I mean it's unbelievable you put the foot
02:20down and it's actually quite scary to think that are you actually going to stop because this thing is
02:24a freaking powerhouse. When the car's paperwork was sent to motoring writer Glyn Williams he discovered
02:33that the Rolls-Royce had an interesting history. Through the chassis number I found out this was the first
02:38Rolls-Royce that Lord Tredegar ever owned and for it to be the most eccentric crazy guy you know known
02:45in the UK history near royalty friends of Hitler you know Winston Churchill all these famous people
02:51and now we just cut it up and having some fun with it I kind of feel that if Lord Tredegar was here today
02:56he'd be smiling too. With the build finished it was time to take the car from Mexico to Las Vegas
03:03when we took it to SEMA some of the best car builders in the world Gene Winfield you know the
03:09guys from the Diesel Brothers the guys from Street Outlaws all these crazy amazing people with
03:15unbelievable reputations not only just for the uh the building side of things even in the TV world
03:20you know Welder Up Garage a massive massive rat rob builder garage in Las Vegas these guys came over to
03:25the shop and they couldn't believe what we'd done to the car it was groundbreaking it was unbelievable
03:31after the success of this collaboration the team is already looking ahead to SEMA 2017. The car has
03:38already been bought we're just trying to make it as crazy as we can and trying to make some people
03:42scared and maybe a little bit upset and try and make the majority of the car builders in the custom
03:46car world smile 2017 SEMA here we come