Radial Hell
The radial engine powered bike is owned by Russell Ballentine, and was built by Jesse James of West Coast Choppers. The bike was debuted in the spring of 2006, soon after the fabrication was completed. From my vintage aircraft background, I was contacted by Russell to see if I could modify a small experimental aircraft radial engine to have the output shaft exit the rear of the motor instead of the front. After some preliminary head scratching, we decided it was doable and started disassembling the motor.

The radial engine is a work of art. Manufactured by Rotec in Australia, the small radial is almost completely CNC machined which made modification easier. The front was fairly simple. A cover plate was machined to cover the hole where the prop shaft was removed. The rear was a little different. With the engine being fairly new to the market at the time and no manuals available, we had to careful mark and label all the parts to make sure everything went back together in the same order.

After removing the rear engine support mount which was also the back of the induction, the center induction inlet was enlarged to allow a new output shaft out the rear to maintain the correct amount of airflow. A new induction housing was made to relocate the carburetor and to support the new output shaft. Once all the new pieces were properly fitted and checked to make sure everything would clear, the engine was carefully reassembled.

Soon after the radial engine was modified, the bike headed out to California, where Jesse James has been working on the bike for the last 3 years when he wasn't filming his TV shows or building other bikes. The end result is an incredible display of fabrication to create a very unique bike.

Completed pictures of the bike are courtesy of www.thekneeslider.com and more information about the bike can be found at http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2006/07/06/radial-motorcycle-engine-modifications

Project "Wildfire"
This is my personal project that started me on this road to this new business venture so many years ago. Purchased in 1993 as an 85% finished rust free car, I finished in the spring of 1994 and was driving my first musclecar. As I enjoyed it that first summer, I soon began to realize that the work that was done by the previous owners was less than stellar and the long journey of recreating this Camaro into the beast it is today.

What started out as a simple paint job to get rid of the brittle lacquer paint, has turned into a 13 year ordeal of bad outsourcing of the body work to 2 shops, lack of money at times, and just being plain burned out. I finally found a shop I was happy with that has redone 90% of what I had previously contracted out, and has done all the new fabrication to date.

A new one piece floor was installed and was channeled over the body 1 1/2" so that the lowest point of the car is the pinch welds of the rocker panels. This lowered the car without sacrificing any ground clearance or suspension travel. new Competition Engineering rear frame rails were butchered and reinstalled along with a narrowed floor pan to keep the "stock" appearance when the trunk is opened. DSE minitubs and a custom 3-link is being fabricated to finish out the rear. A new smooth firewall has been fabricated, and the toeboards have been modified to fit. A new custom front subframe will be fabricated soon developed by Marcus at SC&C using SPC upper arms, C5/6 knuckles, one off lower control arms, and steered with a '03 Cobra rack & pinion. A form fitting roll cage will tie everything together. Power will come from an LSx/6 speed combo and the reat of the details are still be sorted out. Updates will be posted as progress is made.