The Rolls-Royce Rat Rod Is the Perfectly British Approach to Custom Work

Sam Hard is British and, as you may have heard, they don’t have the culture of rat rods over there. The British are posh and what they DO have is a cult for everything similarly posh. Like Rolls-Royces, which, even on their worst days, are still considered the epitome of elegance and style.

This build, simply called the Rolls-Royce Rat Rod, is able to bring these two seemingly contradictory notions together and accomplish similarly contradictory purposes: delve deep into the rat rod culture while retaining that British poshness the original vehicle is so famous for.

And to think that it happened by accident. Sam Hard lives in Farnham, Hampshire, in the UK. He attended the 2015 edition of SEMA in Las Vegas, U.S. and, as he recalls in the video at the bottom of the page, made a complete fool of himself in front of all the builders he’d been looking up to and many celebrities by talking out loud about how the event had only shiny, new builds and no rat rods. He then made a bet that he would bring his own build, a rat rod, to the event the next year.

In the other video at the end of the article, Sam explains he finally made peace with his own stupidity by promising himself he would try his best to deliver. He would also do what the Brits do so well: make a mess of things and then walk away with his head high, but at the very least he would try.

The idea for the Rolls-Royce came from Michael Lightbourn, who is well-known for his ability to track down any classic. It fit perfectly with Sam’s approach, because he was aware he had to put his own touch on the build: as a British man, he couldn’t simply show up at SEMA, an American show, with an American car. It had to be a personalized rat rod.

“I chose Rolls Royce mainly because it’s a British car and it was built in England,” Sam explains.

The team that ended up working on the build was international, comprising Hard and his dad Derek, Lightbourn, and fabricator / builder Jesse Gonzalez of Street Toys in Juarez, Mexico. Sam and his dad raised money for the project, while Lightbourn found the perfect car: a 1936 Rolls-Royce that they would later find belonged to the infamous Evan Frederic Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar – or Lord Tredegar, for short.

After Lightbourn bought the car from its owner, it was shipped to Mexico, where work began. Three months later, the project was completed: unlike other rat rods, this one wasn’t made with spare parts and didn’t have a mismatched, rusted aesthetic. But it was striking nonetheless: the overall look of a rat rod was kept, but the body was remade of polished aluminum, left unpainted to be more in theme.

The original drivebox, the original front seats and many other original parts were kept, but whatever could be taken apart and customized in some fashion was taken apart and customized. Hard describes it as “recycling.”

A 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle LS6 engine makes this rat rod almost as impressive as a Ferrari on the road. Sam says the power to weight ratio is like nothing any of them has ever experienced, to the point where not a single member of this international team was ever bold enough to floor the acceleration.

“Me, Jesse and Michael have driven the car and it’s quite scary to actually put your foot down on a car that has an aluminum frame, you don’t want to twist it. The car is very light, it weighs under a ton,” Sam explains. “The power to weight ratio is something like a Ferrari, it’s unbelievable. You put your foot down and it’s actually quite scary because this thing is a powerhouse.”

The one thing that was left untouched from the original is the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament. Just in case anyone had trouble believing a Rolls-Royce could be turned into a rat rod.