VSR Street Rod Project
Wayne Cherry had a distinguished 42-year career at General Motors that culminated in his being appointed only the fifth vice president of design in the company’s history. After retiring, he rekindled an interest in street rods. In his teens he’d modified and raced a D-Gas Chevy which led him to design a street rod of his own.
“You start to do something like this, and it turns into a concept vehicle. I wanted to do something contemporary that would expand the conventional wisdom of a street rod and cross over to a sports car or a supercar.”
No stranger to concept cars, Cherry and his team at GM had churned out no fewer than 45 concept vehicles in six years, with more built for internal design reviews by senior GM brass. The difference this time was that he didn't have GM's design shops to build it. Instead, he leveraged his vast Detroit-based network. More than 30 companies contributed products or services to complete the project.
We were honored when he chose Race Car Replicas to construct the VSR. It features our signature TIG-welded aluminum monocoque chassis with Indy-car-style pushrod independent suspension front and rear with height-adjustable air springs. The picture above shows us building the car in front of Cherry's full-scale drawings.
“The VSR was constructed at Race Car Replicas, the Michigan-based shop responsible for exquisite recreations of Porsche 917s, Ford GT40s, and Jaguar D-Types, among others.... take a close look at the hardware, the workmanship, and, most of all, the design, and you realize it could easily take center stage as a concept car on the GM stand at the next international auto show.”