Anybody know if this car still exists?
It is/was a T-bodied custom car built in the late 70s/early 80s by a hot rod wizard called Nick Butler.
Powered by a huge supercharged Chrysler V8 it was said to have 1000+BHP!
A car magazine tested it & were asked not to give it full throttle off the line otherwise, due to the enormous torque it produced, the wheels might disintegrate!
Driving moderately, they still reached 100mph in around 8secs...
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Don't know but fancy that computer controller woman Andromeda something cronic... especially when she wears that red plastic uniform.
I'll get my coat...
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I'm reminded of the garage owner at High Salvington Worthing who used to display that special he built with a supercharged RR Merlin engine (Spitfire, Mosquito, P-51 Mustang, Lancaster etc) in it.
Wonder what happened to that.
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Re: the Spit engined car.....
Yes remember that too, but can't forgot the guys name
Come on, somebody else must remember Andromeda.
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perhaps, Growler, the same guy who was based here in Epsom in 80s...?
Car had enormously long bonnet, sported RR grille and mascot and (having no sense of humour), RR took him to court. Think he was auto-transmission specialist and had workshop at Biggin Hill -= but canna think of his name.
El Hacko
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Think the guy was called John Dodds.
It looked a bit like a Capri on Storoids.
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that's him - his car was nicknamed "The Beast" and he adored all publicity. I worked on the local newspaper then and he took me for "flight" on Epsom Downs...terrifying performance from under that bonnet! Wonder if he's still flying?
El Hacko
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As far as I know The Beast is still around but I'm not sure if legal action by RR prevents it from being exhibited. I remember reading a Street machine feature on it some 14 or so years ago.
There were actually a few cars built around the merlin, and IIRC the MK1 version of that lump pushed out slightly over 1050 geegees - that means the other ones are waiting out there for you at the traffic lights...;) Anyway, I believe this is the monster you're talking about:
www.btinternet.com/%7Ecbcox/beast/beast.htm
Interestingly enough, John Dodds son followed in his fathers footsteps and now tunes yanks up to stupidBHP (tm) as seen in this article:
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5844-594737,00.ht...l
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You can have heaps of fun doing this and all the parts you ned for muscle cars are available. We have a hot rod association in Angeles City, where all the retired vets plus a bunch of others race down the perimeter tracks of Clark Air Base every Sunday.
A pal of mine's son is rebuilding a '71 Mustang 351 (theta's the yelloe one with the black stripes for and aft) with a bit of advice from me and that'll have nitrous. You can buy nitrous kits in the local accessory shops and they're not nearly as expensive as £1/second. The great talent of Filipino mechanics is they can fix/copy/fabricate anything, all in some little roadside hovel like the black hole of Calcutta.
You can tout fancy engineering all you want but nothing beats raw power, nothing is as sexy as a big muscle car and I agree there are few things as satisfying as losing rice-boys in boomboom boxes for ever at the lights.
The ST article mentions the 7.4 litre Olds 442 of 1971. These used to come with a huge white "442" on each side. A radio DJ pal of mine in Bahrain had one and it was a real scorcher. Pity the '73 oil crisis killed those off and American cars entered the era of little rinky-dink econo-junkmobiles....
Yes, I'm working on Andromeda I'm sure I can dig up something....
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One of my colleagues keeps pushing me to buy a yank. I'm sold, but I probably couldn't afford to insure it and I'd have to have a special trailer built to tow the petrol pump around... ;)
Besides, the ones I gravitate towards are way out of my reach anyway ('70 charger R/T, challenger RT, Hemi cuda, etc..) although while we're mentioning ponies I do have a real soft spot for Boss mustangs, Mach 1's, and late 60s fastbacks. Until that magic lottery win comes in I'll just have to keep mooching longingly though www.motionalmemories.com :)
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Not as expensive as you might think. My '66 would manage 22 mpg, though admittedly it was only the small V-8 -- 289 cu in. All parts are readily available at modest cost. Even in UK I found quite obscure parts (frame rails for example) available from specialist dealers. What they don't have you can get in 48 hours from the US via FedEX. Not only that the mechanics are dead simple so you can fix most things yourself and they hardly ever go wrong anhway.
Maybe not a daily driver though. Boy I miss that car....
tinyurl.com/ivu4
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Now that's a little gem :)
The daily driver thing is my main issue - there's no way I could afford to insure (or even have the space to store) two cars. It gets trickier too because I've only had my license for three years so insurance can still be a bit on the steep side. I could probably get a soecialist classic policy, but the usual annual mileage limitation might be a problem.
It's definitely something I'm keeping in mind though - I've been juggling with the idea for a year or so now, and if I manage to 'forget' all of the potential pitfalls it still looks like an attractive proposition ;)
For now though, I'll have to stick with my little Skoda (which has just sailed though yet another MOT) :)
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www.1320pi.com
My occasional Sunday afternoon diversion. Mainly watching with a supply of cold ones.
Good fun and most of it done on a shoestring.
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Anybody know if this car still exists? It is/was a T-bodied custom car built in the late 70s/early 80s by a hot rod wizard called Nick Butler.
Google provided some reference to Nick Butler and a list of links.
www.nsra.org.uk/links.htm
www.nsra.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=167
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