Our Design Team decided to build the ’35 as a “low-buck” car, one that will come in under $25,000. Rich Weston and Randy Johnson plan to drive the car cross-country from Oregon to display it at the NSRA National Show in Louisville, Kentucky, in August 2007.
The mission: to revive that original hot rod spirit of putting together a car from available parts and making it move.
There are only three requirements:

Of course, the car is going to be a showcase for Bob Drake parts, and also for parts available from other leading manufacturers. We’ll be documenting the build throughout with photos and a story that will appear in a national car publication. Along the way, updates like this one will appear here on our Web site and also in our catalogs. This is going to be a heck of a lot of fun, with lots of glory to spread around.

On August 15, 2006 the Design Team met in Bob Drake’s machine shop in Grants Pass, Oregon, to nail down the particulars of the build.

The body was lifted from the chassis
with the help of a winch and A-frame.

Before Rich prepared the shopping list, it was established that this will be an old school hot rod, retaining the rich, beautifully-weathered body as-is. But performance wise, this will be no stocker. It’s going to sport an exposed 345-horse Ford Racing 302 engine, a dropped 4” I-beam axle, an automatic overdrive tranny with an 8” x 370 geared rear end, maybe some wide whitewalls (15” 195/60s and 255/70s) mounted on Solid's style wheels decorated with Drake's '46 hub caps (51A-1130) & ribbed beauty rings (01A-18303-15).

Finishing touches will be Pendleton Indian blanket seat covers, air-conditioning, a DVD player with an under-dash 8” screen and an Ipod-compatible 300-watt Pioneer radio/CD player for drowning out highway patrol sirens. The Team considered a GPS, but figured that heck, if we get lost, we can get unlost fast.