Style Deluxe: Bell Rock Rod
When Oliver Kaps told me the first time that he'll build a stretched Hot Rod, I was like: W-T-F. And I suppose everybody thought "W-T-F" as well. Beside Olli himself. He was always sure it would look awesome. Now, as the rod is finished, I know I was wrong. The car is a beauty. Although it has been stretched.
Mr. Kaps picked up a 1931 Chevrolet as a basis. And if you are familiar with the German TÜV, you'll know what it means to get such a monstrum street legal. Ok, it wasn't easy all the time, but Olli accomplished it. Chapeau!
The Bell Rock Rod was built for the Bell Rock Hotel (Rust Europar Park). You'll find a lot of details on Olli's site — just follow this link.
(Photos: Carlos Fernandez Laser)
Note to self: Get a Benzo Rod
I think it is obvious we have tremendous respect for the hot rod spirit. There is a simple reason for that: We are living in Germany. Well, on the one hand Deutschland has all its fingers in every pie regarding all worldwide highest desirable automotive brands – Audi, BMW (MINI, Rolls Royce), Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Volkswagen (Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini) –, but if you think about a unique culture which is driven by passion and individuals … there is none. At least not if you compare it to the American hot rod culture, which started in the late 1930s.
Maybe we Germans are overall too square to respect people who modify their vehicles by themselves, maybe the creativity which is needed to build a car to one's wishes is not valuated that high. Not to mention the fact that the whole trailer-queen adoring and producing tuner society in Germany gets seriously derided for their work. For a good reason, btw, if you ask me – they should rather prove their competence by building street legal race cars instead of distorted plastic funfair sculptures.
Ok. I run off the track. In the early days of Chromjuwelen.com we featured a 1952 Mercedes-Benz W 191 170 Sb, which got rodded by Heiko Sude. At the Race 61 in Finowfurt we ran into Niko Kahn's chopped and channeled Mercedes-Benz W 189 300 d "Adenauer". In the meantime Ingo Recktenwald debuted with his 1939 Mercedes-Benz W 136 170 V. And a few days ago our friends form the excellent Stipistop presented us another Mercedes-Benz 170 S hot rod.
Enough already. I am hooked. I want a Mercedes-Benz hot rod. With a supercharged AMG M113 5.4 L "Hammer" V8. Or – even better – with a 7.3 L V12 SL 73 AMG V12. You think this would is blasphemy? No. It would not. This would be the perfect German Engineered hot rod.
(Please hit the images for additional information)
Deichkraft: Tri-Axle Two-Stroke Diesel Godzilla
I am not quite sure when I first have had heard of "Deichkraft", but it must be some years ago. A good friend of mine sent me a shaky video of a tri-axle Dimond T 980 N20 truck, which has been converted into a roadster. But it was not only the fact the basis of Deichkraft is a tri-axle truck which is for that reason alone kinda odd — the steampunked hot rod comes with a GM two-stroke diesel.
From that day on I wanted to meet Carsten Plötner, who is one of the blokes behind that project. Last weekend the moment has finally arrived — we met each other at a birthday celebration. I am sure all others guests were a little unhinged by us, because we chatted the entire time about cars, the narrowmindedness of some German hot rodders and possible Deichkraft destinations.
Carsten, what about bringing your little Chromjuwel to the Race 61 and Rust 'N' Roll? But before you do that I will pop in to have a ride!
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