Found this while surfing the net. Some of you Victorian guys & gals may want to one day have cruise and check this place out......[align=center]
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Australia's obsession with automobiles is as strong as the passion of those in the states feel for them. Bandit Films recently brought us a clip showing one man's love for his Ford Falcon Squire. Now it's produced a new film showing one man's ode to the dry lakes racers from a bygone era in California's automotive history.
Dubbed the Rancho Deluxe Roadster by its owner Ben Thomas, this 1932 Ford Model B is powered by a flathead V8 and just drips with classic hot rod cool. Thomas parks the car at his shop, Rancho Deluxe, which specializes in working on American cars from World War II through the sixties. It's also a place for folks to hang out, have cake and coffee, then talk about cars. Watch the video below to see Ben Thomas talk about his roadster and his passion for cars.
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Rancho Delux by Bandit Films as seen on viemo http://vimeo.com/20772378"The year is 1947, an ex-serviceman returns home to Southern California. His old '32 Ford Roadster is removed from the shed, and the guts of a wrecked '39 Mercury sedan are transplanted in, giving more power, braking and top speed, essential for the dry lakes racing career he will embark on. He outfits the motor with products from the growing speed equipment industries catalogues, and races his car against fellow car club members and the clock. The car also serves as daily transport for him in the mild So Cal climate, the loud twin exhausts upsetting the locals still not used to the returned soldiers need for peacetime thrills. The era immediately following WW2 in Southern California was the time frame and inspiration for me to build an accurate recreation of a stripped down, dry lakes racing, late forties street roadster. Something of a time machine, so that a drive down the street or across the state could become a journey back sixty years.
Rancho Deluxe is my full time business, building traditional hotrod classics and components, and assembling period correct cars. The Rancho Deluxe roadster is my expression of a true Hot-Rod, a time machine back to when innovation was hand built, and the true test of man and machine was flat out across the Lakes"
The above article taken from:
Fuel Magazine Australia Issue No.4
fuelmagazine.bigcartel.com/​product/​fuel-magazine-issue-04fuelzine.com-Ben Thomas
Owner of Rancho Deluxe
Melbourne/ Australia
ranchodeluxe.com.au/​The Rancho Deluxe café is open every Saturday, 9am till 2pm For coffee, cakes and hotrod chat, you are invited to come down and check out the current projects in the shop.
34 Budd St Collingwood Vic 3066
Ben Thomas: 0403 315 535
Email: ben@ranchodeluxe.com.au
Check out another article on Ben Thomas:
mrblanc.com/​ben-thomas-at-rancho-deluxe/​Sources:
http://www.autoblog.com
http://vimeo.com/20772378
http://www.ranchodeluxe.com.au
