Speedhunters Interview “KdF Mangler” Bonneville Volksrod Builder

Images: Speedhunters

34-year-old welder/fabricator Drew Strunk, hails from Cincinnati Ohio. Working with his father at Dropped Axle Productions he builds mainly traditional hot rods, classic trucks and gassers.Returning back from a successful week at Bonneville, Speedhunters caught up with Strunk and picked his brain regarding his wickedly-cool Volksrod salt racer.

Strunk explained, “I just wanted to build and crazy car kinda like Ed Roth would build sorta. I wanted to see how much I could build and or fabricate. I didn’t want to throw a lot of money in it. All I bought new were the tires, gauges, and a few misc things like battery, fuses, hoses, etc.” The Beetle is purely a unique creation touting a ’36 Ford front axle, radius rods, ’40 Ford brakes with ’67 Buick Wildcat aluminum drum brakes. Moreover, the whole chassis is custom built, channeled around 6-inches with the car sectioned over 1 1/2-inches. In Strunk’s workds, “Nothing’s store bought.”

When asked how the name KdF Mangler came from, Strunk laughed, “The name is funny. KdF really is the original name for the VW. Actually it was KdF wagen. It stood for Kraft durch Freude witch is “strength through joy” in German. So when I was building the car I joined the volksrod forum and I needed a name. So I thought than since I was cutting up an early VW why not KdF Mangler. So it kinda stuck with the car.”

To check out the complete interview and all of the gorgeous photography, make sure to visit Speedhunters here.

About the author

Kevin Shaw

Kevin Shaw is a self-proclaimed "muscle car purist," preferring solid-lifter camshafts and mechanical double-pumpers over computer-controlled fuel injection and force-feeding power-adders. If you like dirt-under-your-fingernails tech and real street driven content, this is your guy.
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