As it turns out, Tim "The Frogman" Cotterill didn't get his nickname for commissioning wild and crazy machines.
When he came to the United States from the United Kingdom, he was a poor artist and sculptor. Eventually, he found his niche crafting tree frog figurines, which you've probably seen at various gift shops and places like that.
Well, Cotterill ended up making quite the living from his frog art, leaving the Frogman with enough cash to pursue his true passion: designing insane vehicles like the Rocket II Trike.
Once he was finished with the design, Cotterill brought it to the team at Blastolene, who expertly crafted the Rocket II into a 1,000-horsepower speed demon. It boasts a 426 Hemi V8 engine that can propel this beast to 100 MPH in 4.5 seconds.
The Rocket II is so insane that, when it appeared on Jay Leno's Garage, the former Tonight Show host and fanatic of anything with a motor wouldn't even drive it. Now, that's definitely saying something.
Clearly, Blastolene (which also built Jay's Tank Car) and Tim Cotterill made for a pretty great team. This custom trike looks like something that belongs in a museum and cruises like a beastly roadster.
In the below video, you can watch Cotterill drive down the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
The all-aluminum, hand-built body just looks like something a sculptor would come up with. The suspension is completely made out of steel as well, and the front wheel is a custom-made one-piece, two-tire wheel.
So, yeah, technically it's still a trike.
Just listen to the sound of the Rocket II as it roars to life. What an incredible machine!
It's pretty amazing that a guy who designed such delicately crafted frog figurines could come up with such powerful, massive, loud, not-at-all-delicate monstrosity.
This post was originally published on September 25, 2019.