Now here is a beast of an automobile that screams vintage power with an overdose of sex-appeal.  Once I discovered this on Pinterest, I couldn’t rest until I learned everything I could about it.

Turns out this car never actually existed in 1928; it just happens to have a 1928 Caddilac chassis and was built about 10 years ago.  The builder is J.P. van de Bundt from Florida.  This vintage-styled roadster was built around a 650 HP, 12-cylinder Merlin aircraft engine.

Thunderbolt began its life in Finland, where builder Stig Fagerstedt created an oversize roadster around the massive Meteor V-12, shoehorned into a period Cadillac frame. Sagerstevt’s original creation was a two-seater that garnered points for creativity, but would have taken few honors for overall design. Enter artist, musician and car collector J.P. van de Bundt, owner of Victory Cars in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After acquiring Thunderbolt from Fagerstedt, J.P. set to work with an artist’s eye, attempting to design a suitable body style for the one-off creation.

The creation of the car’s new bodywork was entrusted to Fort Lauderdale boat restorer CF Boats, and everything from the windshield back was built from scratch. Mahogony wood was used to form the torpedo body, and red leather was chosen for front and rear seat upholstery. In choosing the gauges for Thunderbolt’s cockpit, J.P. went to great lengths to ensure both functionality and a period-correct look. The result is a hot rod of the finest order, that later sold at an auction in 2014 for $175,000 although it was reported to have sold for $187,000.

Here are two great videos about this amazing car.  It sure turned heads everywhere it went!