Pete aardema's garage was something to behold, especially if you think you're a tinkerer. After 40 years of collecting, pete's place was stuffed with unimaginable engine-with-overheadcam combos-a fetish of pete's in his quest for more power.
The quest for more speed and more power will never end for some rodders. In a strange way, it never can, because there will always be another combination of engine and driveline parts that can be put to the test. Pete aardema (are- dee-ma) knows this fact all too well, as he's been chasing the dream for more than 20 years.
A self-confessed tinkerer, pete's fascination lies in four-valve heads, single- and dual-overhead cams, and aluminum blocks-all key ingredients for a lower e.t. Or record speed. And though he has a weakness for dry lakes racing (one of his 196-cid, four-banger engines has a record at 153 mph), most of what pete has to offer is for the street.
Not afraid to try something new, pete will pull from any parts bin to make what he wants work. Porsche four-valve heads on a big-block chevy? No problem. A pair of subaru heads (with twin cams) bolted to a 200-cid model a motor? Already got one. How 'bout a simple overhead cam conversion for a small-block chevy? He's made more than 50 of them. And he's finally started to adapt the ford big-block fes with one of his single overhead valve kits, too.
His latest project is actually the second time he's used the c5 vette suspension In a vehicle, but it is the first time he won't have to widen a '34 ford body to make it fit the chassis.
Never wanting to spend a lot of money on anything, pete learned a long time ago That junkyards are still the best place to get what you need. But where most folks are limited to a small, ever-dwindling selection of performance parts to look for, pete's eyes are wide open, looking to create new avenues for possible horsepower gains.
His latest project is a progression from an earlier endeavor where he wanted to use the entire drivetrain of a c5 corvette under a '34 ford coupe. To do so, he had to modify the coupe's body and fenders to make things fit. This time around, he didn't want to do anything except shorten the rear axles, and it looks like he's got Figured out with this new chassis.
He found the drivetrain sans motor (wheels, transaxle, torque tube, calipers, transaxle cage, a-arms, etc.) In a florida junkyard for $2,500, then made his own Exhaust (along with butler headers), 18- gallon fuel tank, and some of the suspension pieces. The engine is a 427 ford fe (pete's first foray into big-block fords) that started as a bare aluminum block from shelby, to which he added the aluminum edelbrock manifold and fe heads. To top off the heads, he added his own overhead cam conversion kit.
Pete had recently been able to start and run the engine in the chassis, and had already dropped the '34 body on to make sure everything fit correctly. But the recent wildfires in southern california blew through the escondido area where pete lived and had his shop, and unfortunately both were leveled in the destruction (these photos were taken two weeks prior to the fire).
In the few hours before the fire consumed his shop and home, pete was able to save this running chassis, a couple of cars, and the race car, but several other vehicles and projects all burned to the ground (the fire was so intense it blistered the concrete!).
An open shed/garage outside his shop that contained another complete corvette, a boat, a customized truck, and a co-worker's mid-engine project all perished, as did the high-dollar cnc machine, drill press table, a bonneville race engine, numerous aluminum small- and big-block engines, lathes, brakes, presses, welders, and every tool imaginable for being able to fabricate any suspension part or engine piece you can think of.
Insured to a point, but certainly underinsured for what was destroyed, pete already knows he will continue working on his quest for speed and power, but isn't sure as of yet what will get done anytime soon. He's going to rebuild both his house and shop on the same property and, forever the tinkerer, has even talked about including a sprinkler system for under the eves of the house.
Whatever the outcome, pete aardema considers himself lucky to have survived where others didn't, and sees himself picking up where he left off to continue to create some of the most unusual engine combinations we've ever seen. We wish Him all the luck in the world, and can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
Pete is credited on the decklid of this '29 ford roadster, called the spirit of san diego, for his engineering and machining of its 198-inch model a motor. | 
The shortening of each axle by 3 inches is the only thing done to the rear assemble. Other than that, the chassis is fairly stock, except that pete added the rear section of the corvette chassis to the '34 'rails, and he did make his own 18-gallon fuel tank. | 
The torque tube-large by hot rodding standards-was not modified in this application. The idea was to be able to take as much out of a 2000 vette and adapt it without any modifications. |
Pete started with a bare aluminum 427fe block from shelby and added scat rotating assembly, but notice the location of the water pump on this ford. | 
The red '37 on the lift is a transverse-mounted mid-engine car pete created by using a 383-inch donovan with one of his sohc kits installed. He made his own transfer case to handle the load from the olds toronado trans, and the stock top was converted into a lift-off hardtop-similar to what is found on some mercedes-to make it a roadster. | 
Pete designed and built a chaindriven steering unit in both of his '34s that allows the steering column to remain up high and out of the way before exiting the firewall. |
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If you had two straight-six engines lying around, would you think to graft them together to make a 500-inch v-12? The 8.5-liter four-valve twin-cam motor was something he's been toying with, but hadn't progressed past figuring out how to mate the chevy trailblazer heads to the straight-six blocks. |
Here's what pete's garage looked like a few days after the blaze had gone through his area, and he reports the heat was so intense it blistered the concrete floor. |  | 
Pete had built a few motorcycles, including some for harley god arlen ness. This bike had a scat v-4 engine with pete's overhead cam heads and a beltdriven distributor all stuffed into a ness frame. |
One of the more bizarre scenes after the fire was the big-block posed on top of a lathe. Pete had a handful of the engines stored upstairs, but everything came down and landed where it wanted when the mezzanine collapsed. | 
This is what a typical aardema dohc motor looks like, before and after the blaze. This one was an all-aluminum 350 donovan block with dual overhead cam heads (from an infiniti) converted to beltdrive (rather than chain). | 
One of the other projects pete had been working on was this '34 threewindow, which he had bought 25 years ago. Once a pristine body, it's now buckled and warped due to the intense heat and objects falling on it during the fire. |
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