the barn find riva

Vintage speedboats are great. The combination of a hot rod engine in a beautifully shaped wooden body is simply stunning. It's like having the best of both worlds. And they don't get any classier than the italian Riva, the king of wooden sports boats. A couple of days ago, I came across the restoration story of a barn find Riva. Actually, it was the restorer himself who contacted me in order to get more information about the copper gas tank my buddy Raphael built. The Riva he's rebuilding is the only one surviving out of four equipped with a rare Scripps V12 flathead. The icing on the cake respectively on the 900 cubic inch lump are two McCulloch superchargers. The installation, which should have resulted in a whopping 500+ hp figure, was even covered by several hot rod magazines at the time. Click here to read more about this great project!