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"In 1949 a new name was added to the Road And Track masthead: one John R. Bond, who a year earlier had written a watershed article for the magazine, titled &amp;quot;What is a Sports Car?&amp;quot; An intense man, Bond had an engineering degree from General Motors Institute and held positions at Harley-Davidson, Paxton Engineering, Studebaker, Kurtis-Kraft, Miller Engineering and McCulloch Supercharger. Becoming Editor in 1954, Bond and his second wife Elaine would later purchase the magazine. During his tenure, Bond would write a series on design, one of which was called &amp;quot;Sports Car Design Number 18&amp;quot; in the February 1955 issue. His concept called for the creation of a retro-custom version of a Model J Duesenberg. It seemed revolutionary for its time; a homebuilt exotic classic using available parts and pieces found in wrecking yards and aftermarket speed shops.   Bond wanted a classic for the masses, a machine that combined a variety of disciplines: hot rodding, custom car building, the classic Salon car, all designed to encourage the enthusiast to create a homespun project. From his concept, Bond, who had always loved the style, beauty and iconic history of the American-built Duesenberg Model J, wanted to transfer Design Number 18 from paper to reality. It was, in fact, his dream of this three-quarter-size Duesenberg that would combine the long-gone classic with modern technology.   Now, 56 years after his concept appeared on paper, his creation, the &amp;quot;Speed 8,&amp;quot; is complete.   According to John Bond Jr., the Speed 8 was not the first venture into car building for his father but it would be his most arduous. &amp;quot;My dad&amp;#039;s first endeavor was a flathead Ford-powered sports car that looked a little like a Cobra, with a body built by Bill Davis in the early 1950s,&amp;quot; the younger Bond recalls.   &amp;quot;At the time my father began the concept of the Speed 8 he had always loved the Duesenberg J,&amp;quot; Bond continued. &amp;quot;However, with the Duesenberg being long gone, his idea turned to building an affordable retro-style classic car from what was available to him at the time. It was a mind-set that could be found in the hot rodder of the era; build a car using your own ingenuity. As you can tell, the actual car my father designed, engineered and built was somewhat removed from the concept found in Design Number 18. He began to adjust his thinking, keeping the Duesenberg visualization, staying true to the 1930s&amp;#039; classic, but he also used a variety of parts from all types of sources typical of the hot-rod tradition.&amp;quot;           In reality, the Speed 8 was never really completed. It ran and was shown, but there was always something not quite finished; like a promise unfulfilled. John Bond was a perfectionist to the highest degree, and a nitpicker to many. Signs of this obsession with detail can be seen in file after file filled with hundreds of engineering drawings, sketches, notes, letters and memos about the car. This paper trail reveals a personality that was purpose-driven, perfection-oriented and never satisfied with a final solution. To the observer, Bond seemed much more interested in discovery, in calculations and problem solving than reaching a conclusion.   It started with a simple idea. Bond wrote at the time that &amp;quot;the goal was to achieve a good-looking classic car, typical of the 1920\u20131930 eras, which could be built with variations by the average backyard builder.&amp;quot;   This combination of grand classic design and hot-rod ingenuity prevailed from the outset. He originally conceived of using two of the all-new 1955 Chevy small-block V-8 engines connected to create a V-16. Unfortunately, the plan was a little too ambitious for the resources available. Instead, Bond Jr. said his father &amp;quot;purchased several Rolls-Royce straight-8 industrial engines and picked one of those as power for the Speed 8.&amp;quot;   This is not to say that Bond gave up on using a long list of Detroit-generated parts and pieces including a Buick transmission, either a Lincoln or Cadillac differential, Nash water pump, Chrysler Imperial chassis, leaf springs from a Chevrolet station wagon and steering from a 1936 Cadillac. Coupled with his variance of parts came an engineering hypothesis so complex that it would equal any found in the engineering cubicles of a Detroit manufacturer.   As things worked out, the dream\u00ADscape illustration so skillfully drawn by R.H. Gurr for the 1955 article and the concepts of famed auto designer Strother MacMinn combined with the engineering talents of Bond would go through a 20-year metamorphosis.           As fabulous &amp;#039;50s gave way to the turbulent &amp;#039;60s, Road &amp;amp;amp; Track prospered, allowing Bond to devote time and energy to make the Speed 8 totally whole. He had spent years collecting parts and pieces, designing and engineering, letter writing to manufacturers and altering ideas to fit his needs before actual construction of the Speed 8 began. Taken from a list in his own handwriting, Bond listed the alterations he had made to his original design. The chassis was now a modified I-beam extracted from a 1939 Oldsmobile convertible, the transmission became a Corvette Muncie 4-speed backed by an 11-in. Corvette clutch and Buick flywheel, the steering was a 1935 Cadillac Saginaw unit. The suspension was a mix of coil springs front and rear with trailing arms. The rear axle was taken from a 1939 Oldsmobile sporting a 3.64:1 gear ratio. Brakes were also GM, Bendix 11-in. drums and the wheels custom-made from a 1938 Buick.   Bond&amp;#039;s desire to make the Speed 8 a retro classic surfaced in his choice of a radiator and shell from a 1934 Bentley. Door hardware combined Oldsmobile Toronado and Porsche 911 Carrera parts. The interior used Volvo seats. The Strother MacMinn body design features a steel cab and aluminum fenders pounded out using wooden bucks by Dick Troutman Limited (part of famed Troutman and Barnes) in the tradition of early coachbuilders.   While tempting in conception and ingenious on paper, the aforementioned V-16 Chevy proved impractical. Bond had, for some reason, acquired several (new old stock) Rolls-Royce B Series Industrial engines. One of which, an 8-cylinder inline B-80, was selected to power the Speed 8. Designed around a 7-bearing crankshaft, the B-80 was primarily created for use in commercial, industrial and military applications. Therefore, longevity was its major virtue. Weighing in at 745 lb. and developing an estimated 160 bhp from its 346.36 cu. in., the B-80 was a plow horse not a thoroughbred.   The succession of events concerning the Speed 8 and its history is cloudy at best. From its initial proposal in 1955, the original plan deviated substantially from paper to reality. Over a period of nearly two decades, Bond acquired parts and pieces, redesigned and engineered countless ideas altering the original concept over and over even as he sold the magazine in 1972 and moved to Escondido, California, four years later.   The uncompleted Speed 8 was part of a rather iconic collection of cars housed in a spacious 20-car garage and languished in a state of near completion. It was the John Bond propensity for change and experimentation that prevented him from having the pure joy of driving a fully functional classic retro automobile of his own design.   Elaine passed away in 1984, followed by John in 1990. Heirs John Jr. and daughter Marilee sold the car to a collector, where it languished for several more years, then changed hands in obscurity until purchased by Albert Voorthuis and shipped to Gold Country Restoration in Murphys, California, where it was finally completed.   The work by Gold Country&amp;#039;s Mitch Alba and Doug Gonzales began by stripping the car to the chassis, evaluating what was there and what needed to be created.   &amp;quot;We wanted to stay with the original John Bond concept of building a modern-day automobile with sports-car handling, ease of driving but keep the classic design of the 1920s and 1930s,&amp;quot; Gonzales explains.   The ravages of time took their toll on Speed 8 and much of what Bond had originally used to create his classic were lost due to time and carelessness.   Hundreds of pieces, including brackets, knobs, motor mounts and pulleys, had to be machined from billet, with much of this work sent to Summit Machine. All of the wiring had to be replaced with plastic fuses hidden in an under-dash compartment.           Using Bond&amp;#039;s own engineering drawings, the Speed 8 was fitted with electric windows using micro-switches, leaving 1930s&amp;#039;-style hand cranks in place.   One of the biggest challenges to the restoration was the curved glass windows. Each piece of glass had to be shaped using an aluminum buck. The process was extremely costly with estimates running over $6000.   Another major task involved the radiator shell. The 1934 Bentley shell had static louvers but Gold Country reworked each louver to allow it to open and close if needed for more or less air flow. The hood opens from either side and the latches were carefully reworked from engineering drawings also made by Bond.   Reading through the hundreds of Bond&amp;#039;s notes, it was obvious that he was obsessed with sound deadening and packed the original version of the Speed 8 with an insulation product called &amp;quot;Con-a-flex durable acoustic liner.&amp;quot; During restoration, Gold Country swapped the product for a superior upgrade using a product called Dynamat. New seat frames were built and the original Volvo seats were retained, with the leather interior trimmed by Charles Christenson. Modern &amp;quot;Red Line&amp;quot; gauges replaced the originals and state-of-the-art air conditioning and sound systems were added but hidden from view to help retain the 1930s&amp;#039; feel to the car.   To better convey the 1930s Duesenberg mood, the 1938 Buick wheels were exchanged for a custom design created by La-Mar Wheels that features a machined Duesenberg style cover, while the handcrafted dash is made of alder wood.   Even though the Speed 8 spent most of its early life unpainted, when the car showed up at Gold Country, it was covered in a questionable combination of dark blue and silver with red pinstriping. The car stripped to bare metal, Gold Country then repainted it in a combination of dark green and silver. Guided by drawings from Bond&amp;#039;s files, the taillights were fabricated by hand. One final interesting point about the Speed 8 restoration process: The Rolls-Royce B-80 engine had not been fired in 20-plus years. Primed with a cup of gas, the engine fired on the first attempt.   The Speed 8, once an unfulfilled dream, now stands as a work of art; a retro blending of classic styling and hot-rod innovation. It is a tribute to the craftsmanship of the restorers, the creative genius of Strother MacMinn and R.H. Gurr and above all, the unyielding spirit of John R. Bond. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a17643/retrorenaissance-the-john-bond-speed-8/>