00:02In 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 one of the most craziest cars that anyone would dare to build.
00:18The conventional ratrod to the man that loves his Ferrari and Lamborghini they're just another
00:23rusty car on the road. We try to put our own interpretation on what a ratrod should be,
00:28you know maybe a royal ratrod or a ratrod Rolls-Royce. If you're going to ratrod on a Rolls-Royce
00:32these bodies are aluminium and you can't make them rust anyway so what can we do? We can put our
00:36own interpretation on it, big engine, exposed welds, cut the roof down, original seats, original steering box, original grill, original
00:44body panels, we didn't put any paint on it, same with the ratrod style but we're just here to have
00:49fun.
00:51This incredible ratrod began as a 1936 Rolls-Royce. It was created by an international team including Sam Hard.
01:01Where we got the inspiration from building the Rolls-Royce ratrod was actually at SEMA in 2015. I was there
01:06helping a friend of mine build a car for SEMA and at the time I had a few 2.11
01:13.8s and I was talking to a few celebrities and I pretty much put my foot in it.
01:17Sam had entered himself and his team into a competition to build a ratrod to show at the following year's
01:23SEMA event.
01:25While the end design was a team effort, American Michael Lightbourne had the idea of using a Rolls-Royce. He
01:32sourced the car and convinced the owner to part with it.
01:36Sam and his dad Derek helped raise sponsorship and sourced parts and the customizing work was carried out at Street
01:44Toys in Mexico by Jesse Gonzalez and his team.
01:48It's got LS6. I mean that engine's a frippin' powerhouse. Big block Chevy. It's got hillboard fuel injection again. That
01:54kicks up another 80 to 100 brake horsepower.
01:56How fast can it go 0-60? I mean it's kind of how big your cojones are is how to
02:02answer that question.
02:03I mean it's just quite scary to actually put your foot down on a car that's number one. You've got
02:07an aluminium frame. You don't want to twist it even though it has been strengthened unbelievably well.
02:12I mean this car probably weighs under a ton and the power to weight ratio is something like a Ferrari.
02:18I mean it's unbelievable. You put the foot down and it's actually quite scary to think that are you actually
02:23going to stop because this thing is a frickin' powerhouse.
02:27When the car's paperwork was sent to motoring writer Glyn Williams, he discovered that the Rolls-Royce had an interesting
02:34history.
02:36Through the chassis number I found out this was the first Rolls-Royce that Lord Tredegar ever owned. And for
02:41it to be the most eccentric, crazy guy known in the UK history, near royalty, friends with Hitler, Winston Churchill,
02:50all these famous people.
02:51And now we just cut it up and having some fun with it. I kind of feel that if Lord
02:54Tredegar was here today, he'd be smiling too.
02:58With 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 unbelievable reputations, not only
03:17just for the building side of things, but even in the TV world.
03:20You know, Welder Up Garage, a massive, massive, massive rat rob builder garage in Las Vegas. These guys came over
03:25to the 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.
03:37The car has already been bought. We're just trying to make it as crazy as we can and trying to
03:41make some people scared and maybe a little bit upset and trying to make the majority of the car builders
03:46in the custom car world smile.
03:482017 SEMA, here we come.
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