An expert car customiser has transformed a 94 Corvette into a stunning replica of the Mach 5 from the iconic 1960’s cartoon Speedracer. Jerry Patrick, who owns car replica extraordinaire AKA Junk, has been transforming cars into classic cartoon and movie vehicles for over a decade. After falling in love with the Mach 5 in the 60’s, 51-year-old Patrick had to fulfil his lifelong dream of driving the real deal.
00:34Straight out of the 1960s cartoon, this incredible Mach 5 speed racer is the handiwork of car customizer Jerry Patrick.
00:42The Mach 5 started off with a 94 Corvette, a really nice 94 Corvette, and we kind of destroyed it for lack of a better word.
00:50The whole back of the car, in front of the car, it was totally taken off.
00:54We fiberglassed the new body back on it, and it takes about 90 to 120 days to complete one.
01:02We got the interior, put the correct red leather interior inside.
01:06Obviously custom paint, custom decals, the emblems, the steel wheels in fact, we custom make them here in house.
01:15The whole process began with Jerry customizing his own cars to save on mechanic bills.
01:21We started customizing the old school Camaros and Mustangs probably 15 or 20 years ago, and that kind of parlayed into doing the TV and movie cars.
01:30And so I'd say to love the most is definitely doing the TV and movie cars.
01:34When we go out and do car shows, you see gobs of the Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles, but you don't see too many Mach 5 speed racers.
01:42Growing up with the cartoon as a kid, Jerry couldn't resist building his own speed racer.
01:48The inspiration behind the Mach 5 was straight off the cartoon from a 51-year-old guy back in 1967-ish when the cartoon came out.
01:57So I was really enthralled as a kid to watch this, and I thought, you know, one day I'm going to be driving a Mach 5.
02:04The cost to build on the Mach 5 is another one of these classified things that I've got to keep that a big secret from my wife.
02:11The build also posed some problems for the veteran customizer.
02:18The biggest challenge on building the Mach 5 was building the first one.
02:21I mean, we started off with a body that was a sculpt from someone else, and we had to kind of morph it into what we wanted for our own car,
02:29where it actually fit right, look right, do right, and now we're actually building our own bodies.
02:34When you hop in the Mach 5, it can just go broil the tires and just go have fun with it just like you would see in the cartoon.
02:44I get asked generally sometimes from some specific questions on how fast the Mach 5 can go.
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