Editor's note: Though we've heard accounts from folks who have driven their kits across the United States before (a Chicago-based club regularly attend the Knott's show in SoCal each year, driving the 2,100 miles in caravan form), rarely have we heard of a manufacturer working on a completely new version of one of their cars, finishing it one night, then leaving on a 7,000-mile journey the next morning without so much as a single mile devoted to finding out if everything works. Crazy? Maybe. Secure in their abilities as a builder and supremely confident in their product? Most definitely!
But that's the way John Chesnut (a one-third partner in Dragon Motor Cars, based in Grantham, New Hampshire) wanted to do it, leaving from his company office early one morning with his brother Lee after cramming everything into their new vehicle that they thought they'd need for an extended cross-country trip. Their destination? The Association of Handcrafted Automobiles' (AHA) Fun in the Sun event held at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. If you read the account of the car show in the issue of KIT CAR (Sept. '05), then you'll remember seeing a picture of their red rocket-intact, and without major abrasions or missing pieces.
But what it took to muster the energy to drive an untested car 7,000 miles is a testament to the company's view on its place in the kit and replicar industry. Years ago, the business started out as a cool project for John and a way to design, build, and drive a car of his own design. Where it will lead is anybody's guess, but Dragon Motor Cars obviously has the goods. Here's the pair's cross-country tale, as told by Dragon's John Chestnut.
The Debut Of The DragonDesigning and building the Dragon was supposed to be a fun hobby for me and my friends Paul Carlson and David Childress. We loved the '50s and '60s sports cars and wanted something different from a Cobra. We decided to build a car that had the look and feel of that era but used modern parts, and it had to be comfortable for large occupants. And if people wanted to duplicate our cars, then we would sell them as a kit.
For the first car, we used independent contractors to help with the design and fabrication of the body and molds, frame, and jigs. Both of them were located hours away from us, which meant that we would visit them every couple of weeks to provide input and then they would continue on. The result of this approach was the car ended up being their interpretation of what they thought we wanted, but not necessarily exactly what we had in mind. This wasn't their fault, just a reality of the process. And of course, after building the first several cars, we had hundreds of ideas about how to improve them.
We decided that to fulfill the vision, what we had to do was redesign the car. This time all work would be done at our facility. We would hire a welder to fabricate the frame and jigs on-site and we would shape the body ourselves. Our passion had just crossed over to obsession!
We began full-time in December 2003 with the goal of unveiling the car at the 2004 Carlisle show. We built the body on a frame that was set at a comfortable work height in a single-car garage. We lowered the car and rolled it outside for the first time in May, the day that we needed to leave for Carlisle. Once we saw the car at ride height and from a normal perspective we realized that it was butt ugly! Frankly, I just wanted to cry because of the time, money, and effort that was now essentially wasted. We took the car to Carlisle but kept it undercover to hide it from potential customers. There, we discussed the changes that needed to be made, and whether or not we were willing to invest the time and money to do it all over again! We decided to do it one more time.