Page 41 - Oct 2022

gravel to jump up and put us both out of
commission. It was also picking up new
paint chips with every turn we made and
every pot hole we hit. In for a penny in for
a pound. Faint heart never found car
enthusiast.
When I arrived at the Slaydens?home, the

first thing I discovered is that Bob is a
great story teller, while I?m an enthusiastic
listener. What Bob also is, is an engineer
by training with the sensibility of an artist,
a researcher par excellence, a person who
has elevated a project into a passion, a
passion concealed at his house for
decades.

M any stories of derring-do or fantasy begin with a After exchanging pleasantries , Instead of
character, either naïve or brave, entering a deep wood. being taken to a tower where the princess
Then the action, sometimes good and sometimes ominous , is traditionally kept, I was taken down to
is set in motion. the place where Slayden is creating magic,
one weld, one panel, one tweak, one turn,
The words ?Once upon a time? are gateways to adventure.
at a time, not in a pristine shop but in his
This story begins a bit differently. Because it?s a modern
basement. Bob, I determined, is not
tale, it started with an email that said: ?I read that you were
involved in a restoration project. He is
looking for restoration stories for the newsletter. I have been
recreating a car whose condition when
restoring a 1960 Triumph Italia 2000 since 1986. I worked on it
found meant that no ordinary person
hard till 1991, then stopped for ?life and family?. Then retired
would have taken it on. Bob is
in 2019. Started back on the restoration full tilt. I would be
extraordinary.
glad for you to visit and interview me, and take some photos of
the project for the newsletter. Bob Slayden. ? Imagine Pope Julius II in 1508 taking
Michelangelo, a sculptor, not a painter,
If you've worked on a car since 1986 you have a story that
with no experience in fresco work, into
automatically qualifies for the characterization of
the Sistine Chapel, pointing up to the vast
derring-do. That means there?s a story itching to be told.
ceiling and saying, ? What can you do with
An Italia 2000 is a type of which I'd never heard; It was
that? Michelangelo, 33, balked at first
also the car he described to me as his ?life project?.

because he was working on Julius?marble
I thought this would be another interesting afternoon spent tomb, but when the Pope commands,
with an enthusiast. I?d write up the story and share it with there was only one answer. The sculptor
the club. That was my plan. We agreed on a date to make spent four years of his life on the project
the visit. that became a masterwork.

In August I found myself on a private lane, in a wood, If Bob Slayden, an engineer with no
somewhere I had never been before, a section of middle training in automotive restoration, had
Tennessee I didn't know existed. I drove deeper into the been asked a similar question when faced
forest where his directions and my GPS were taking me with the Italia, he would have had an
and had a momentary thought: bringing bread crumbs immediate answer--?Something
might have been a better choice than making the trek in a wonderful!? Bob, too, was in his 30s when
definitely not an off -the road version of a modern horse. he began. How long will it take to produce
My 911 S. With its exposed radiators it was waiting for his own handcrafted masterpiece? most
of his life. That?s where we begin this
41 story. Continues on page 42