Kit Car

Total Performance Shop Tour -- Kit Car

By Eric Geisert

Photography by Chuck Vranas

Mickey Lauria, the owner of Total Performance in Wallingford, Connecticut, has a saying: "God must love T-buckets--that's why he made so many of them." While it might be accurate (though it was Ford who actually made more than 2 million variations of the Model T in 1923 alone), finding an original Model T to modify into a hot rod is getting harder to do.

But that hasn't always been the case. Back in the '60s, it was easy to find original tin to work with, but why would you want to work with 50-year-old metal when you could buy a new body made of 'glass for next to nothing? That was the thought four members of the Connecticut Street Rod Association had in the early '70s, one of them being Mickey Lauria. Mickey had been impressed with what Andy Brizio was doing out in California with his Instant T program--where you could go to one shop and custom-order your own T-bucket, or at least be able to buy any part you need to do the work at home.

There weren't a lot of one-stop shops back in 1972, and certainly not in New England, but that's what got Total Performance off the ground. In fact, that's where the name came from: Total meaning everything in one place. Over the years, the partners bought each other out, and by 1988 Mickey was the sole owner. And while he was doing well with it, he began thinking about the future and what he wanted to do with his business.

The Fad T, the style of T-bucket prevalent in the early '70s, was most aptly named. Big brass lantern lights, long windshield stays, and Coors kegs for gas tanks were all just fads. So when that look died (fads always do), Mickey was faced with what was he going to sell now? Well, what sold the basic concept of a hot rod T-bucket 30 years ago still holds true today: It is the least expensive hot rod you could build, and easily one of the cheapest types of cars you can still buy in kit form. Where one-stop shopping was innovative in the '70s, building an entire car on the Internet is what Mickey believes is the wave of the future. At www.tperfor mance.com, you can create a car online, add and delete options, find out what it will cost, order it, and have it delivered to your doorstep. Can't pay for it all in one chunk? Total is one of the few companies that will do lay-aways, allowing you to make payments for your car over the course of a year!

But what style to build? Nowadays hot rodders have a choice as to what their T-bucket will look like. Resto, Fad (yes, they're still out there!), traditional (with perhaps a flathead or a Red Ram Hemi), Performer-style with a blown big-block (you thought the power-to-weight ratio was high in your Cobra?), high-tech (with carbon-fiber pieces and billet aluminum wheels), and even rat rod style with an old straight-six, a six-pot log manifold, and 16-inch steelies on each corner set up with caps 'n' rings would look good in your driveway. Diversity is the key to why the T-bucket phenomenon hasn't died off after all these years--no two will ever look alike! Diversity can be seen in Lauria's business plan, too. In 1988, he purchased Ingelse, which manufactures multiple carb-induction systems for all sorts of engines (and heavily used in the Cobra world). A few years later, in 1990, Total's Pro Street T (riding the wave of popularity for cars with the Pro Street look) was named Best Street Rod Kit by KIT CAR magazine.

In 1992, Total began promoting their Coolflex line to the home builder--a product that came about by filling a need of the custom car builder. In the early days of hot rodding, if you went to your local auto parts store for a hose, invariably you'd come back with the wrong length. Coolflex hoses are flexible "fluid transfer" hoses for the radiator or heater and come in three lengths (12-, 24-, and 36-inch) in show chrome and four other colors. Now Coolflex lines can be found on all sorts of vehicles, whether they're show cars or not. By the mid-'90s, Mickey wanted to promote the ease at which these cars can go together, so he hauled a finished T around to different car shows, disassembled it the night before, then had his two teenaged daughters, Gina and Lisa, assemble the car at the show in front of a crowd. It was a great way to show how the cars went together and great publicity for Total Performance, too. In 1996, Mickey got hooked up with Shadetree Mechanic--the TV show that featured cars being built by the two hosts. When the show (the precursor to today's Two Guys Garage on SPEED Channel) aired five episodes of how to build one of Total's Ts, business shot through the roof.

In 2001, Total Performance became a dealer for the Dearborn Deuce, the '32 Ford convertible featuring a folding top that disappears into the upper rear apron (think Mercedes SL). Over the years, the Wallingford shop has expanded, now encompassing over 21,000 square feet with 26 employees. But Mickey's expansion plans didn't stop in Connecticut; he also has his eye on Florida. Destination Daytona is a new 100-plus-acre facility being built just north of Daytona, Florida, which will be devoted to the car and Harley-Davidson enthusiast. With car and motorcycle shops, a nine-mile cruising road, restaurants, a 300-room hotel, and much more when it opens in May 2006 (with a grand opening later that year in October), Mickey will have the only street rod shop there--a place for folks to see and buy his line of hot rods.

And back at Total, yet another branch of the T-bucket family tree is being produced. Lauria is looking into building a new track-nose T he calls the King T, which will feature a '23 front half and a rear section of a '27. It just seems you can't keep a good guy down! Sure, fads may come and go, but after 35 years in business, Mickey Lauria believes T-buckets are here to stay, and his ideas for them and his customers are what is going to keep Total Performance in the forefront for years to come!