00:00In the end what it boils down to is enjoying yourself and making people smile and I'm pretty
00:07sure at SEMA 2016 we did that with one of the craziest cars anyone would dare to build.
00:19The conventional rat rod, to the man that loves his Ferrari and Lamborghini, they're
00:23just another rusty car on the road.
00:24We tried to put our own interpretation on what a rat rod should be, you know, maybe
00:28a Royal Rat Rod or a Rat Rod Rolls Royce, you know, if you're going to rat rod a Rolls
00:32Royce, 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, exposed welds, cut the roof down,
00:41original seats, original steering box, original grill, original body panels, we didn't put
00:46any paint on it, you know, same with the rat rod style, but we're just here to have fun.
00:51This incredible rat rod began as a 1936 Rolls Royce.
00:56It was created by an international team, including Sam Hard.
01:01Where we got the inspiration from building the Rolls Royce Rat Rod was actually at SEMA
01:05in 2015.
01:06I was there helping a friend of mine build a car for SEMA and at the time I had a few
01:122,000,000 lemonades and I was talking to a few celebrities and I pretty much put my foot
01:17in it.
01:18Sam had entered himself and his team into a competition to build a rat rod to show at
01:22the following year's SEMA event.
01:26While the end design was a team effort, American Michael Lightbourne had the idea of using
01:31a Rolls Royce.
01:32He sourced the car and convinced the owner to part with it.
01:36Sam and his dad Derek helped raise sponsorship and sourced parts and the customising work
01:43was carried out at Street Toys in Mexico by Jesse Gonzalez and his team.
01:47It's got LS6, I mean that engine's a fricking powerhouse, big block Chevy, it's got hill
01:53control, dual injection, again that kicks up another 80-100bhp.
01:57How fast can it go 0-60?
02:00It's kind of how big your cojones are, is how to answer that question.
02:04It's just quite scary to actually put your foot down on a car that's number one, it's
02:07got an aluminium frame, you don't want to twist it even though it has to be strengthened
02:11unbelievably well.
02:13This car probably weighs under a tonne and the power to weight ratio is something probably
02:17like a Ferrari.
02:18It's unbelievable.
02:19You put the foot down and it's actually quite scary to think that are you actually going
02:23to stop because this thing is a fricking powerhouse.
02:28When the car's paperwork was sent to motoring writer Glyn Williams, he discovered that the
02:33Rolls-Royce had an interesting history.
02:36Through the chassis number I found out that this was the first Rolls-Royce that Lord Fredegar
02:40ever owned and for it to be the most eccentric, crazy guy known in the UK history, near royalty,
02:47friends with Hitler, Winston Churchill, all these famous people and now we just cut it
02:52up and having some fun with it.
02:53I kind of feel that if Lord Fredegar was here today, he'd be smiling too.
02:59With the build finished, it was time to take the car from Mexico to Las Vegas.
03:04When we took it to SEMA, some of the best car builders in the world, Gene Winfield,
03:08you know, the guys from the Diesel Brothers, the guys from Street Outlaws, all these crazy
03:14amazing people with unbelievable reputations not only just for the building side of things
03:19but even in the TV world, you know, Welder Up Garage, a massive, massive rat roll builder
03:23garage in Las Vegas.
03:24These guys came over to the shop and they couldn't believe what we'd done to the car.
03:29It was groundbreaking.
03:30It was unbelievable.
03:31After the success of this collaboration, the team is already looking ahead to SEMA 2017.
03:38The car has already been bought.
03:39We're just trying to make it as crazy as we can and trying to make some people scared
03:42and maybe a little bit upset and trying to make the majority of the car builders in the
03:46custom car world smile.
03:48SEMA 2017, SEMA, here we come.
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