The Flame Job
Deciding to put flames on the '57 was the easy part. Then we had to find someone who could do it on our timetable; that was the hard part. But during a conversation between publisher Pitt and former HOT ROD editor (now Car Craft staffer) Jeff Smith, the name Scott Sullivan came up. Smith still talks to Sullivan all the time, so they rang him up and asked if he'd fly from his Dayton, Ohio, home to California to burn our car. "Sure," Sullivan said.
For those of you too young to remember, Scott Sullivan is one of the biggest names in the street machine and Pro Street world. He has built several HOT ROD of the Year cars, starting back in the late '70s, but the most famous is the Cheez Whiz-orange '55 Chevy that he and Smith drove cross country back in 1989. What sets Sullivan apart from the rest is that his cars never seem dated. You could pull the Chevy II he did in the '70s and the '55 from the '80s into any car show today and they'd look contemporary. That's a hard act to pull off, but Sullivan has done it time and time again. Though he's mostly focused on motorcycles for the last decade, Sullivan showed he can still lay some killer licks on a Tri-Five.
Win Our Car
This whole project came about courtesy of Timber Wolf moist snuff, which put together a promotion in which six cars would be built as part of the Timber Wolf Speed Shop, and then consumers of Timber Wolf would be eligible to win all the cars. Up until November 1, you'll find a code under the lid of every Timber Wolf snuff can. Enter that code at www.twspeedshop.com, pick our '57 or one of the other five cars in the program, and estimate how much you think it will be worth once the transformation is complete. For a better estimate of its value, you can watch Web videos of each car's transformation and read this story as well as the ones in Street Rodder, Mopar Muscle, Corvette Fever, Mustang Monthly, and Car Craft. If you're the first person whose bid is on the money, the car is yours. Every lid's a bid. The more Timber Wolf lids you collect, the more estimates you get, and the more chances you have to win. For further information and complete rules, check out www.twspeedshop.com.