Inventor Builds Steampunk Hot Rod From Scratch

Ridiculous Rides

Internationally renowned builder of bespoke customer cars, Paul Bacon, has completed his most ambitious project yet – a steampunk hot rod built from scratch. The Automatron is a horse-drawn carriage inspired hot rod, boasting a 3.5L supercharged V8 engine with an estimated top speed of up to 110mph. Beginning with a 1924 Singer Sport base, parts were added from a variety of unlikely sources; including a switch gear from a Lancaster Bomber and the front wheels of an Austin 7. Taking over four years to complete, the build has won the maverick inventor critical acclaim, with Paul highly commended for the hot rod’s distinctive design.

Transcript

00:00Automatron is the best thing I've ever built,

00:03and I'll probably never build anything quite this detailed ever again.

00:14I wanted somewhere between Cinderella's carriage and a competition altered.

00:19In 2015, inventor Paul started work on his most ambitious project to date.

00:31Having already completed his impressive car, the Cosmetron, he began work on his next invention.

00:37This car has been the most expensive car I've ever built,

00:40and also it's been the most labour-intensive up to now. Nearly every part is custom on this car.

00:46Four years of hard work later, and Paul has finally finished his once-in-a-lifetime creation,

00:53and he's ready to unveil it.

00:55This is my car. Automatron.

01:08I wanted to build a hot rod. Fenderless and the engine out.

01:13I didn't want to build anything like what had been built before.

01:20I wanted to go back to the days of the horse-drawn carriage.

01:23I also looked at a lot of top-fueled dragster cars as well.

01:27One of the main things people always ask about is, you know, what's the engine?

01:31The engine's V8, and it's got Arden heads on it, and it's supercharged.

01:38Sounds like the end of the world, and it's really fast. A lot of it is that they're one-off parts.

01:44We've got the navigation binnacle from a ship. For the exhaust tips, if you got married in the 70s,

01:52people would buy you a set of six silver goblets, and these are the goblets chopped off and bolted in there.

01:58This is a fuel tank. This was originally a gas bottle. This is part of a Lancaster bomber.

02:07These switches, you would have flicked them and dropped a bomb.

02:15Out and about, driving this one of creation isn't without its quirk.

02:18I'm back. Oh, you're up. I'm making a right turn now.

02:25Vision's somewhat impaired. All you can see is carburett is an engine.

02:32It's probably the worst thing is the amount of attention. You can't stop anywhere,

02:35or, you know, you're just going to be surrounded by people.

02:38How fast does it go?

02:47The whole thing, yeah. It took me four and a half years.

02:52But I think it's great. Good job.

02:54Cheers. Thanks a lot. Cheers, mate.

02:59How fast does it go?

03:00It goes literally as fast as you dare go.

03:02What's the name?

03:04It's called Automatron.

03:05A good technique for a spin.

03:08Uh, yeah, maybe.

03:10Oh, why not?

03:11It's pretty good.

03:27Automatron is the best thing I've ever built.

03:30Most time-consuming and the most expensive thing.

03:33And I'll probably never build anything quite this detailed ever again.

03:38Okay, so that's Automatron.

03:44Sadly, you know, for me, the only thing that I really like is the building of the cars.

03:50And now it's complete. Automatron's for sale.

03:53And, you know, soon it will be gone and I'll have the money to fund my next project.

03:58I think when you've been so close to a project and built it, I don't think you can ever fully,

04:05sort of, appreciate it. Someone else, though, can buy it and, you know, I'm sure they'll love it.

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