Lots of people make hot rods. But not many can pull off the kind of beast you’d buy at an auction. That’s what Chris Miranda has done. The hot rodder, who works at West Coast Auto Craft in Cloverdale, California, created something special for his client who bought the Factory Five 1933, Greg Clouse. Clouse, a motorcycle racer who competes from time to time, wanted the car to look like it could race, to match its performance underpinnings.
Chris learned that Clouse was into Steampunk, and this inspired him to build a Steampunk roadster. He tore apart and added Steampunk elements to the FFR (Factory Five Racing) body, like an aluminum chassis and aluminum seats.
He gave the hood an oblong opening to let the injection stacks stick through, filled the decklid and rear pan with louvers, gave the hood sides curvy openings that let the IFS A-arms poke through, and added exchaust outlets to each quarter panel in front of the rear wheels. Instead of the ususal chrome plating, Miranda opted for copper for that Steampunk feel.
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Inside the car, Miranda slid the bomber-type all-aluminum bucket seats with pleated seat covers into the cockpit. He also applied both copper and aluminum rivets throughout the interior, and even built a bespoke gauge in the dashboard.
But Miranda wasn’t done. He used classic instruments like a copper-rimmed gauge shaped like a grandfather clock which contained the fuel information, voltage, water temperature, oil pressure and more.
So, with the car looking this amazing, what kind of power does it have? A 460 bumped to 510 cubes. The big block has forged Scat rods, a forged Scat 4.150-inch crank, a COMP hydraulic roller camshaft and JE 4.390-inch forged pistons (10:1).
An Imagine Injection system supplies two ported Edelbrock aluminum heads via four throttle bodies, with the exhaust exiting through handmade stainless steel headers. The gears are dialed by a TKO 600 five-speed transmission.
You won’t see anything else like the Steampunk roadster. But then again, something that fast, powerful and good-looking probably isn’t meant to have any siblings.
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