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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTOS: Blastolene Rumbles To Auction
Powered by a 29-liter, 12-cylinder Patton Tank engine, enormous roadster is up for sale at Barrett-Jackson
The Blastolene Watson Roadster, styled to look like a gigantic Indy race car, will cross the block at Barrett-Jackson. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson
More of an automotive artwork than an actual automobile, the Blastolene Watson Roadster is an oversized 1950s Indy-style racer powered by a 29-liter 12-cylinder engine from a Patton tank.
The second Blastolene project by avant garde street-rod builders Randy Grubb and Michael Leeds will be up for auction during prime-time bidding Saturday at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event at WestWorld in Scottsdale.
The polished-aluminum homage will be among 1,100 collector cars sold over six days during the all-no-reserve auction. SPEED will broadcast 39 hours of live bidding action during the 39th annual Barrett-Jackson, a combination car auction, lifestyle event, art sale and automotive festival.
Grubb and Leeds have become well-known for their huge and fanciful representations of custom cars and hot rods. Two years ago, a Blastolene Special styled like an enormous 1930s roadster was sold for six figures at Barrett-Jackson.
The builders were originally inspired by a pair of 1,791-cubic-inch M47 Patton Tanks engines they had purchased, and designed the hand-built cars around them. The air-cooled aluminum engine in the Watson Roadster is estimated to produce 910 horsepower and 1,500 pound-feet of torque.
The massive powerplant is hooked up to an Allison four-speed automatic transmission that was originally designed to handle the workload of a Greyhound bus.
The first Blastolene Special was finished in 2002 and bought by talk-show host and noted car collector Jay Leno. This is the second and only other Blastolene powered by a tank engine.
Standing on a 160-inch wheelbase, the Watson Roadster is 270 inches long and weighs a monstrous 8,400 pounds. The builders describe it as “a thrill to drive.”
The second Blastolene project by avant garde street-rod builders Randy Grubb and Michael Leeds will be up for auction during prime-time bidding Saturday at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event at WestWorld in Scottsdale.
The polished-aluminum homage will be among 1,100 collector cars sold over six days during the all-no-reserve auction. SPEED will broadcast 39 hours of live bidding action during the 39th annual Barrett-Jackson, a combination car auction, lifestyle event, art sale and automotive festival.
Grubb and Leeds have become well-known for their huge and fanciful representations of custom cars and hot rods. Two years ago, a Blastolene Special styled like an enormous 1930s roadster was sold for six figures at Barrett-Jackson.
The builders were originally inspired by a pair of 1,791-cubic-inch M47 Patton Tanks engines they had purchased, and designed the hand-built cars around them. The air-cooled aluminum engine in the Watson Roadster is estimated to produce 910 horsepower and 1,500 pound-feet of torque.
The massive powerplant is hooked up to an Allison four-speed automatic transmission that was originally designed to handle the workload of a Greyhound bus.
The first Blastolene Special was finished in 2002 and bought by talk-show host and noted car collector Jay Leno. This is the second and only other Blastolene powered by a tank engine.
Standing on a 160-inch wheelbase, the Watson Roadster is 270 inches long and weighs a monstrous 8,400 pounds. The builders describe it as “a thrill to drive.”
Goodwood Festival Of Speed
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