Nation Of Go

In spite of having monster engines, many hot rods will never see a mile on the road. These cars, built entirely for show, are referred to as “trailer queens” and it’s not necessarily a compliment. Troy Trepanier of Rad Rides by Troy in Manteno, IL, has built his share of trailer queens.

That doesn’t mean Troy isn’t into going fast. It just means he has somehow managed to master both ends of the spectrum. He’s good at show and GO.

The evidence of Troy’s show car credentials is all around the Rad Rides showroom. Most notably is the 2007 Ridler Award on display. Given only to cars being shown for the first time at the Detroit Autorama show, the shiny silver bowl is the holy grail of hot rod building. And you can bet the First Love 1936 Ford that won it isn’t doing burnouts at the local Saturday cruise-in these days.





If you forget that the cars in the showroom are just for looking, Max is there to remind you. He polices the shop’s look-don’t-touch policy and a crew of curious car guys poking around didn’t sit well with him at all. So if you get by the shop someday, keep in mind that the showroom is a museum. We felt more at ease ourselves when we moved to the shop.

Over where the work gets done, we found what we came to see. Troy was just back from Bonneville with the 1969 Barracuda he built, the Blowfish. Driver George Poteet set a new record in the Blown Fuel Competition Coupe Class at 291 mph – up from the previous record of 262. During the competition the car ran as fast as 307 mph. Racing at the salt flats requires 100% focus on GO, but that didn’t keep troy from making the Blowfish beautiful – it’s just beautiful in way that follows its main purpose of achieving world record speeds.



So we got to see that a Ridler winner can also win in racing. And we saw other interesting go-fast projects in the works. We really liked the Mercury that was getting a Mercedes AMG drive train. The donor car was a G-wagen outside that had obviously been rolled. Troy was helping the owner take the usable parts and create something totally new. With AMG power on tap it will have no shortage of GO.

Next time you and your car buddies are debating the GO-versus-show argument, think about Troy Trepanier. He’s living proof that it’s not always an either/or proposition. Sometimes you can have both.