The Round Six Podcast

The Round Six Podcast


Design Driven Down Under with Ziggy

June 07, 2019

"WE HAVE A VERY UNIQUE FLAVOR OF BUILDS."


The Gearheads were honored to jump a half day into the future and visit with Ziggy Sadler of Ziggy's Design Driven. Joined by guest host Carson Lev, the talk runs  from SEMA involvement on Australia to four-door hot rods and historical race cars. Ziggy Sadler is directly involved with SEMA's push to help develop the Australian aftermarket, and we explore that in some detail.

Talk naturally turns to Carson's passion for the Jocko streamliner, and this kicks a number of fun doors open. The gang explores racing history, a number of delicately-interconnected events and people, and even hatches a plan to tour the car in America once again.

From humble, early days of sneaking into car shows, Ziggy parlayed that love for cars into a career. Eventually traveling to America in the late-1980's, his exposure to builders like Boyd Coddington and Troy Trepanier and Chip Foose, he set a benchmark for the work to come out of Ziggy's Design Driven.


THINGS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE:



  • The wonder of time travel
  • Australian passion for hot rodding
  • SEMA's involvement with the Australian market
  • The deal with four-door vehicles
  • The Commodore market
  • Differences between Australian and American cars
    – Floor pan depth differences
    – Midsize track and wheelbase differences
    – Brian explores the exponential price differences in selling twice as many billet hinges and door handles
    – Trimming a four-door versus a coupe
  • Asbestos removal on imported project cars
  • Brian pitches The DelaHyundai, a pontoon-fendered Sonata swan song

SEMA AUSTRALIA, THE AFTERMARKET AND BEYOND



  • The shortages in the Australian aftermarket, personnel-wise
  • An exploration of import tariffs
    – The fifty-percent hike in price just in taxes
  • The high level of fabrication skill abroad
  • Working with what you have versus importing parts
  • The "imprinting" of vehicles leading to a resurgence in the restoration/rest-mod markets
    – Early Commodores with LS swaps
    – The popularity of this has lowered price points to make the process affordable
  • Regulations presently hindering the Australian aftermarket chassis market
  • The push to change regulations to allow for more aftermarket parts production
  • Challenges facing builders with regard to chassis swaps
  • A market primed for innovation

THE JOCKO CAR



  • Discovering a historic race car in a McDonald's
  • The story of the Extremeliner
  • "The body flicks off out of the way, and the chassis finds it and lands on top of it."
  • The gang devises a plan to get the Jocko car to Pebble Beach
  • The Don Garlits connection
    – Early aerodynamic explorations in drag racing
    – The blow-overs
  • The Chip Foose connection via his Dad Sam having worked on the car
  • The differences between a Top Fuel and Funny Car
  • A discussion of aerodynamics

ZIGGY'S CAREER AND THE FUTURE



  • Early influences
  • The Spellbound VW as seen in Hot Rod Show World
  • Ziggy Sadler tracks down twenty-two apprenticeships at school
  • Becoming a workaholic
  • Trade School
  • Working in restoration shops
    – Getting in trouble for over-restoring cars
  • "Reverse-engineering my knowledge"
  • First trip to America in 1988
    – The Boyd connection
  • Ziggy's Hot Rods becomes Design Driven
  • Use of 3D modeling and printing
  • Expansion into the parts manufacturing field