Prior to tackling the Valkyrie project, I had about 10 years experience working on cars (as a hobby) and I learned a lot from the older neighborhood drag racers and hot rodders at the time. When I was 15, my best friend and I had built a 1956 Chevy with a 327 SBC, Muncie 4-speed, and Pontiac rear end with 5:13 gears. When I finally got my drivers license at 17 years old in my senior year In high school, I had a 1961 Corvette that was also initially a basket case with a seized engine. When I was 19 (and already married), I acquired a 1969 Nova SS from a fellow National Guard buddy. It had a 427 with a bad rod bearing, and he was tired of pouring money into it and breaking parts. Rebuilding that big block was very similar to working on a small block, except everything was bigger! I also had a lot of fun daily driving a 400 cu in SBC Chevy Vega that I put together in 1973.
Although my Dad was not a car enthusiast and he frequently told me I was wasting my money, he did own a business that designed and manufactured industrial process control systems, which gave me access to equipment and tools that the average car enthusiast working in their home garage might not, such as a forklift, I-beam mounted electric and chain hoists, a band saw, welders, oxy-acetylene torch, a decent selection of nuts and bolts, various gauge rolls of wire, and about 900 square feet of climate-controlled space in a corner of the shop floor.
Over the many years I have owned it, my Valkyrie repeatedly reached a drivable state, but was shortly after dismantled again so that various aspects of the car could be improved. Although I thoroughly enjoyed (and still do) performing nearly all of the work myself, I did not have the skills or funds to create a “show” quality custom car. The goal has always been to assemble a unique, good-handling, mid-engined, built-on-a-budget, sports car.
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