…from the land of back bacon, Hockey and beer! 

Can your Fiero do this?

I get around a bit, and have had the honor of meeting some truly great people over the course of my life and career… Often times, I get an introduction to someone through a current client, or referred by another, and occasionally, I just stumble to the right place at the right time, and make a new friend. The latter is true with Ryan, who happens to be a very creative and talented fabricator in the Great White North. We crossed paths, and hit it off almost instantly. I had been admiring his work, and was stoked to find that he was admiring mine as well! Always fascinated with anyone who works with steel, I was just mesmerized with his vision and abilities. Schooled at BCIT in Vancouver, Ryan landed a great job at Fabrite Services in Cranbrook, and spent the next ten years at that great company,working up from cutting material and cleaning up, to an eventual role as shop foreman… While there, beyond being treated “like family”, he learned that “some people have some strange things to be built!”, as he puts it.  

Gratuitous in-progress shot!  

He also has some great mechanical skills, which he owes to both his father, and a natural curiosity as a kid. Fast-forward, and he’s completing the first of his planned series of supercar-inspired rides, a Reventon/Murcielago-looking beast, based on a Fiero platform he purchased for the princely sum of $60 just about a year ago… Knowing he got a great deal on the car, he didn’t want to leave it stock, and certainly didn’t want another fiberglass-wearing “kit” car. As the Fiero sat outside until December that year, he saw a Lamborghini Reventon, and knew just where to go with the wedge-shaped Pontiac. Researching the original car’s measurements, Ryan was off to the races, buying the steel, ordering glass from James at AGP, and finally, an intercooled, twin-turbo 350 Chevy and 6-speed trans with modified G6 axles, offering more than ample pulling power for the 3200 lb. ride. Add to that 11 1/4-inch cross-drilled and slotted rotors with Cadillac (rear) and Camaro (front) calipers, slowing it down should be well-controlled.

Dashing, isn't it?

The only regret at this point? “I’ll have to paint it”, says Ryan, “and cover up all of that work!” But fear not, as Ryan and I are getting the wheels moving on the next project, a Bugatti-inspired, home-built supercar that’ll bring in some elements from other great Italian exotics, and mix in some original styling points that we’re kicking around… and that means some more months of looking at bare steel!

Getting there...

Look for more updates as this beast nears completion and hits the road soon, as well as some previews of the design studies for his next home-built super car… In the meantime, keep an eye open over at Problem Child Kustoms Studio for more design/insight and delirium…