Building the Schwab Challenger

Like the company that gave it life, the Dodge Challenger has had a checkered history. The first generation, built from 1970 to 1974 is now regarded as an appreciating classic. The mid-term 1978 to ’83 Mitsubishi Galant Lambda for want of a Dodge badge is possibly best forgotten. However, the new generation introduced in 2008 lives up to Dodge’s original.

For many of us the Challenger that most quickly comes to mind is the Alpine White 1970 R/T 440 Magnum that appeared in the 1971 movie Vanishing Point starring Barry Newman. Newman played Vietnam Vet turned car delivery jockey Kowalski who is tasked with delivering the car from Denver, Colorado, to San Francisco in 15 hours. For the next 98 minutes, Kowalski is pursued and persecuted along the 1,250-mile route until he can’t stand in anymore and nose-dives the Challenger into a police roadblock comprising a pair of bulldozers.

The ending is a Thelma and Louise moment that leaves the average viewer contemplating life but leaves car people wondering what happened to the car. In fact, there were four, possibly five cars loaned to the production company by Chrysler. All were badly damaged during filming and all were apparently crushed at the end of production. If you’re into ‘Americana’ and car chase movies in particular, Vanishing Point directed by Richard C. Sarafian is worth the time.

Chrysler were apparently not happy about Kowalski’s use of bennies to keep awake and one has to say Vanishing Point didn’t do them much good as sales tanked from a high of 76,935 in 1970, the year it intro’d, to a mere 26,299 in 1971.  It was worse in 1972 at 22,919, up a tad to 27,930 for 1973 and a scant 11,354 for 1974. It didn’t help that new safety regulations and the Oil Crises of 1973 were forcing muscle cars off the road. Nevertheless, the movie did as much for the Challenger as Bullitt did for the Mustang and it remains one of the quintessential, genuine muscle cars.

No wonder then that banking group Charles Schwab would pick a ’73 Challenger to give away as a prize at the recent Charles Schwab Challenge at the PGA Tour stop at Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas. There’s a rationale for the prize: “Charles Schwab has been ‘challenging the status quo’ in its industry since 1973. The Colonial has ‘challenged’ some of the world’s best golfers for 73 years. Hence, the event selecting a 1973 Dodge Challenger to reward its winner.” This is the first of a four-year sponsorship of the event at Colonial for Charles Schwab. Hopefully, that means more giveaway cars of this caliber.

To build the car, Schwab turned to industry veterans Steve Strope of Pure Vision Design and Mick Jenkins of Mick’s Paint. Strope found the car in excellent condition in New York before it was taken to his shop in Simi Valley, California, where the car was stripped down to bare metal and fitted with a new Mopar 6.4L SRT-8 392 crate Hemi producing 485 hp. In back of the engine is a Chrysler A-727 TorqueFlite automatic trans with Gear Vendors overdrive. Out back is an 8-3/4-inch Chrysler rear end with 3.55 gears.

[the Challenger] was stripped down to bare metal and fitted with a Mopar 6.4L SRT-8 392 crate Hemi producing 485 hp.

To make this Challenger stand out from the crowd a new 73 Magum 440 hood with twin scoops and the letters SCHWAB replacing DODGE was fitted while Kelly Cox hand-formed that beautiful polished aluminum side trim that accentuates the Aston Martin-style vents let into the front fenders. The other subtle changes include the use of early 1970-’71 bumper brackets, ’71 Challenger TA spoilers front and rear and the replacement of the stock rectangular side markers with small round units from the ’68 Dodge Charger.

Meanwhile, underneath, AlterKtion suspension components from ReillyMotorsports.com replaced the stock factory torsion bars with a coil-over system and the stock steering with rack-and-pinion. The brakes are 14-inch Baer 6s with nickel-plated 6-piston calipers while the rims are B-Forged items from BilletSpecialties.com: 18 x 8s in front and 19 x 10s in back.

After all the engineering was complete, the car was shipped out to Mick’s Paint in Pomona, California, where Mick’s team worked around the clock to meet the deadline.  Once the car had been painted in Aston Martin Glacier Blue it went on to GabesCustom.com, where the diamond-stitched white leather upholstery was jazzed up with the exact same plaid used in the signature tartan Colonial jackets. The interior includes climate control by VintageAir.com, instruments from DakotaDigital.com and a sound system from Kicker.com. 

From there it was back to Mick’s for final fit and finish before it was back to Pure Vision for final assembly. All in a total time of six months. According to Strope, “Mick’s Paint makes us look good and I’m over the moon in appreciation of his team getting it done on time.”

The car was won by professional golfer Kevin Na who immediately turned and flipped the keys to his caddy and long time friend Kenny Harms saying, “I don’t know how my caddie convinced me to give him the car, but he’s a good salesman I guess. But I’m more than happy to give it to him. He deserves it.” Kenny had been eyeing the car all weekend and the pair had a pact that if Na won Kenny got the car. Na took the remaining $1.314 million.

It remains to be seen whether a custom Challenger with the name SCHWAB instead of the name DODGE can retain its value but you can’t deny the car’s excellence. Whatever the outcome, the Dodge Challenger remains one of the high points of the muscle car era whether it’s restored, rodded or raced.

It remains to be seen whether a custom Challenger with the name SCHWAB instead of the name DODGE can retain its value but you can’t deny the car’s excellence.

What’s a Hemi?

My very first car as a kid in England was a 1946 Riley RME. I thought it was cool because it had a chrome grille like a ’34 Ford and it had a race-developed, twin-cam HEMI—whatever that was. Back then, there was no internet to look things up but a trip to the library revealed that the word HEMI was an abbreviation for hemispherical combustion chambers—whatever that was.

Believe it or not, HEMI-heads are nothing new and their history can be traced back to the early 1900s when they could be found in a number of European cars including the 1904 Welch Tourist, the Belgian Pipe of 1905, the 1907 Italian Fiat Grand Prix car, the French Grand Prix Peugeot of 1912 and the Italian Grand Prix Alfa Romeo of 1914—race-bred alright. However, it was the Welch design that became the blueprint for the many successors that included numerous motorcycle engines.

Where the HEMI-head differs from other cylinder head designs such as the “flathead” Ford which is known as an “L” head design, is that their combustion chambers are hemispherical or half-bowl-shaped compared to most chambers that resemble a flattened, double egg. The chamber operates in a cross-flow configuration where the air-fuel mixture flows in one side; the more-or-less centrally located spark plug ignites the mixture and the exhaust gases exit on the opposite side from the inlet.

The use of a HEMI-head became prevalent in motorcycle engines because not only was it efficient, but it was not an overly complicated assembly in a single-cylinder application where the pushrods ran up the outside of the cylinder. Incidentally, a HEMI-head can be used with a pushrod, SOHC or DOHC valve train.

Believe it or not, HEMI-heads are nothing new and their history can be traced back to the early 1900s when they could be found in a number of European cars…

The concept even worked well in early air-cooled, radial airplane engines that are more-or-less a number of single cylinders arranged in a circle around a common crankshaft. In fact, by 1921 the U.S. Navy had announced it would only order aircraft fitted with air-cooled radials.

Obviously, World War II propelled engineering development, as it did with much technology, as speed and power became all-important. Chrysler worked with Continental on the development of a giant, 1,792 cubic-inch (ci) V-12 that would be used in the Patton tank. It produced 810 horsepower and 1,560 pounds-feet (lb-ft) of torque and enabled Chrysler’s engineers to gather some valuable information that they put to good use in their post-War automobiles.

In 1947, Zora Arkus-Duntov, the so-called “Father of the Corvette”, was commissioned by Ford Motor Company to improve the output of their aging flathead V8s. Zora, his brother Yuri and designer George Kudasch developed an overhead valve conversion (OHV) for the Ford V-8 that featured hemispherical combustion chambers. Tagged the “ARDUN”, which was a contraction of ARkus-DUNtov, their OHV heads looked great and increased the power, however, they were somewhat temperamental.

Only about 200 sets were made in the U.S. before Duntov moved to the U.K. to work with Sydney Allard where a few more sets were made for Allard’s J2 sports car. For many years, ARDUN heads were a much sought after hot rod accessory until the mid-90s when Don Orosco began to reproduce them. He made about 30 sets before the tooling was sold to Don Ferguson whose family continues to produce the heads albeit updated with some modern technology along with a compatible cast-aluminum block. Companies such as H&H Flatheads are known for building complete ARDUN engines.

While the Duntovs were working on the OHV Ford, Chrysler engineers John Platner, a graduate of the Chrysler Institute of Engineering, and William Drinkard, manager of the Engine Development department, got to work in 1948 downsizing that tank engine for use in an automobile.

The engine was tough and you could throw all kinds of power-enhancing devices from blowers to nitro and it thrived on it.

What they came up with was a 90-degree, 330 ci, cast-iron V8 engine with HEMI-heads. Code-named A-182, the “HEMI” was not quite ready for production and a lot of valve train development still needed to be done along with some ignition and crankshaft work.

Nevertheless, Chrysler debuted the HEMI V-8 for the 1951 model year as standard in the Imperial and New Yorker models and optional in the Saratoga. Initially, the “Fire Power” capacity was 331 ci due to an “oversquare” 3.81-inch bore and 3.63-inch stroke. With a 7:1 compression ratio (cr), it produced 180 hp and 312 lb-ft of torque but weighed a whopping 745 pounds—one head alone weighed almost 120 pounds and you’d better be wearing a belt when you lift one.

Chrysler’s DeSoto division came out with their 276-ci “Fire Dome” version in 1952 and Dodge followed suit with their 241 ci “Red Ram” in 1953. Although all three engines differed in detail, they shared the same basic architecture.

In 1955, Chrysler claimed a dual 4-barrel (bbl) Carter version the first production car to produce 300 hp. The displacement was increased in 1956 to 354 ci and the engine now produced as much as 355 hp and became the first American engine to produce 1 hp per cubic inch.

Two years later, the infamous 392 version was introduced and it was almost square having a 4-inch bore and a 3.906-inch stroke. It had a taller ‘raised deck’ compared to previous engines; however, the heads were cast with wider ports so that earlier manifolds could be used with the new heads on the new block. The following year, a single carb version with 9.25:1 cr was rated at 345 hp while a dual-carb version offered 375 hp.

The 392 is significant because it became the drag racer’s engine of choice, especially in the fuel ranks: Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Fuel Altered. The engine was tough and you could throw all kinds of power-enhancing devices from blowers to nitro and it thrived on it.

By 1958, the 392 was producing 380 hp but had reached the end of its production life. It wasn’t until 1964 that Chrysler re-introduced the engine and officially called it a HEMI. Nicknamed the “elephant engine,” because of its size and weight, the new Gen II HEMI displaced 426 ci. Not initially available to the public, it was used in NASCAR in ’64 but not in ’65 because it was not available in a production car and therefore could not be raced.

Not to be outdone, Ford also introduced a 427-ci HEMI in 1964. Nicknamed the “Cammer” because it had a single overhead cam (SOHC), engineers had worked hard to design a symmetrical combustion chamber with the plug located for maximum efficiency only to discover that the plug didn’t care where it was. The plugs were then located near the top of the cylinder for easy access. NASCAR wasn’t at all happy about these “special” racing engines, however, the “SOHC” motor (pronounced “sock”) remains a “halo” engine for Ford.

Chrysler fixed their NASCAR problem in 1966 by introducing the “street” HEMI with lower compression, a milder cam, cast instead of tube headers and two 4 bbl Carter AFB carbs. The Gen II HEMI was produced until 1971 and was rated at 425 hp at 5,000 rpm and 490 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm.

Of course, this is only the American version of HEMI history. Across the pond, in the homeland of the HEMI, the Europeans never left the concept alone.

Incidentally, the 426 HEMI is a HEMI in name only. Rather than build the new 426 from the old architecture of the 392, Chrysler engineers chose to use the existing 440 Wedge-head big-block. That said, the 426 evidences many improvements over the Wedge and indeed the 392 and became the modern drag racer’s engine of choice and was known colloquially as the “late model” compared to the 392 “early model.”

As the factory HEMIs came to the end of their respective lives Ed Donovan of Donovan Engines introduced a cast-aluminum 417 ci aftermarket version in 1971 that was based on the 392. That was followed in 1974 by Keith Black’s 426 HEMI based on the factory 426. Versions up to 573 ci are now available as are heads and numerous other parts milled from billet aluminum from numerous aftermarket manufacturers such as Hot Hemi Heads.

In fact, we use a billet 417 ci Donovan block with billet heads from Hot Hemi Heads in Ron Hope’s Rat Trap AA/Fuel Altered that we race. With a billet BDS supercharger and 90-percent nitro, it produces some 3,000 hp. However, in current Top Fuel/Funny car racing they use architecturally similar 500 ci blocks milled from forged billet aluminum.

These proprietary blocks are produced in-house by Don Schumacher Racing and John Force Racing but similar blocks that can withstand in excess of 10,000 hp are available from companies such as Brad Anderson and Alan Johnson Performance—all based on that Chrysler HEMI.

Of course, this is only the American version of HEMI history. Across the pond, in the homeland of the HEMI, the Europeans never left the concept alone. For example, Daimler, using Triumph motorcycle architecture, developed two aluminum-headed HEMI engines of 2.5 and 4.5-liters.

Other British brands such as Aston Martin and Jaguar both employed hemispherical combustion chambers in the DOHC V-8s and straight 6s respectively. However, no doubt the most well-known use of their HEMI-head was by Porsche in many of their engines—particularly the flat-six boxer engines of the 1963-’99 911s.

’71 Dodge Dart Demon Pro Touring Restomod

As far back as their July 1989 issue—that’s 30 years—HOT ROD Magazine has been saying to its readers: “Dare To Be Different”, meaning look outside the box and don’t keep modifying the same old cars. Well, the car builders took notice and over the past three decades, builders have modified everything from AMC Gremlins to Jeep Wagoneers and to great effect.

One car that you might never think about modifying is the 1971 Dodge Dart Demon—heck, you might never have even seen or heard of a Dodge Dart Demon. The Demon came about because in 1970 sister group Chrysler-Plymouth had the Valiant Duster, a uni-body two-door coupe built on the A-body platform. With sales topping a quarter-million units, Dodge wanted a slice of the pie and got the Demon complete with small but controversial devil decals that were soon axed.

The Demon was to be called the Beaver but for obvious reasons, that name was also option delete. Basically, it was a Dodge Duster with Dart front sheet metal and a few other minor differences. Badge engineering it might have been but under the optional black hood with scoops, you could get the 5.6L 340 ci V8.

The Demon was to be called the Beaver but for obvious reasons, that name was also option delete.

The 340-equipped Demons could accelerate zero-to-60 mph in under 8 seconds. That’s not too shabby for a car almost 50 years old, but what if we took the age-old approach to performance and dropped in a bigger motor?

Incidentally, for those who don’t know, back in the day, Norm Krause, a.k.a. Mr. Norm was running Grand Spaulding Dodge on the northwest side of Chicago. By 1966, they were the largest dealer of high-performance Dodges in the country building hot rod Dodges when the factory couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver. One of Grand Spaulding’s notable efforts was the ’71 GSS Dart to which this car is a tribute.

“Just drop in a bigger motor,” was the instruction owner Bill Sefton gave to builder Mike Staveski of Restomod World in Hudson, Florida. No-need-to-be-told-twice Mike, well-known for his mad Mopar builds and the first to drop a Viper V-10 into a ’70 Challenger, dropped in a new Gen III 6.1L SRT8-derived HEMI that is a little different.

“I was so impressed, I eventually bought the company and this restomod Demon is a fitting tribute to the original ’71 GSS Dart.”Bill Sefton

It’s topped off with an Imagine Injection Six Pack system (three two-barrel throttle bodies) with a FAST Engine Management System and an original 1971 cast-aluminum GSS Tri-Power air cleaner. The rest of the drivetrain includes a Tremec five-speed manual box with a Hurst shifter and a Moser-built Dana 60 rear end.

To enable the Demon to handle like a modern car, Staveski installed a complete, fully adjustable suspension system with anodized-aluminum coilovers from AFCO Racing ably assisted with Wilwood 12.88-inch four-piston brakes. The wheel and tire combination comprises 19- and 20-inch Modern Muscle Pentastar forged split-rims and Pirelli P Zero Rosso tires: 225/40R19 in the front and 330/30R20 out back.

Like the exterior, the interior was likewise updated but not overstated. Corvette C5 bucket seats were re-upholstered in Year-One materials to afford more lateral support, power windows were fitted, as was Vintage Air air conditioning and a custom ’68 Dart instrument cluster by Red Line Graphics complete with push-button start and remote entry. Finally, a Sony stereo system was installed with a five-channel full-range/subwoofer with two 12-inch Xplod woofers installed in the trunk.

According to owner Sefton, “Mr. Norm’s was one of my regular destinations as a young man growing up in Chicago. I was so impressed, I eventually bought the company and this restomod Demon is a fitting tribute to the original ’71 GSS Dart.”

Chip Foose’s Hemisfear

I’ve known designer extraordinaire and TV’s Overhaulin’ personality Chip Foose for 30 years since he was a student at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Art Center is one just a handful of automotive design schools in the world and being close to Hollywood it has also produced a number of movie designers and even designers who transition both worlds.

At the time I met Chip, in 1990, he was working on his final graduation project which was sponsored by Chrysler to design a niche market vehicle. Chip took a bit of an unorthodox spin on the concept, he didn’t want to design for an existing market, he wanted to create a new one. With its unique flair, Chip’s 1:5 scale model of the Hemisfear (photographed by John Thawley) gained significant recognition and was even featured in the April 1991 issue of HOT ROD magazine.

It also may have helped inspire the Plymouth Prowler, as careful study of the two indicates some design similarities particularly in the “double bump” decklid. Incidentally, the Prowler debuted six years later in 1997.

After Chip graduated, he eventually went to work for Hot Rods by Boyd Coddington where he worked on numerous creations for Boyd. I joined him there for a little over a year and it was a very educational and inspirational experience for me working alongside Chip and watching him design everything from watches to wheels to sports cars—all seemingly effortlessly—he never appeared to be stuck for an idea.

It also may have helped inspire the Plymouth Prowler…

It was while he was working for Boyd that Chip began work on the chassis for what would eventually become “Hemisfear”. Unfortunately, there was never enough time to complete the project even though Chrysler had contracted engine builder Dick Landy to supply a stack-injected 426 Chrysler Hemi. It too was relegated to a corner of the shop with the chassis.

The project sat until 2005, when Chip, who had since opened his own shop and design business in Huntington Beach, California, signed a die-cast toy deal with RC2 Corp. that also included seed money to complete the Hemisfear build. The original scale model was digitized and all the data was fed into a computer so that a full-size version could milled out of foam on a five-axis mill.

The foam was then used as the buck from which a mold was made for the limited production of just five carbon-fiber bodies made by Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters in Fountain Valley, California. Incidentally, that buck hangs from the ceiling of Chip’s shop. Meanwhile, John Hotchkis of Hotchkis Performance worked with Chip on the design of the racecar-inspired, fully-independent suspension with rocker arm-actuated coil-overs mounted behind the grille shell in the front and double wishbones in the rear.

The Dick Landy Hemi was ultimately replaced by a different 392 cubic-inch Hemi fitted with electronic Hilborn fuel injection and carbon stacks. The engine is mated to a ZF five-speed transaxle similar to that used in a DeTomaso Pantera. Of course, it rides on Foose-designed Nitrous two-piece, five-spokes.

Hemisfear, also known as the Foose Coupe, was introduced as a limited edition vehicle at the 2006 SEMA Show when two vehicles were unveiled, the pre-production lime green car which is Chip’s personal car and the first production model in black. Chip’s car made the cover of the July 2007 issue of HOT ROD but soon thereafter the economy went into recession and there were not many buyers for a $300,000 open-wheel hot rod.

Jump ahead a dozen years to the 2019 Grand National Roadster Show when Chip is honored with the Builder of the Decade Award and out of his closet comes Hemisfear. Looking just as tough and yet as beautiful as ever it was not difficult to persuade Chip to take me for a ride and let me drive—a little.

It gets your attention like sitting in a Top Fuel dragster when they fire it up.

The interior is snug and the quilted champagne leather cockpit tapers down into the narrow foot box where ribbed and logoed billet aluminum pedals mirror the steering wheel and instrument cluster that were all designed by Chip. It’s comfortable and the carbon doors have a reassuring “clunk” as they pull too.

What really gets your attention is pushing that button on the dash and hearing that 500 horsepower Hemi burst into life right behind your ear. It gets your attention like sitting in a Top Fuel dragster when they fire it up. You know there’s a fire-breathing monster back there and the only way to escape is to snap it into gear and get outta there.

The clutch is an easy push and the linkage to the ZF axle smoother than expected. The peak of the grille is low and it’s a little difficult to see the wheels so we ease out of his shop onto the street. All the while that engine is sucking air like an angry pitbull.

My biggest fear of driving anything as outlandish as Hemisfear is, well, fear, fear of all those idiots on the road who are on their phones trying to snap pictures and not watching what they’re doing. Thankfully, it’s an early weekend morning and traffic is light. We turn out of the industrial zone and head north on Pacific Coast Highway towards Seal Beach. It’s a nice stretch of open road but ‘cop-ulated’ so best be careful.

Nevertheless, I squeeze down on the throttle and we rocket along the coast, lifeguard huts flashing by like mile markers, those big Pirellis humming along like an 18-wheeler. It’s a blast and what traffic there was shrinks away in the side mirror.

This is the true definition of a hot rod…

All too soon, we’re in Seal Beach looking for a place to U-turn. Hemisfear is longish, low and wide and I’m uptight about damaging it. Chip is as nice as he appears on TV but you don’t want to be the guy remembered for shattering his dream car.

Soon enough, I get it turned around and head south thinking this is so much more than the sucky, underpowered V6 Prowler it progenated. I drove a lot of those and this is not that. This is the true definition of a hot rod—a lot of power in a lightweight body.

For more info on Chip Foose and his projects visit: chipfoose.com

Hollywood Movers and Shakers

A recent cover of SEMA News featured the face of Troy Ladd, owner of Hollywood Hot Rods, under the headline “How Famous Builders Grow The Industry.” Indeed, there are few more famous builders than Troy who recently moved into a new space and continues to garner accolades with his own take on traditionalism.

Unlike most hot rod builders, Troy began his second career after studying business and obtaining a Bachelor’s degree from Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California. While he enjoyed building cars in his spare time, he was not happy in a white-collar corporate job and consequently took the plunge in 2002 to hang up the white collar and open his own shop in “Beautiful Downtown Burbank”.

Naming it Hollywood Hot Rods was all part of Troy’s big plan as he knew that selling T-shirts and other merchandise containing the word Hollywood made marketing sense. And, he was right. His shirts were the number one selling brand in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

Troy’s first shop in Burbank had an unassuming facade located on a small street that ended at Interstate 5. Unfortunately, that building, like so much of Los Angeles is slated for redevelopment and Troy spent has the last couple of years looking for a suitable building to buy. Eventually, he found a 4,300 square foot facility not too far from his old shop at 2617 N. San Fernando Boulevard, Burbank.

Troy first came to the public’s attention when he won the 2005 Goodguys “Rodder’s Pick” with “Big Sister” a ’32 Ford built on the Rides TV show. Two years later he was a finalist in the Grand National Roadster Show’s America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) competition with “Respect Tradition,” a Hemi-powered Deuce Roadster. The copper lowboy went on to win the “Best 1932 Ford Roadster” award at the Goodguys Del Mar Nationals.

The somewhat untraditional traditional roadster was followed by a string of projects that just continued to enhance the reputation of Hollywood Hot Rods.  One that garnered attention was actually a full-size version of the Monogram “Black Widow” plastic model kit.

This is not a mere hot rod; it is a true coach-built car.

Several more roadster pickups (rpu) followed including the road-race inspired, Ardun-powered “El Correcaminos” (Spanish for The Roadrunner) and the stack-injected, Coyote-powered rpu giveaway car for Raybestos Brake Corp.  That went on to win the SEMA “Showstopper Award” in 2010. Other significant Deuce roadsters included the “Platinum Bomb” and the “Brooklands Special”.

Besides the more traditional hot rods, Troy has also built some notable later-model customs including a ’63 Mercury S-22 Comet convertible and a ’60 T-Bird called “Hammered”. Also to show the shop’s versatility there was even a late-model Mustang convertible powered by a 700 hp-x engine. It was a supercar designed for the track yet retained all of the comforts of a streetcar.

In 2012, Troy was named the LA Roadsters’ “Builder of the Year” and, the accolades didn’t stop. Check the list and he received a significant award almost every year up until last year when the ’36 Packard convertible he and his team created for Bruce Wanta won a string of trophies including the AMBR Award, the Custom D’Elegance Award, the Sam Barris Award and the Goodguys Del Mar Street Rod D’Elegance Award.

2017 was a busy year for Troy as that was the year he finally found a building and moved shop, however, it was Wanta’s “Mulholland Speedster” that became a game changer from its hand-fabricated chassis to it’s retractable, cantilevered top that folds down into the trunk. This is not a mere hot rod; it is a true coach-built car.

The new Hollywood Hot Rods is compact but there’s room enough for offices and meeting space above the workshop that accommodates about eight cars. We’ve visited several times recently and there’s always cool stuff to see and Troy welcomes visitors. All of the projects are interesting but I particularly liked the Italian-bodied tribute to Edsel Ford’s 1934 boat-tail speedster.

Both had more tricks than a magician.

Four cars share that space and they include a Hemi-powered Model A roadster and a highly modified ’32 3-window with a split-windshield. In the adjacent shop found a chopped ’57 Plymouth wagon having its roof pancaked 1-1/2 inches. Attached to the workshop is a well-equipped machine shop containing lathes, a mill, a plasma cutter, and more.

At this year’s GNRS, Troy displayed two very distinct, bare-metal roadsters that were an Art Deco-Steampunk mashup with lots of hand-formed brass accouterments. Both had more tricks than a magician.

As if that all is not enough, Troy recently teamed up with the original host of Overhaulin’ and Power Block on Spike TV, Courtney Hansen, for a new build show called The Ride That Got Away. It’s a feel-good show that builds and reunites deserving people with their lost ride. It’s airing now. For more information visit: hollywoodhotrods.com