One of the highlights of my career was when our Factory Five ’33 Hot Rod was on the cover of the November 2009 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. We’ve been once more since then, but the honor that first time was special. When we introduced the world to our latest Factory Five, a ’35 Ford Hot Rod Pick-Up Truck, it made sense to go back to the source for all things hot rod, the venerable Hot Rod Magazine that traces its root back to January 1948 and its first issue.
Staff writer and master builder Mark Gearhart volunteered to do the wrench turning and document his build in the magazine. Mark has already earned a reputation for building car that looked better than their renderings. So, we picked Mark to work with and his 1,000+ HP twin-turbo truck based on the renderings below. Stay tuned to Hot Rod Magazine for multiple build issues that will follow the truck from the bare frame to the completed mcnasty truck. Read the full article and watch the video on Hot Rod’s website.
Kris Horton of CarsByKris did these killer renderings of Mark’s truck. The cool thing about Kris is that he has a track record of renderings that actually come out as finished cars that are very close to the rendering. Kris previously did renderings for our Hot Rod Magazine ’33 cover car as well as Mark’s Mk4 SEMA Roadster.
This is a pure superstreet truck with over 1,000 HP and a full cage.
Mark’s chassis is shipping this month (March 2018), and he will be the first production truck chassis that follows four beta frames. We are excited to see the final product in the pages of Hot Rod Magazine, and while nobody can predict what lands on the cover, this nasty pro-street truck has got a good chance!
Dave Smith
President
About the builder, Mark Gearhart:
In 1995 Mark started photographing drag races at his once local track, Bradenton Motorsports Park. He became hooked and shot virtually every series at the track until 2007 until he moved to California and began working as a writer for Power Automedia. He was the founding editor for its first online magazines, and transitioned into the role of editorial director role in 2014. Retiring from the company in 2016, Mark continues to expand his career as a car builder, automotive enthusiast, and freelance journalist to provide featured content and technical expertise.
A few years ago, Mark did built an Mk4 Roadster as part of a Power Automedia build article.
Above is the rendering for Mark’s idea for the Mk4 Roadster build, which debuted at the 2015 SEMA Show in the Toyo Tread Pass Area. It was featured in Factory Five’s SEMA booth in 2016. The notable things is that the car turned out very close to the original rendering, something that is not common.
In 2009, Hot Rod Magazine built the first Factory Five ’33 with then editor Rob Kinnan. The rendering by Kris back then came out to be almost spot on for the actual car below.
Rendering of the 2009 Hot Rod Magazine build car by Kris above and in action at Bristol Dragway below.
The cover of Hot Rod Magazine, November 2009 issue.