Builds

This beautiful 1992 Midnight Blue Metallic Porsche 964 Turbo was starting to show small signs of bubbling underneath the paint. Knowing there was more rust and corrosion beyond the surface, we disassembled the body to find structural deterioration. We removed all rusted metal and fabricated new pieces, welded and finished to undetectable replacements.

1962 Ford Holman Moody Challenger III

289 Ford V8, 4 speed T-10 Transmission, 9″ Ford Locker differential

Howard Kroplick’s restored Holman Moody Challenger III Ford. It was one year ago this week that we went to do the pre-purchase inspection of the project and now it’s complete.
This car was an early concept for Ford Racing to put a V8 engine in a small bodied car to turn an inexpensive mass produced passenger car into a race car that could be competitive with purpose built race cars at the highest level. Seen on the track competing against cars like Ferrari GTOs , Porsches, Listers etc.

Holman Moody had a talent to rearrange Ford passenger car components, tweak, modify and massage pivot points, balances etc to perform instead of bolting on race car parts from a catalog.
The custom designed Fastback Roof, door skins, hood top and deck lid were all custom shaped out of aluminum. You can see in one of the images that a wooden Buck was developed to help in design and fabrication by metal craftsman Lujie Lesovsky in 1962.

As seen in Tom Cotter’s book “Holman Moody The Legendary Race Team” the Challenger III had a total of 6” removed from its overall height. 3” removed from the roof and 3” removed from the center of its body.

Unlike many modified race cars, special attention to body work was taken in this project for a very finished looking car complete with trim and finishing touches.

We thank Howard Kroplick for giving us the opportunity to help bring the one and only Holman Moody Challenger III back to its former glory.

Tucker #1044

Original Franklin Helicopter flat six 335 CID

Tucker 1044 is considered one of the most accurately detailed and documented restoration of all of the 50 original Tucker cats produced. Ida Automotive executed the full restoration of this car with the historical accuracy supervised and contributed by Sean and Mike Tucker whom are are Great Grandsons of Preston Tucker.

This car was debuted at Pebble Beach where it took second place to the cat that is owned and presented by George Lucas of the movie fame.

This car won 1st Place and Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance and 1st place again Greenwich Concours D’Elegance.

Owner: Howard Kroplick

1955 Tucker Carioca

4 cylinder Air Cooled Franklin aircraft engine

Starting with Preston Tucker’s renderings, engineering drawing are being developed to fabricate this very unorthodox type of car for the very first time. All pieces are being fabricated to bring Preston Tucker’s final automotive design to life.

Owner: Available

1946 Tucker Torpedo Concept Car

Porsche Flat 6 opposed air cooled and and transaxle

The original concept of Preston Tucker was finally being brought to life. Based on some loose artist renderings, engineering plans were being developed to fabricate each piece of this very unorthodox vehicle. Steerable fenders, 360 degree disc brakes, center drive with rotating seat assembly and an all handmade body.

Ida Automotive did not get the opportunity to complete the build and are no longer contributing to the project.

1956 Porsche 550 Spyder Replica

Reshaped replica body to resemble more of the original alloy 550’s from Porsche. all alloy interior, carb doors, cockpit cover. 2300 CC VW flat opposed four cylinder engine

Alloy interior, cockpit cover, reshaped body give this beck replica a more authentic profile.

Owner: Sergio de Caires

1949 Cadillac Coupe

LS Chevrolet V8

Stock bodied with two tone paint and upholstery

Owner: Carmine DiGiovanni

1950 Mercury Convertible

1933 Willys

Supercharged 4 cam

“Roaster” built for S. Greg “Dirt” Homiller, this completely handmade car was inspired by a 1933 Willys design with a modern twist. A supercharged 4 cam engine, polished stainless chassis, all custom machines suspension, hubless brakes, and wheels with hidden lug nuts. A “swing away” steering column automatically moves with the drivers door action to allow easy access through a small door opening.

Streamliner

Two 650 cc Triumph TR6 Trophy motorcycle engines

Designed by Alex Tremulis in 1964 (designer of the Tucker ‘48) and built by rider Bob Leppan, the Gyronaut X1 was a twin Triumph engined two wheeled motorcycle that was “The World’s Fastest Motorcycle” from 1964-70. Rob Ida and his team restored the original Gyronaut X1 for its 50th anniversary and brought it to the Bonneville Salt Flats with an Ida bodied Tucker 48 replica tow vehicle as a display of some of Alex Tremulis’ most notable works.

1986 Porsche 930 Turbo

3.2 Flat 6 boxer with K27 turbocharger

Re-designed front and rear bumpers eliminating the accordion style bumpers . Fuel door mounted mirror, leather RS style interior with leather basket weave upholstery. Finished in “Blau Grau Hell” light grey paint.

Owner: Rob Ida Sold

1959 Austin Healey

354 Chrysler Hemi V8 with 671 GMC supercharger

In 1968 Bob Ida and his young cousin Vinny Quarato built a lower and lighter replacement to the previous BB/GS racer Willys sedan. The “Hemi Healy” proved to be a bit too short and radical as it stood straight up on its rear bumper. It was soon retired and sent of to the junk yard. In 2015 its was found and restored for Bob’s 70th Birthday.

Owner: Bob Ida

1940 Willys

L88 Big Block Chevy 427 Hilborn mechanical stack Injection, 727 Pushbutton Transmission, 1957 Oldsmobile rear differential

A period perfect restoration of an A/GS Gasser that ran in 1967 and 1968.

Owner: Al Wester

1937 Chevrolet Coupe

350 Chevrolet V8 with Twin Turbochargers, automatic transmission, Ford differential

Restyled roof, curved windshield, reshaped fenders, custom body trim, Ida built wheels.

Owner: Jack Kiely