Greetings! My name is Kevin Tully, and I own Hot Rod Chassis & Cycle. I was browsing around the web, and see that someone posted our build on here. Cool site, and glad to meet you all. I thought if some of you wanted to ask questions during the build, I'd be happy to answer them. Reading many of the posts, I'd like the say thanks for the many kind words.
I'd also like to address some of the comments. Building race cars of just about any type often involves updating the suspension, or modifying the car almost entirely as far as the chassis goes. And we aren't just a hot rod shop. I'm a military aircraft fabricator by trade. That being said, EVERY car we build I ensure to the best of my ability that the person life is safe. Safety is paramount in our shop. We no longer build mild steel cages (and haven't for almost 8 years) because of that. When we observed SFI/NHRA making mild steel cage times slower and slower, we made the decision to pass on those jobs for that time on. Every stick car we build gets a Quicktime scatter shield. They all get drive shaft loops, often front and rear. And many other safety features most builders don't put in an average street car. And for racing, I apprenticed under Mark Constantine at Autofab Racecars in Maryland after I got out. We regularly built cars to dipped into the 5's there. I also built the 2009 World Fastest Nostalgia Super Stock, a legit 1963 Plymouth Savoy Factory Super Stock called "Keep'n The Faith". It no longer runs super stock springs, but a pair of ladder bars and a full race 9" that I also fabricated and used Moser Engineer guts in. We regularly build 8-10 sec dragsters, many of which may look like hot rods, but are full on dragsters. Psycoholic (a 1930 Model A Tudor), The Two Timer (a '32 Ford Pickup), Maximum Evil (a '27 Ford T Coupe), The Hot Rod With No Name (a '31 Ford Model A Coupe), and many others, to include a land speed chassis. We're currently working on a '33 Dodge Coupe with a stroked early Hemi, and a '34 Chrysler Coupe that will run an injected, stroked 440. Both are street strip cars that sport ladder bars.
We've been in business for 10 years, so I'm not sure about "popping up." Everyone's shop has a starting date. Some open a shop to fill a need in an area. Some because of a current craze. Some because someone is crazy enough to open a shop (trust me, running a small business with our current government and the economy is a no light task).
I appreciate all the suggestions on the hood scoop. We wanted to stick with a MoPar hood scoop, but needed one that would enclose the required injector stack height. Trust me, I would love to have used the AAR scoop. It's one of my favorites, and would tie in the Tran-Am feel nicely. But, the Six Pack scoop fit that bill. As for not running a scoop facing forward, many forms of racing use a forward facing hood scoop. Drag racing, land speed, road course. Above say 120 mph, you do have to vent the scoop. If you look at most cars using a hood scoop, you'll find vents in the air pan at the back to prevent over-pressuring the scoop. This will have the same design.
As for receiving donated parts and then "selling them" to the customer to rake in money, I think not. If you ask around, we are one of the most honest shops in our area. I was raised with the Golden Rule and a yard stick. Never, in my life, would I receive a donated part from a manufacturer, and then nefariously sell it for money. And, as anyone in the industry will tell you, that's a quick way to burn all your bridges at once.
Badging, or decaling a car. Well, you see that in every form of racing back to the start of speed parts just about. And it was no different in Trans-Am. Manufacturers want people to know who's parts are on your car, and the decal is a trade. You're advertising their product, and they give you one to use. It's that simple. Other than the shop name, all the other badging are decals that will eventually be removed after a few years of racing.
On the "no MoPar left" comment, how much is none? We'll be using a 440, 2010 Charger Police Pursuit brakes, '64 Super Stock seats (yes, real ones), Legendary is making us an OEM interior kit, 6-Pack hood scoop, '64 Barracuda turn signals, we're keeping the stock steering column and all the trim, etc, etc. I would dare say that many of our favorite Dodge and Plymouth dragsters or land speed cars (like Blowfish) used as much MoPar as is safe, and the rest became fabricated.
Our whole goal here wasn't to bolt on aftermarket parts and go see how well we could do. The goal is to barge into the heavily dominated by General Motors, Autocross and Road Race challenge events. And the cars we're going after are far from being warmed over stock GM cars.
We hope many of you are happy to have someone willing to champion MoPar into a field dominated by the General. And will follow the build and enjoy it. If any of you are ever in or near Chicago, and you'd like to stop by (even on the weekend) just give us a call. I'd be happy to show you the project (even if it means meeting you on a Sunday).
