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$250,000 Dreamcraft Studios Chopper 001 What do you get when you combine a race car engineer with a hot young graduate from the Art Center College of Design who have never built a motorcycle before? You get is a fresh, exciting, and futuristic chopper unlike anything the motorcycle indusrty has ever seen before. Convention is thrown aside with the fuel for the full stock Harley Twin-Cam engine hidden in a flowing backbone frame reminiscent of the creature in 'Alien". The projector headlights with their extended eyeshades have the piercing look of a futiristic android. The exhaust system is a twist of snakes converging in a strange bulging collector with 4 red hot outlets. Also extraordinary is the race car inspired chopper looking front suspension which uses lever arms acting on exotic externally adjustable racing air shocks to provide "correct" suspension movement with wheel travel perpendicular to the road. Whereas conventional motorcycle forks which are extended at a severe axle for the correct chopper look, will bind up and more 'suspension" is provided by the flexing of the fork legs rather than the actual compressing of the forks. The Dreamcraft Chopper, a first ever effort between race car engineer Larry Nagel and Art Center grad Paul Young, had it's industry world premier at the 2004 Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show. With the time it took them both to design and build Chopper 001 from scratch, its estimated cost and value is around $1/4 million dollars. Sounds expensive? Naw. On just their first day dispalying the bike at the LA Calendar Show the team received blank check commissions from an extreamely wealthy collector for them to build two new bikes even wilder than old Number 001 here. We can hardly wait to see Numbers 002 and 003. And neither can Tanea.
Jim Gianatsis photographed the Dreamcraft Chopper for the FastDates.com Iron & Lace Calendar and Website in August 2004 , just two weeks after its world premier at the 2004 Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show. The sexy brunette beauty vamping herself over the bike is Tanea Brooks, a professional model and dancer, and member of the Purrfect Angelz all-girl burlesque show troupe who had also performed at the Calendar Show where Jim first met her.Needlsas to say, Tanea was our purrfect Ridley to tame this exotic Alien. Return to Iron & Lace Garage Index
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One day during the summer of 2002, designer Paul Young found himself visiting his friend at his alma mater, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California (The Art Center is respnsible for having produced half of all the current auto designers in the world). The fresh smell of fiberglass and modeling clay caused Paul to begin reminisining about the good 'ol days when he noticed the school bulletin board and decided to stop and see what's beeen hapening. After a few seconds of scanning through roomates wanted and such, he cam across an ad that read, "Wanteed: designer to help design a concept motorcycle, call Larry Nagel:. Larry Nagel had been building race cars and show vehicles, as well as restoring exotic cars for over 3 decades. His list of cars, and inventions include the amazing 'Volan' a jet powered drag car that transforms into a 40 foot tall fire brreathing robot., and the world's first virtual reality gaming machine called the 'Cybersphere.' But after almost 30 years of building cars and other inventions, Larry decided the timing was right to build some ultra exclusive, one-off concept motorcycles. Although Paul was not a motorcycle guy, he wrote doen Larry's number and called him. Larry remembers, "I talked to other designers, but one look at his portfolio blew me away. I told paul, I want you to design my next project bike" Paul was speachless, excited, but also worried. "I've never designed a motorcycle before, " Paul countered apprehenislvy. But Larry just smiled and said, "Don't worry. You just design the most outrageous bike you can imagine, and I'll figure out how to build it." So, they set out to build a motorcycle to change the future, a partnership was formed, and Dreamcraft Studios was born. Dreamcaft
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