Bourget's Bike Works Introduces New Small Block Powered Quadracycle for 2008

Phoenix, AZ - Bourget's Bike Works, manufacturers of highly sought after custom motorcycles and accessories, announced the newest addition to the 2008 model lineup crossing the boundaries into the personal transportation marketplace. On display at SEMA is the 2008 Bourget's Shredder F-80. The Shredder F-80 is the industry's first limited production V8 powered quadra-cycle being offered from Bourget's Bike Works beginning January 2008.

With the look and feel of an open riding position similar to a motorcycle, but the ride,performance, and handling of a high-end sports car, the Shredder bridges the gap of these two types of vehicles appealing to many buyers wanting to ride a bike without the risk and worries of balancing on two wheels. Using many parts from the automotive industry including a small block Chevrolet V8, suspension, and steering components, this vehicle appeals to many consumers in the Hot Rod industry looking for a unique vehicle to customize and enhance. Future options will include a number of engine and transmission choices that allow the end user to achieve gas mileage as high as 50MPG.

"As the personal transportation market continues to grow, I wanted to build a new breed of vehicle that customers can get excited about, feel comfortable about riding, and customize it like the hot rods of the past with relative ease" said Roger Bourget, President of Bourget's Bike Works, "These machines will appeal to a new breed of open-air rider, and change the future landscape of the performance market."

SPECIFICATIONS:

- Limited Production of 25 Per Year
- MSRP - Starting at $90,000.00 USD
- 425 Horsepower, 383 Fast Burn Chevrolet Crate Motor
- Turbo 350 Automatic Transmission
- Winters "Quick Change" Rear End
- Porsche 930 CV Joints
- 4-Wheel Independent Suspension
- Power Rack and Pinion Steering
- All Aluminum Body
- Custom 17 x 12 Aluminum Wheels with AVON 330 Tires

[Bourget's Bike Works]

- Sui-Slide doors
- Articulated hatch
- 3,165 pounds
- 40/60 weight bias
- Twin turbo 395ci LS engine, prox. 925 wheel hp
- HRE 597R wheels, 18x10, 19x12, 275/35ZR18, 345/30ZR19 Michelin Pilots
- Mendeola sequential transaxle
- Viper-ized suspension
- Baer 6S 14-inch rotors w/6-piston calipers
- Cobra Misano seats
- Hot Rod Air HVAC
- Audio system delete

ANOTHER MILESTONE FOR BIG DADDY

Don Garlits supercharges the new 392 HEMI Crate Engine with a
vintage 6-71 blower and takes it back in time to power his historic
Swamp Rat XII dragster. The Mopar® Wynn's Charger commemorates
his long association with both Chrysler and Wynn's.
The new 392 HEMI Crate Engine is the latest chapter in Big Daddy's
long history with Chrysler, starting with the 331-cubic-inch FirePower
HEMI V8 he adopted in 1956. Then, fifty years ago, he upgraded to the
new 392 FirePower HEMI and started a long series of record-breaking
performances. In 1959 Garlits added the first supercharger to his 392,
and he never looked back. Even when Chevrolet and Ford came
knocking with fistfuls of dollars, Big Daddy stood firm. "I like my
Chryslers," he said. "Money wasn't always everything."
The new Mopar Wynn's Charger also marks the renewal of Wynn's
sponsorship of Don Garlits. The relationship began in 1960 when a
Wynn's decal first appeared on Swamp Rat III. "Wynn's was the first
company to sponsor me," said Big Daddy. "Before that, the only help I
got was free parts." The name "Wynn's Jammer" appeared on Swamp
Rat VII a few years later. The current name, "Wynn's Charger," was on
Swamp Rat X and was last seen on Swamp Rat XXIII in 1977 ... until the
launch of today's historic new Mopar Wynn's Charger.

TECH SPECS:

Engine: ...................... Mopar 392 HEMI Crate Engine, modified by
Don Garlits
Horsepower: ............ Not yet measured, but more than adequate
Fuel Injection:.......... Vintage Crower Four-Port
Intake Manifold:...... Hand-fabricated in Big Daddy's shop
Supercharger:.......... 6-71 with vintage 392 front snout and rare
Reath Automotive rear cover
Compression:........... 7.0:1 (Venolia pistons)
Camshaft:.................. Crane "Nitro"
Crankshaft:............... Mopar 392
Oil Pump: .................. Mopar 392
Clutch:....................... Schiefer multi-disc
Gears:........................ High gear only
Fuel Pump:................ Vintage Mechanical. Driven off blower
rear cover
Fuel:........................... 80% Nitro, 20% Methanol
Chassis: .................... Garlits Swamp Rat 12-A, restored
Wheelbase:.............. 137 inches (200 inches overall length)
Weight: ..................... 1500 lbs

Ah, the ceaselessly amazing world of Fiero-based exotic replicas. Which DNA has been implanted in the Fiero cell this time? Yes, it is indeed that of the Mk1 Ford GT40. V8 Archie's GT4T has V8 power, front and rear clamshell lids and um, uh, no Gurney Hump. Still, for a mere $45k, you can go out and shame Enzo Fiero all over again! We're totally buying one to go with our A.J. Foyt mask. Now we just need to find an ersatz Mulsanne straight in some sprawling Central Valley mixed-use office-industrial complex.

GT4T [V8 Archie's]

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So-Cal Speed Shop 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle LS7 - Devine Intervention [Hot Rod]

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Poor Pokey gets treated to a thrill ride of glaucoman proportions when Granny loses her glasses and takes off in Gumby's T-Bucket. Dig the Irish motorcycle cop and the beatniks in the stands at the drag races. If only real life was more like a Gumby short. Sigh...

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"They struggle to get it up the stairs of the judges stand, and they place it in clear sight of the grandstand. The device has a dial that's about 18 inches in diameter.

Qualifying gets under way and we're really hyping this timing device. 'Breaking the second into one thousand parts, timing these record speeds with absolute precision!'

The dial spun while the clock operated, and stopped when the car flashed across the finish line. The hand on the dial actually spun so fast you couldn't see it with the naked eye. I'm wondering while I'm looking at it, how could the clutch work properly to stop the hands of the dial without slippage? I was curious.

Winkley is sitting in front of the machine, operating the timer, and I'm calling out the times as they're given to me. 'The time, 24 and 232 one-thousandths of a second...' I'm talking away when I look down from the judges stand, and the wires from this timing device are lying in the grass, coiled up and are plugged into nothing.

It was a phony! It was simply something to hype these 'record' speeds, and Winkley was simply winding up the clock mechanism, and making the dial spin while the cars qualified.

Again, it was a little bit of a con. The fans of today simply wouldn't but that sort of thing, no doubt about it. But many people of the era always suspected that the things being hyped weren't necessarily on the level, but there was an underlying chuckle at the same time. It was all part of the fun."

Excerpt from: Let 'Em All Go! The Story of Auto Racing by the Man who was there by Chris Economaki [daveargabright.com]

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– Mike Bumbeck

Who doesn't secretly wish he or she owned a wheelstanding school bus? It's a goddamn wheelstanding school bus, after all. You hear? A school bus that does wheelstands! Think of the fun to be had! The mirth to be made! The wheels to be stood upon! Admit it. You totally want one. – Davey G. Johnson

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The boys over at Rod & Custom hit the Sacramento Autorama last February and came back with shots of sleds of all stripes. Oddly enough, the Autorama was where we saw our first in-the-Kevlar-and-Lexan Ferrari F40 when we were but a simple and unformed Jalopnik of twelve. It's a Sacto tradition of sorts, having run longer than any indoor rod/custom event save the Grand National Roadster Show. But there is one thing R&C reports that is emphatically not true: Sacramento is not in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Sacramento, after all, has its own valley. If it didn't, how would natives be able to look down on the denizens of Fresno? – Davey G. Johnson

2007 Sacramento Autorama [Rod & Custom]

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A passel of Benelux VW Syncro-heads (or at least ones from the Bene bit) got together for some good crawlin', Euro style. Hashish and Chimay undoubtedly followed. Volkswagen bahn-less slow hoons of the Low Countries for the win! [Thanks to eltonito for the tip.]

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For your evening enjoyment, we bring you what may be the lamest car chase to feature a cast member of Star Wars IV-VI. Plus, you know, there's that amazingly-customized 'Vette and an early-3rd 2nd-Gen TA. Sadly, they blew up the wrong car. – Davey G. Johnson

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In some ways, hot rodding is an unfortunate ghetto full of Comic Book Store guys in either braided belts with denim shorts or full-sleeve tat-clichés. In others, it's a liberating act of can-do American yahooism; a tribute to those who came before and laid down the awesome. One can argue that guys like Jim Hall and Carroll Shelby were basically rodders who wanted to go around corners faster and had either in-your-face corporate backing (Shelby as part of FoMoCo's Total Performance program) or backdoor engineering and parts (in the case of Hall). In that light, how much of a stretch is a hop over to Maranello and take a peek at what Enzo came up with? And how different is Pininfarina from the stateside custom coachbuilders (especially given a return to that actual practice with Peter Kalikow's 612 Kappa and James "Jiminy" Glickenhaus' P4/5)? Ryan from the Jalopy Journal connects the dots and lined up a 575, his own Keith Tardel-built Model A Coupe and Steve Wertheimer's Austin icon, The Black Dahlia. We would drive any of these cars. Proudly. – Davey G. Johnson

The Ferrari Shoot [The Jalopy Journal via Autoblog]

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So-Cal Speed Shop [so-calspeedshop.com]

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Less-rounded than a 2CV or even a Mehari; more minimialist than the sparest, most spartan FAF, this Citroën-based buggy is simply complete lightweight, peasant-grade awesome. We we'd find some sort of eternal field and drive across it forever in this blatting yellow sweetheart. We would indeed. – Davey G. Johnson

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El Jalopnik de Pedro has interviewed Cole Foster a few times in the past. As a builder, he's never built a car or bike we didn't like; his grasp of the history of automotive design is somehow just completely inherent. Plus, he's an old skatepunk whose dad built and raced Fuel cars. Anyway, Ryan Cochrane from the Jalopy Journal interviewed Cole. We like Ryan. We like Cole. Go read it; Mr. Foster's a classic piece of late-20th-Century Californiana, while his cars and bikes? Well those pretty much say everything. – Davey G. Johnson – Photo: Dave Deluxe

Cole Foster [The Jalopy Journal]

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This vehicle obviously was built to do two things: chew bubble gum and kick ass. And it's all out of bubble gum. A Ford truck chassis, Audi 5000 body, a crazy man from South Carolina, a 390 and a custom-perforated front skidplate all hatched a plot to make something outrageously badical. And the bidding's only at fifteen-hunnert! Can't beat that! Can't beat that with a stick! [Thanks to Haller for the tip.] – Davey G. Johnson

Roudi Audi [eBay]

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Apparently the Beijing Jeep 2020 is a smelly, slow, noisy, unreliable bucket of bolts. For hot nights out on the boulevards of Pudong and the alleyways of Puxi, a man needs a shiny, bright vehicle. Like say, perhaps, a Wrangler Rubicon! And the people at China Car Times show you kinda-sorta just how to do that. It'll still be an unreliable bucket of bolts, we assume. But you'll be rocking the city ThnderBlt Doherty style — in urban Wrangler delight. – Davey G. Johnson

Take your old Beijing Jeep 2020 and make it into a Wrangler [China Car Times]

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According to this righteous Manta's owner, regardling the 3.5L Rover V8, "This is a rather lazy engine which is ready to be removed from the car." And that's just what this wacky Norwegian did, getting permission from the authorities to swap in the LS1 from a Firebird. Now we're thinking dry-sump. Now we're thinking over 400 inches of displacement. Now we're going all batshit-googly-eyed over the idea of an LS7 Manta. Mmmm... – Davey G. Johnson

Opel Manta V8 Power

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We really don't care if the Opel Manta is considered the IROC-Z of Europe. We don't, we don't, we don't. Because we in our aging post-hipster wisdom simply think it's one of the coolest cars ever made. Rust? Suckage? Doesn't matter. It's a goddamn Manta, people. A turbo-dorifto-hoon Manta? Well, that's even better. Hit play and get rocked by Jack White, Meg White and Adam Opel. Ride the lightning, children. Ride it like it's freakin' Seabiscuit. – Davey G. Johnson

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Japanese chain Autobacs is legendary for carrying all kinds of wacky-ass crap for cars. We lurves us some Autobacs, but we've just stumbled across a store that may be even better. From what we've gleaned from this video, Shop Jet carries everything one needs to turn one's everyday Hino or Fuso into a cerebrum-fucking, soul-searing dekotora. It may well be the best store ever invented. Is there a Los Angeles franchise up for bids? Also, we want dude's helmet. Lock On! – Davey G. Johnson

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To Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, the Gates of the West may have been New York City. Or Saint Louis. Or San Francisco, where they holed up to record overdubs and vocal tracks for Give 'Em Enough Rope with Sandy "More Cowbell" Pearlman. But for many returning soldiers at the end of World War II, the Gates of the West were the breakwaters of San Pedro Bay, at the dangling, southwesterly tip of Los Angeles. Last night, Kasey Dubspeed and I did a runner from the coast up to Cole Coonce's place in Eagle Rock (or "Buzzard Boulder," as Cole perennially refers to it) for his annual Memorial Day barbeque. Cole's backyard is somehow an odd nexus of Los Angeles culture of the city's Golden Age. I spent much of the evening chatting with fashion-and-film-industry people, but at Cole's, one may just as likely end up in a conversation with a Top Fuel driver, a cycling fanatic or a random person who saw the Germs like 48 times and lived to tell the tale. The Second War, as Mike Watt refers to it, gave the world Los Angeles — a diverse, wonderful, maddening, depressing, stunning, sick megalopolis. The GIs who stepped off the boat here after the cessation of hostilities gave us hot rodding.

As I've stated before, hot rods were one of the first things that captured my imagination as a child. T-Buckets were common in Sacramento in those days, and I grew up a mile from what was the largest speed shop in Northern California: Tognotti's Auto World. Now and then, my dad would go up there to pick up a mundane part for our Belvedere or Catalina and I'd stare at the Weiand blowers on the wall and wished he was buying one of those; that it'd stick through the hood of the oxidized Pontiac that his students in the ghetto referred to as "Mr. Johnson's rustproof car."

The girl down the street, my first kiss, had a couple of older brothers who bought, crashed and sold musclecars like it was nothing. Years after they left home, there was still an Edelbrock sticker in her mom's garage window. Spun your SS396 Chevelle into a light pole? No problem. You could pick up a GTO next week for under a grand, and living at home with mom as a teenager, it was no problem. The guys who'd picked them up ten years before had wives. They'd become sensible.

But it was the same thing with the rodders after the war. They came home. Got off the boat in San Pedro. Bought homes in Burbank, Bellflower and Long Beach. Everyone had a used car. And in '47, when automotive production began again, 1930s cars were being offloaded; the new now thing was required immediately. And even with that, Ford was on the verge of coming apart at the seams until '49, when they dropped the archetypical shoebox, one of the most important cars in the company's history. But the mechanics who came home from the airfields in Okinawa, Truk, Tarawa and England gravitated here, flush with skills honed working on Merlins and Wasp Majors, some of the most powerful reciprocating engines ever built. They directly benefited from being up close and personal with the bleeding edge of accelerated powertrain technology, with access to plenty of war-surplus scrap. Drop tanks that hadn't been jettisoned when a Focke-Wulf 190 came into view became raw fodder for the construction of Land Speed Record vehicles.

For a lot of guys who came home, it was something to do. They'd gone out and been part of something impossible; the subjugation of two aggressors who'd had a flaming head start on us. And they pulled it off in less time than we've been in Iraq. Asses kicked; names taken. Is it any wonder that they came back and started wondering how they could apply both their bravado and skills to their cars?

The Big Three actually picked up on this pretty early on, and speed companies like Iskenderian did a lot of backdoor development work for the major automakers. For the small cam-grinders and manifold manufacturers of the world, who were in with the guys on the lakes and the dragstrips, it was a boon, as they got access to the latest engines from Detroit. Detroit, however, got something far more valuable — bona-fide ears to the street that served them well a decade-and-a-half later at the beginning of the musclecar era.

My uncle is in his 70s now, and his days in retirement are spent hanging out, wrenching on a couple of Deuces and a Model A panel. When I saw him over Easter, he said to me, "Dave, do you think the hot rod thing is falling off? Because it seems like it to me."

Very few people into rods are under 30 these days. Inexpensive, serviceable used iron is too scarce, and good-quality aftermarket stuff is too pricey. Hot rods were anachronisms when they first happened. But for guys my age and older, they were always around. Now, they are anachronisms, full-stop. They're not so much a shared cultural touchstone, but rather a touchstone of a bygone era.

That said, limiting the hot-rod spirit to pre-'49 cars seems silly these days. I was talking to Richard Rawlings last week. He picked up an old Auburn and is mechanically restoring it and modifying it, but basically leaving the body as is. He wants to take it to Pebble Beach just to fuck with people's perceptions (knowing full-well it'd never end up on the green at the Concours). I told him that he should put a Ford dash in it. Rawlings got the joke, but I realized that these days, there are fewer and fewer people who would. Installing an Auburn dash in a '30s Ford was a common modification for guys who wanted to add a little class to their rides. It's a funny in-joke between two guys of a dwindling number.

Nevertheless, those soldiers who stepped off the boat in Southern California after the war, or the men and women who came down here seeking work at the plants from El Segundo to San Diego; who picked up an after-school job at a neighborhood machine shop that supplied those plants as a way to buy his first car? We have those guys to thank for the spirit of hot rodding.

I have little use for the blanket-propagandist term, "The Greatest Generation." I absolutely hate it when I get one of those, "If you can speak English, thank a veteran" mass e-mails. It smacks of grotesque, ignorant jingoism. If I'm giving thanks to people for the language that allows me to make my living, I thank the Indo-Europeans, Noah Webster, generations of OED staffers, William Shakespeare, various Anglo-Saxons, Saxon and my mom and dad. Plus, although it's rusty now, I suppose I should thank Otto von Bismarck for spearheading the standardization of the German language; a codification that allowed a spastic Austrian with funny facial hair to rally a nation to a sinister end through propaganda and terror.

However, geopolitics, thumbs in the eyes of those who venerate our current administration and rah-rah Americanism aside, if you're driving a modified car today, thank a veteran. – Davey G. Johnson

"Fast as a Shark" is a weekly electronic broadside aimed at what has been historically right and terribly wrong with the autmotive industry and culture. And yeah, we're pretty sure Udo Dirkschneider never flew an Me 163. Rocket Flea Skyward!

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