Featured Cars: Custom Street and Classic Rods, Build kits

| SUBSCRIBE NOW | REGISTER | USER LOGIN |

CHR
Purchase Cool CHR Schwag! Great Gift Ideas

While Cahill did all the body work, Bourbainais took the stock frame rails, boxed them up and added square-tubing cross-members then, using Jaguar suspension front and back, custom built from billet aluminum almost everything but the Jaguar rear carrier. After all the body mods, the car still has its stock wheel base. The wheels (16” front, 18” back) are one-off custom units cut on Al Simmonds CNC machine, which also was used to match the steering wheel to the wheels and fabricate custom tranny, oil and differential covers. It’s hard to see in the photos, but there are no visible valve stems in the wheels. Instead, in the back of the centre section there is a small removable tab which has room for a needle (think basketball) to put air in the tires.

“We hadn’t been thinking about the Ridler when we started,” adds Cahill. “But after a few years we knew the looks were there and we figured, why not bring it there and see where we stood.” Once they reached the decision, things really got busy. As Bourbanais explains, if you’re going for the Ridler, there are no short cuts. “You can’t compromise anywhere,” he says. “You can never say that something is good enough because if you don’t finish even one bolt and the other guy does, you lose.” When it comes to details, even the engine and tranny were smoothed with a die grinder which took a combined 250 hours. “There were a lot of nights toward the end with the three of us working until 2 or 3 in the morning,” says Denis. He doesn’t know how many hours in total but Denis says in just over five years if you average 60 hours a week, “You’re probably there.”

The car was finished in February of 2001 on a Saturday afternoon. “Sunday morning I loaded it on the trailer and left for Detroit,” says Denis. “We didn’t have a clue what it would be like,” he says. “But it was a real eye opener.”

Northern Star wowed the judges and got the Great 8 nod but Chris Williams’ 1949 Chevy won the Ridler. The next weekend, Northern Star won an ISCA show in New York, then in Toronto won the Performance World Show. “I didn’t do the ISCA circuit because I was working,” he says. “But we’ve done well with the car.”

Though built almost a decade ago, the car still does well. Before the Winnipeg show — where it won Best Rod and Best Display — it won Best of Show at an ISCA show in Minneapolis. Needless to say, Denis’ idea of building a nice “driver” hot rod changed long ago. He’s never driven it (Bourbanais drove it at Cobo Hall) and recently decided he won’t.

That’s OK, this car gets your heart pumping even when it’s standing still.

NOTES:

The interior upholstery was the only non-Canadian aspect of the build, as Cullman, AL’s Paul Atkins was contracted to work his magic on the Northern Star interior. Cahill says they really pushed Atkins for time as it was basically the last thing that needed to be completed before the car went to Cobo Hall. Cahill built much of the interior’s base structure while Atkins came up with the desgin and stitched the tan leather. A removable hard top built for the car — covered by Atkins in Mercedes Benz Haartz sail cloth — utilizes the stock ’35 Chevy rear window.

The trunk is now smaller than it was in stock form. The taillight lens is actually a cut down fluorescent light cover that was painted red. This was pre-LED days so there are more than 40 bulbs providing illumination.

A brand new ZZ4 Crate engine was smoothed with a die grinder, dressed up in a lot of custom billet bling and topped with a beautiful Inglese fuel injection system.

The custom dash is filled with a Dakota Digital system while the ignition key and radio face plate are hidden behind the removable plate visible in the centre of the area beneath the dash. Below that panel, is another that hides the AC and heat controls. Everything on the car, doors, hood, trunk, is operated electronically. The almost invisible shifter, below, operates a Turbo 400.

Cahill made his own die to fit a metal brake so the custom hood lines would match the body lines.

1 | 2

Canadian Hot Rods Advertising