55 Chev Final Objective officially for sale

Mr Cool · October 13, 2005, 10:37:45 AM

The Rod Hadfield 55 chev powered by a 1650 ci aircraft engine that was built over here in Oz has just been listed on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com.au%3A80%2F4582238267_W0QQfromZR40QQfviZ1&item=4582238267
Thought some of you guys would be interested to know about it, not that many could afford it, but interesting anyway.

reborn55 · October 13, 2005, 01:09:05 PM

Very neat--wonder how it would do on the Hot Rod Power Tour.

DRD57 · October 13, 2005, 01:59:55 PM

I wouldn't be surprised if Jay Leno ended up with it. He seems to like freaky stuff like that. I heard a rumnor a few years ago that he tried to buy it but Haddy turned him down.

Pope Downunder · October 13, 2005, 10:47:09 PM

Quote from: "DRD57"I wouldn't be surprised if Jay Leno ended up with it. He seems to like freaky stuff like that. I heard a rumnor a few years ago that he tried to buy it but Haddy turned him down.

I guess Rod had things he wanted to achieve with it first; like the current US tour. The amount and quality of work that went into this was incredible.

Crosley.In.AZ · October 14, 2005, 12:20:29 AM

I would be surprised if Jay Leno did not end up with the car.

Maybe not off ebay , but some how end up in his collection

barnsey · October 19, 2005, 01:46:36 AM

Its up to US$125.500 .oo and still hasn't reached reserve lol
cheers barnsey

Crosley.In.AZ · October 19, 2005, 09:15:25 PM

Quote from: "barnsey"Its up to US$125.500 .oo and still hasn't reached reserve lol
cheers barnsey

what did it cost to build the car?

I've heard the motor alone is worth 200,000 US dollars

Mr Cool · October 20, 2005, 11:01:06 AM

There are quite a few rumors on the build cost, but if you add up the cost of paying someone to work on it full time for 5 years, along with the cost of parts, its rumored to be around AU$1mil.
I was working with Glen Davis helping him build his twin engined land speed record car when Rod was planning the chev's build. (Glen's car is now in the US somewhere) Rod came across and picked Glens brain for ideas on mounting g/box etc as he had the same engine as Glen did, and we all laughed at him. We had already measured up one of the spare engines with a similar stoopid idea and there was no way it would fit.
From memory Rod told us he paid about $25k for his engine, and that needed minor re-building. It was built for offshore power boat racing and about to be sold overseas somewhere to another race team when Rod got it.
Glen paid $8000ea for three RR V12 engines for spares, but they were from tanks not planes, similar but not the same. I dont know how much he paid for the best two he used in the car, but at the time we all thought Rod paid way too much for his, of course back then they were still avaliable if you looked for them.
An interesting point is they rotate in the opposite direction to our usual automotive engines, so special reversing adapters had to be made for the chev.

BTW, its commonly called the "Final Defective" over here.