HELL-BENT FOR SEMA AND THE RATICAL BUILD-OFF AND DRIVE-OFF

Heidi Watso and Arco Horton . January 18, 2023 . All Feature Vehicles

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MN Outlaw Customs takes on the challenge with creativity and haste

With a smoky burnout, and on a whim, Bryan Dagel hatched the idea of the RATical Build-Off back in 2015 while impressing the crowd at the infamous after-party SEMA Ignited. Support grew, and this year twenty talented builders are vying for the coveted title.

…vehicles must complete the drive-off portion of the contest from Lincoln, Nebraska to Las Vegas – over 1,400 miles!

Drive takes an exclusive ride-along with one of the twenty, as custom builder, Arco of MN Outlaw Customs fabricates from his imagination for a chance at a win at the 2020 SEMA RATical Build-Off. From the throwback silhouette, flowing curves and creative inspiration already taking shape, we like his chances. We will have updates as the build progresses, right up to the judging and final roll-out to SEMA Ignited in November.

We sat down with Heidi from MN Outlaw Customs, who shares with us the project beginnings and the spark that launched a completely unique, hand-fabricated piece of Ratical art.

When MN Outlaw Customs, was chosen to participate in the International RATical Build-Off Drive-Off, we were excited – and nervous. The first thing out of our mouths was “What are we going to build?!”

We knew we needed to bring our best game to SEMA but what will show our style, creativity and be that next-level, outside-the-box build that will put our tiny shop (located in remote Big Falls, Minnesota – population 236) on the map.

Arco has always been a motorhead., helping his dad and friends on whatever bike or car project they were working on, and learning from them. Arco was also influenced by meeting the greats in the California car scene. As a young man, and later as an adult, he took inspiration from them all and grew his skills to include hand-shaping steel. He began to take on his own projects and has built and customized cars and bikes ever since.

This build comes naturally to him. He sees shapes in cars or bikes and inherently understands the geometry. For many years he has dreamed of fabricating a coach-built car. But when you have a small shop you need to make ends meet, we couldn’t figure out how we would make it happen.

The RATical Build-Off is the perfect opportunity.

While having the discussion on what to build for the RATical Drive-Off, he brought up designing and building a coach-built car for the contest… I wasn’t sure, I also wasn’t sure how to start that licensing process, or anything at all, some of the main rules of the build off say: The build cannot start prior to January 1, 2020, Builds must have a SEMA sponsored spot and all of the vehicles must complete the drive-off portion of the contest from Lincoln, Nebraska to Las Vegas – over 1,400 miles!

One afternoon while driving into the shop I spotted a project car we had picked up, a 1948 Studebaker Champion. This little car had been gutted, in preparation of becoming a drag car, but had not been finished. I remembered something about this little car, its windshield was so pretty – pretty enough to make me drag Arco out, grumping the whole way… he saw it, then he saw my vision. We started our car design based on this windshield and the rest from our imagination. As far as a chassis, we were stumped, until Arco remembered a 1977 Olds Cutlass that we had would have the perfect frame and was just sitting out back of our shop.

We needed to have concept drawings done to show potential sponsors our vision. We worked with a young New York artist Anthony Petricelli who was just getting started doing renderings. A bigger surprise was getting an additional rendering by our good friend in Australia, Glen Ridd. Glen’s drawings were as close as we could have imagined to the car we wanted to build.

With these in hand, we headed to SEMA, spent days and days meeting with people involved with the RATical Build-Off and at practically every booth at SEMA, shaking hands, and making connections. However, we left SEMA with no concrete sponsor. Sponsors, and finances, has been our biggest challenge so far.

Become a sponsor on this project.

If you are looking for a showcase for your business and a way to get your products featured in front of the media on an international stage, this unique project going to SEMA is exactly that. Be a part of it.