Vehicle Description
Vehicle to be offered for Auction sale January 19th - 22nd, 2017 at Russo and Steele's 17th Annual Scottsdale Arizona Auction at the Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. Please contact us for more information.
You are looking at one of the finest street rods in existence today. It was custom built to order for its original owner by Nick's Old Car Specialty in Redlands, California. The build started with a garage sale find of an actual Offy powered sprint car grill and a desire for a unique pro built streetrod. From this point, the owner supplied a new engine and transmission and worked closely with the builder to reach his final goal.
Before getting into the cars build details, it is important to know a little about the shop this car was built in. Nick's Old Car Specialty is owned and operated by Harry Nicks and has been in business over 20 years, building and restoring high end classic cars and custom vehicles. He is well known in the industry as one of the premier shops in the business with many, many of his cars placing first in a long list of Concurs de Elegance shows throughout the country. To be more specific, 13 first places out of the last 16 Concurs events entered in the last 18 months! Superb quality is the single goal of every project completed in this shop.
The body started as a new, all-steel unit from Brookville, which received a multitude of incredible custom tweaks. Among them, the front door pockets were moved forward 11/2 inches; extend body in passenger compartment by 2 additional inches; doors lengthened 2 inches; door sills are custom alloy; original external hinges were replaced with hidden, custom built hinges and door latches; trunk is now hydraulically operated/opened; license plate opening and tail lights (49 Pontiacs) have been recessed; dash is custom rolled steel and fire wall now flat and smooth; air craft fuel filler mounted top of body behind driver. Custom made windshield posts to hold curved MGB windshield. Hand built 20 gal. aluminum fuel tank mounted behind seat. The nose cone was custom built from aluminum as well as the hood and side panels, and are one of a kind, built around the aforementioned early sprint car grille. Paint is a stock bright orange and is impeccable.
The seats are custom made from rolled steel and set back into the body. Upholstery is all leather with top quality carpeting. Antique gold, Auto Meter gauges monitor oil pressure, amps, fuel, temperature and speed with matching tachometer custom mounted on hand built steering column. Steering wheel is sprint car design with matching leather wrap. Windshield is a curved, cut down MGB unit with custom supports. The complete chassis was hand-made from flat stock, boxed and reinforced using high-grade steel and suspended by a custom built, torsion bar suspension system, both front and rear. Front axle is a chromed Bell dropped unit with GM spindles, using 5 on 41/2' bolt patter hubs, adjustable alloy QA1 shocks, Wilwood dual-caliper disc brakes and custom braided hydraulic lines. Front torsion bars are hidden inside frame rails and wishbone radius rods are used. Rear suspension is also torsion bar using QA1 alloy shocks, and custom alloy pedal assemblies use a unique dual hydraulic braking system. Clutch and brakes actuated by chassis mounted CNC alloy master cylinders. A 9" Currie custom narrowed differential is attached to the torsion bars and chromed traction bars. Chassis and differential are painted to match exterior. Parts not painted are either chromed or polished alloy.
A custom-built aluminum radiator by Ron Davis is mounted with custom alloy shrouding around a mechanical fan mounted to a Donovan 350 V-8 built by Millennium Motorsports of Temecula, Calif. Engine specs include the Donovan alloy block, Edelbrock Performer alloy heads, Edelbrock alloy intake using a single 4 barrel, factory crankshaft with 3.48 stroke, Probe racing pistons & rings, heads and block surfaced, line bored mains, roller cam assembly with solid lifters and hardened push rods, Weld oil pump and pan, balanced and blueprinted. Engine is bolted to a scatter shield bell housing, backed by a 5-speed manual transmission connected by an aluminum driveshaft to a 9" Ford, 3:70 differential with Willwood dual caliper brakes. Exhaust system is a piece of art, custom built by Nicks using all stainless steel with unique custom joint clamps and stock car racing inserts to muffle. Wheels are alloy American "Hopsters" with BF Goodrich TA 195x60-15s on the front and matching BFG 275x60-15s on rear. Center hubs capped with alloy 3 spoke knock-off caps. All wiring is hidden in chassis, body and under dash. Firewall is clear of any wiring. Battery is easily accessible in trunk with a master power switch in passenger compartment. Delivering an incredible drive, this stunning Hi Boy was built at a cost of over $260,000 and has fewer than 900 miles since completion.
