An expert car customiser has transformed a 94 Corvette into a stunning replica of the Mach 5 from the iconic 1960’s cartoon Speedracer. Jerry Patrick, who owns car replica extraordinaire AKA Junk, has been transforming cars into classic cartoon and movie vehicles for over a decade. After falling in love with the Mach 5 in the 60’s, 51-year-old Patrick had to fulfil his lifelong dream of driving the real deal.
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00:00 [Music]
00:12 [Music]
00:34 Straight out of the 1960s cartoon, this incredible Mark V Speed Racer is the handiwork of car
00:40 customizer Jerry Patrick.
00:42 The Mark V started off as a '94 Corvette, a really nice '94 Corvette, and we kind of
00:48 destroyed it for lack of a better word.
00:50 We, the whole back of the car and front of the car was totally taken off.
00:54 We fiberglassed the new body back on it, and it takes about 90 to 120 days to complete one.
01:02 We gut the interior, put the correct red leather interior inside, obviously custom paint, custom
01:09 decals, the emblems, the steel wheels in fact, we custom make them here at home.
01:15 The whole process began with Jerry customizing his own cars to Saban mechanic builds.
01:21 We started customizing the old school Camaros and Mustangs probably 15 or 20 years ago,
01:27 and that kind of parlayed into doing the TV and movie cars, and so I'd say the love the
01:33 most is definitely doing the TV and movie cars.
01:35 We go out and do car shows, you see gobs of the Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles, but you
01:40 don't see too many Mark V Speed Racers.
01:43 Growing up with the cartoon as a kid, Jerry couldn't resist building his own Speed Racer.
01:49 The inspiration behind the Mark V was straight off the cartoon from a 51 year old guy back
01:54 in 1967-ish is when the cartoon came out, so I was really enthralled as a kid to watch
02:00 this, and I thought, you know, one day I'm going to be driving a Mark V.
02:05 The cost of building the Mark V is another one of these classified things, and I've got
02:08 to keep that a big secret from my wife.
02:11 The build also posed some problems for the veteran customizer.
02:17 The biggest challenge on building the Mark V was building the first one.
02:21 I mean, we started off with a body that was a sculpt from someone else, and we had to
02:27 morph it into what we wanted for our own car, where it actually fit right, look right, do
02:31 right, and now we're actually building our own bodies.
02:34 When you hop in the Mark V, it can just go blow all the tires and just go have fun with
02:42 it, just like you would see in the cartoon.
02:44 I get asked generally sometimes from some specific questions on how fast the Mark V
02:53 can go.
02:54 Let's just say it's unlimited.
02:56 [music]
03:08 you