Dreamcast18
02-10-2006, 02:47 PM
Most of us agree with B’ville that the Prowler won’t be a “true” hot rod until it’s modified. To get us thinking in that direction, we asked designer Thom Taylor to give us an idea of what he’d do to the car. In usual Thom fashion, he wasn’t content to just flame it and remove the fenders. We’ll let him describe what you see here.
Prowlers are a lot like Harleys. They should be sold with crowbars so you can pry off all the parts you don’t want or need. With the exception of the woodie, all of these versions are shown sans the bumpers, fenders, rollbars, and lower rockers that flare out to accept the rear fenders. With this flare hacked away, a new panel could be glued over whatever is left. I have shown seams indicating where this panel would tie into the existing body.
For the woodie, the wood portion would be fabricated in place of the body, above the beltline from the tops of the doors on back. Eliminating the top mechanism and portions of the body will, hopefully, offset the weight of the wood. The rear fenders have been extended down a bit, with new front fenders fabricated that follow the style of the rears, which are a cross between a ’32 and a ’33/’34 Ford fender. The look of this reminds me of one of those old MG Airline coupes from the ’30s.
Our two roadsters go in opposite directions. The nostalgia version incorporates “modified-style” outside exhaust pipes with a dummy fourth exhaust. Traditional steelies with wide, white sidewalls really set the look. The hard parts of this flashback will be the flat windshield and roadster posts, which will require the cowl to be reworked once the curved glass is tossed. The zoomie version starts out with a billet grille that mimics a ’37 Ford grille. Headlights are fabricated buckets with larger production headlight lenses cut down to fit. Projector beams are hidden inside. Placement is in the area of the A-arm pivots, to hide this juncture. And if you are really up for some work, the front wheel centerline could be relocated a few inches forward to eliminate the “nose-over” look it currently posesses.
The coupe sketch is really a morphed Viper coupe and Prowler, resulting in a cat with some venomous fangs! Notice that the hood sides pull in to create a cool vertical vent and that the side exhaust is encased in much the same way as an early Viper. Even the wheels are Viper, to really drive the point home. —Thom Taylor
http://www.hotrod.com/roadtests/46198/index2.html
http://img128.imagevenue.com/loc288/th_ba262_Prowle_01.jpg (http://img128.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc288&image=ba262_Prowle_01.jpg)
http://img106.imagevenue.com/loc84/th_a1710_Prowler_02.jpg (http://img106.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc84&image=a1710_Prowler_02.jpg)
Prowlers are a lot like Harleys. They should be sold with crowbars so you can pry off all the parts you don’t want or need. With the exception of the woodie, all of these versions are shown sans the bumpers, fenders, rollbars, and lower rockers that flare out to accept the rear fenders. With this flare hacked away, a new panel could be glued over whatever is left. I have shown seams indicating where this panel would tie into the existing body.
For the woodie, the wood portion would be fabricated in place of the body, above the beltline from the tops of the doors on back. Eliminating the top mechanism and portions of the body will, hopefully, offset the weight of the wood. The rear fenders have been extended down a bit, with new front fenders fabricated that follow the style of the rears, which are a cross between a ’32 and a ’33/’34 Ford fender. The look of this reminds me of one of those old MG Airline coupes from the ’30s.
Our two roadsters go in opposite directions. The nostalgia version incorporates “modified-style” outside exhaust pipes with a dummy fourth exhaust. Traditional steelies with wide, white sidewalls really set the look. The hard parts of this flashback will be the flat windshield and roadster posts, which will require the cowl to be reworked once the curved glass is tossed. The zoomie version starts out with a billet grille that mimics a ’37 Ford grille. Headlights are fabricated buckets with larger production headlight lenses cut down to fit. Projector beams are hidden inside. Placement is in the area of the A-arm pivots, to hide this juncture. And if you are really up for some work, the front wheel centerline could be relocated a few inches forward to eliminate the “nose-over” look it currently posesses.
The coupe sketch is really a morphed Viper coupe and Prowler, resulting in a cat with some venomous fangs! Notice that the hood sides pull in to create a cool vertical vent and that the side exhaust is encased in much the same way as an early Viper. Even the wheels are Viper, to really drive the point home. —Thom Taylor
http://www.hotrod.com/roadtests/46198/index2.html
http://img128.imagevenue.com/loc288/th_ba262_Prowle_01.jpg (http://img128.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc288&image=ba262_Prowle_01.jpg)
http://img106.imagevenue.com/loc84/th_a1710_Prowler_02.jpg (http://img106.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc84&image=a1710_Prowler_02.jpg)