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, 29, 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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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.