(upbeat music)
- It wasn't a team of people that built it, it was one guy.
(car revving)
And you see his priorities.
It's, it's his personality it's just
put on display for everybody.
And I cannot wait to meet him because
I can tell he and I are a lot a like.
(car revving)
(upbeat music)
You know it's just another day driving a Miata.
Well, okay, maybe an angry Miata.
I've gotta meet the guy who built this thing.
It's a lot of effort put into
making this thing look amazing.
And that's what I connect with this immediately.
(car revving)
When you listen to that, it sounds like,
more like those old cobras with
the dual exhaust coming out the side.
So you can hear it's like that bi dural audio,
you know, where that, those videos
where you can hear both ears sounding different.
(car revving)
You're not gonna be able to hear me much
when this engine goes.
And that that's a huge part of tuner culture
is it wasn't a team of people that built it.
It was one guy and he needs to make sure it works.
Cause his personality shows in the way he wires it,
it shows that how he built his engine.
It shows that what he decided to prioritize
and you see his priorities.
It's, it's his personality's just
put on display for everybody.
And I cannot wait to meet him because
I can tell he and I are a lot alike.
This Frankenstein machine has a name, Odd Rod,
and it has a builder, Tommy Rikulderfer.
A machinist by trade, Tommy loves
making things with old tools,
and has transformed his first generation Miata
into a steampunk hot rod.
It's powered by a carburetted Ford 302 V8.
That motor has been stroked out
to 331 cubic inches and is good for 470 horsepower,
460 pound feet of torque at the crank.
Not bad for a car that feels like it weighs less than I do.
(upbeat music)
When a guy like me, sees a car like this,
the first question I have to ask is why?
Why this?
- I ask myself that same question every day,
but it started out as just, you know,
to have something that was, that was really fast.
And like grew up on British Roadsters,
so Miata's were kind of the, you know, the natural evolution
from the things that I grew up on
and this, you know this kind of became a mashup
of all the other influences that I had as a kid,
you know like formula one, you know,
traditional supercars, like you know, like Countash's
and every thing there's like, you know
some kind of angular elements from those, yeah.
- Now when, when I see the, the shop behind me
I see you have a type.
What, what is that type?
- Small, lightweight, and as analog as possible.
(bass music)
- That certainly is analog.
- That's, that's pretty much what it comes down to,
keep everything as, as mechanical as possible
and less will go wrong.
- Yeah, so then my question is, when it was stock
what was the first thing that led you down this path?
- It was a shop that I was working at that built,
they specialized in big block and small block Fords,
and that's, that's kind of where, you know
where I learned about 'em and
and kind of fell in love with them.
All the things that are, that are really great
about that, that one platform.
- Yeah.
- So yeah, that's, that's where the V8 swap idea
originally came from and then everything else on the car
just kind of evolved after the, after the initial swap.
- So out of everything I see here,
what, what have you done on it?
You've done the vast majority, you personally.
- Everything except for the louvers
and, and, and the louvers.
I think, I think literally everything else
has been just my incompetent hands.
(laughing)
- So you show me, - Okay.
- what it takes to drive this thing.
- Yeah, okay, yeah.
So there's a, yeah, we got the hydraulic hand break.
That's the, that's the dimmer switch for the
for the high and low beams.
That's the makeshift line lock for doing burnouts,
mechanical, mechanical line lock.
And that's, that's pretty much it.
- And so where's the ABS?
- Ah! (laughing)
You're hilarious. - So you're...
- ABS is, is modulating with your foot.
- That's right. - So.
(car revving)
- It doesn't have power steering.
It doesn't have assisted brakes.
It is you connected to the road
in the coolest way possible.
The wind rushing through my hair, the, the experience
the sun, the little couple rocks hit me in the face.
Now all of that is what makes this, so
in the moment I am in this car, I am enjoying this moment.
That's what I love about cars.
And of course that's what is so attractive
about cars to people who love to tune.
Yeah, yeah it can drive and get you to places,
but but something like this reminds you why you do it.
It's always an emotion.
And this car is full of emotion.
(car revving)
These nice little smooth ups and downs and everything
just really show to me how fun it is to drive a car
as Frankenstein as this is as part car, part metal part.
It just, it's just a little bit of everything.
And yet it's so polished.
Okay, so I'm not a big piston engine guy
but I noticed you did something really unique here.
- Yeah. - What am I, what am I
looking at underneath that metal?
- Oh well, you're looking at the rocker arms
and everything that goes on on the top end
of a, of an engine basically. - Okay.
That's something you made, that's something you
you wanted to do. - Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, make 'em on the, on the Bridgeport.
And now I have a guy that does part of it
on a C and C and I, I finish it on the Bridgeport.
- That's awesome and that seems to be kind of a theme
of the car that you can see through it.
- Yeah, well that idea started there,
but now there's a there's a see through section
above the differential and everything.
So you can see the, you know.
- You can watch it grenade? (laughing)
- Yeah, yeah exactly.
So you can see the, the axles and the dry shaft
and everything move.
- You know, being that it is a carburetted V8,
aerodynamic car, I feel like, I feel like
we have a place we could go.
- Where might that be? - We'll see.
(energetic music)
(car revving)
(energetic music)
I'm beginning to realize something,
as I get older, I'm starting to understand
the value of time and how quickly time passes.
And you know what, this car shows you,
just how much time he put into it and what he chose to
use his limited time in the garage doing.
When you see a car as polished as this one,
you see the details of all the riveting
and all the metal work, he put extra time into that.
That is, that's details, that's a 80-20 rule
where 20 percent of the work takes 80 percent of the time.
And this is clearly an insane amount of time
that he's never getting back.
And you know what's cool about that,
that almost immortalizes his spirit in the car.
It's, it's an extension of him that he
gets to communicate with all of us.
It's almost like a greeting card,
it's almost his way of starting the conversation with us
without having to say a single word.
And that's, to me, why the tuner culture,
the American tuner culture is really more of an emotion
than just a collection of car parts.
(car revving)
And that's why I wish more people got into the tuner scene.
Their personality just shows through that
and it's so unique, each one of them are different.
And you know what?
I don't have to like it, it's an extension of them.
They choose what they get to do and they get to love it.