Larry Erickson is one of those guys you read about and he makes an impression.

He’s one of those super-talented designers who has a mile-deep resume of simply killer cars for the right clients that are built by the right shops by the right people. OK, so that is a run-on sentence (and my former-English-teacher-mother will let me know about that) but it really is the only way to describe Larry.

Well, that, and he’s a really nice guy.

So, you can imagine how cool it is for me after reading about Larry for years, that he became a good friend when he came to Ford after leaving GM years ago. If you are not familiar with Larry, Google “Cadzilla”, “Aluma Coupe”, or his ’32 Chevy that graced Hot Rod magazine’s 55th anniversary cover.

Larry sold his ’32 Chevy a while back. While it pained me so see it go, he did the right thing with the proceeds; did work on the house, saved some, put some aside for his kid’s college fund…. But he also kept some for another hot rod. Good thing for us.

So, what is Larry up to now? Bonneville.

If you are really into cars, Bonneville probably means a lot to you.
For me, men like Gary Gabelich and Craig Breedlove branded my automotive consciousness when I was about 7 years old. Anyone that would strap themselves to a rocket engine on wheels and blast themselves across the salt at over 600mph had to be really cool.

A few years back, I had the good fortune to meet Art Arfons and tour his shop in Ohio. His shop was just insane. Jet engines were stacked up around the place like cord wood. He told me of stories where he’d call for assembly manuals on jet engines he had acquired; only to be told “You’re not supposed to have that…..” Bonneville is like that.
It really is the last place where you are expected build the most insane thing you can think of and drive it as fast as you can or as fast as it will hold together. Even if someone says, “You’re not supposed to have that…..” That’s the whole point.

So, Larry is building a car for Bonneville. The other day he told me to swing by his tiny little garage behind his suburban Detroit home to see what was coming together.

It has original ’32 Ford frame rails. I think the cowl is a ’29. The rear axle is a concoction of a quick-change that is going to end up a solid axle of sorts with no suspension. The wheelbase has got to be 3 feet longer than a model A. The front axle is model A with splayed wishbones. I think the transmission is a Jerico.

The engine? Oh, man…. The engine is from a Buick Indy car.

Right now, there isn’t much to see but the basic layout for mock-up and Larry’s vision. When I was last there with a camera, the body was at Bill Jagenow’s shop and the engine was not in place. I’ll cover more of Larry’s progress on the blog, but I’ll leave it to Larry to tell the world when it will first be shown to the public.

So, what to call this thing? It’s a traditional junk-yard hot rod in the purest sense of the term. Piece together what you have and go as fast as possible. It’s the perfect counterpoint to the super-polished work that Larry has produced before.

And it could be the coolest thing he’s done yet.