I spotted this on Facebook. A Rolls Royce Hot-rod.

If it was a bitsa with a rolls royce grill id say it was ugly, but what makes it worse is it looks like they started with a largly original looking roller. I rather have seen it bangered than butchered.

There's some Retro Rides involvement with that particular car.

I know friend of the forum Nick Williams did some photography of the car, are there more connections?


Things I like: The overall concept is great, hot rod Rolls Royce, I'm all in, outside driver with passenger compartment, I'm all in. Whilst I'm not sure I'd go for that full on a roof chop I can see it fitting in with the style (it says rat rod, but there is nothing rat about this rod ). I LOVE all the little details retained from the original car.

That having been said if I were ever in a position to build such a thing I'd probably want the original Rolls Royce engine at least. I'm really not keen on the suspension pick up in front of the grill, I kinda get why it is there from a style and function point of view, but if I were to have a custom chassis built personally I'd like it to look a bit different, but again I can understand why in their styling they did it. The interior is too much, I love the idea of Mexican blanket seats or headliner or trim, but for all of it to be like that it loses what I think was a great idea (one I've mentioned before to people).

Really though what I'd want to do with a custom Rolls Royce is not this style of rod, so maybe that is where I'm picking holes.

For me I'd want to keep the separate cabin/driver but with less of a chop. Flat rather than split screen at the front. Rolls engine. Paint (heritage colours). Leather interior with as much original trim as possible.

Basically this :



With a Rolls Royce as a base.



Now where are those lottery numbers.

Well I for one think it's cooler than a polar bear's toenails.

Here it is outside EmDerp towers:



Looking at the build pics it seems like there is a lot of hard work that's gone into it. At the end of the day it's a pre-war RR Rod, I can't see anything that isn't cool about that. Kudos to them for giving it a toot.

Aluminium chassis is a bit of an odd choice, did they try to give it a 'silver ghost' effect?

There is not much Rolls left in there, even the radiator is custom made. I think it a shame to hack a body in that way, they had better started from scratch.

Typical hot rod components (front axle, drive train and rear axle) doesn't help to get the Rolls look right.

I must admit most pictures doesn't seem to compliment it, here is a better one:

A whole bunch of those early Rolls have rotted into the ground, or been used as wedding cars then banger raced, so I'm not too worried on that score.

Now if someone is feeling very brave you could pick up the coach work from something more sacrilegious to make a rod out of : www.prewarcar.com/classifieds/ad203595.html

I like the wheels.

My opinion: the lines don't work for me - the front/rear cabin proportions are weird. I don't understand putting that much effort into making a "rat-rod", even though this is really a hot rod with rat proportions. Why not use that effort to make a show rod?



Seems a bit odd to use a donor car that's that radically different, unless it's just a claim to the name Rolls Royce.

Extreme for extreme's sake.

I'm sure it would be amazing in person. The fabrication is very impressive.

Purely based on the photos and my personal taste, it seems like they have gone too extreme.
The unusual base car, aluminium chassis and all the other unique touches would already be enough to set it apart, without having it so extremely low. The amount of extreme treatment they have given it would look better on a "bland" base car like a Ford sedan.

For me personally, it would look much better with less chop, less suspension drop and no suicide axle on the front. Keep it so that you could still plausibly use it to chauffeur people around in comfort. Dropped I-beam axle underneath the chassis in the normal location and room to get in the rear doors without hitting your head.

It would actually be quite something to keep it full-fendered with the spare wheels and everything!

Bloomin heck, that seems a lot or Roller for $25k, even with a crappy exchange rate. I thought it would be way more. Still too much for me, but I can dream...