Ever since we travelled to Hakskeenpan and 2012 Kalahari Desert Speedweek, we’ve developed a new found affinity for rat rods. What separates a rat rod from a more typical hot rod is rather than a hot rod being restored to impeccable condition with a million coats of garish paint; a rat rod is a simple, no-frills, no-fuss, running engine with an original and weathered body on top.
In fact, the distressed, weathered body, exposed welds and one-of-kind appeal to any rat rod is often the most important thing about it; far more important than how it performs. We do also appreciate that rat rodding may be a fad of the moment. If hipsters were into cars, they’d almost certainly be into what rat rodding is all about. But that’s not enough to put us ‘off.’ When we see examples like this one, we must acknowledge that this is one of the best of the breed.
The machine you see before you is a 1928 Model-A Ford and it makes use of a 4.0-litre BMW V8 out of a 1990’s 740i. It’s just the perfect blend of a low-riding, simple hot rod body, with the purposeful bank of BMW V8 cylinders up front. It’s a glorious looking thing and calling it one-of-a-kind is about as big an understatement as you can make.
Mike Burroughs is the man behind it and he is also the man behind Stance Works, an enthusiast site for all sorts of rat rod and custom car building projects. Mike started by purchasing a 1928 Ford Model-A rolling chassis for $2 200 (equivalent of R40 000) but he wanted to add a wow-factor and managed to source the 1995 BMW 740i 4.0-litre V8 making 225 kW to push the 680 kg custom car around.
In 1928 the Ford Model-A replaced the Model-T which had been in production for 18 years and had sold 15 million units. The cars original 3.3-litre 4-cylinder had a 3-speed manual gearbox and the mechanical brakes and linkages. The BMW engine gave the growl and burble of a V8. The BMW M60 powerplant was an overhead-cam V8 pushing out the equivalent of a modern day BMW 335i. The 740′s automatic transmission was replaced by a Getrag 420 6-speed from an E39 M5. The engine continues to run on the factory ECU.
We highly recommend you click through to http://www.stanceworks.com/2013/05/mike-burroughs-ford-hot-rod-bmw-model-a/StanceWorks to get the full story on this simply-brilliant rat rod.
