Hot Rod Chavik, an American (Car Story) Born in the Czech Republic

Is this a car story with people, or a people story with a car? What you see in the photographs is a car, but it’s not just a car. To really understand, you need to know the people that built it, and the journey they had to make to chase their dreams. This car is the realization of decades of dreams by two aspiring, passionate young people, built on the hope of the American Dream.

Words and photographs – Tim Scott/Scott Photo Co.

Stanislav (Stanley) Chavik was born in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia on September 14th, 1981. I picture this smiling baby with a wrench in one hand and a warm bottle of oil in the other as both his father and grandfather were car guys, and to this day you immediately sense his automotive passion. Growing up on American movies, young Stanislav soon developed a strong affinity for all things Americana.

1989 signaled massive changes in Czechoslovakia with the “Velvet Revolution” and a shift from communist control. In 1990 the first democratic elections were held and in 1992 the former Czechoslovakia split to become the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Stanley’s parents opened a restaurant in Zlin and he and his brother found mechanical focused hobbies to keep busy as the restaurant business kept mom and dad away. He started with motorcycles at 9, and then on to four wheels not long after. It’s not surprising that when people ask him how long he’s been doing this he easily replies, “all of my life”.

The other half of Hot Rod Chavik, Daisy Dagmar, was born on March 11th, 1983, in Gottwaldov (now the city of Zlin). Her father is an artist and designer and her mother, who wanted to be a mechanic but was not allowed to under communist rule, instead learned fabrication and worked in an aircraft factory.

You could say there was something special in her blood and that creativity and the art of fabrication is in her genes. Daisy is easy to smile, vivacious, attentive, and always alert for connections, creativity and business opportunities. To meet her once is to feel like you’ve known her for years and her passion for her family, personal and hot rod, is immediately obvious.

One serendipitous day in 2007, in the city of Zlin, Daisy and Stanley met through mutual friends. Stanley offered Daisy a ride on his motorcycle, and the rest, as they say, is history. Daisy is the organized and business-minded yin to Stanley’s passionate-creative-chaos yang – a match made in heaven. Stanley and Daisy were married in 2008.

Stanley had begun his American car journey with a 1980’s era Mustang, which he customized and showed at American focused car shows in the Czech Republic. People started to take notice and were soon inquiring about having Stanley work on their projects. Stanley's first restoration project for a client was a 1967 Ford Thunderbird, followed by a 70's Mustang Mach 1, a ‘66 Mustang coupe, a Plymouth Barracuda, and other American muscle cars from the era. One day a WWII collector entered the shop with a dream opportunity to do a period-correct restoration of his 1941 Dodge WC-Command. This historic vehicle was present on D-Day at Normandy and had quite high historical value – a perfect opportunity for Stanley to show his unique skills and attention to extreme detail. This was a new period for Stanley with more opportunities to work on American automobiles from the 1930s and 40's. Stanley had long dreamed of building lakes-style race cars and hot rods inspired by so many he had seen in the movies. As time passed, he hand-built two traditional hot rods – a ‘32 Edelbrock roadster tribute and a ’34 three-window coupe.

Stanley was also very interested in straight-8 Buicks, like the Buick Special and Buick Roadmaster, and bought his own 1939 Buick Special with grand plans to build a chopped, custom car. As his dreams of racing and speed grew, Stanley grew dissatisfied with his Buick, his focus moving more to vintage race cars. Then one day he chanced upon a photograph of the Phil “Red” Shaffer Indy Car, the Shaffer 8 and it all began.

Living in the Czech Republic and having to source and ship many historic parts from the USA, this wasn’t going to be easy. Stanley began the daunting task of reverse engineering, fabricating parts and working around rough dimensions. He slowly began to build as exact a replica of the Shaffer 8 as he possibly could. That Shaffer 8 replica, built in the Czech Republic, driven by a vision, sheer passion, and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of work is what you see on these pages. More on this soon.

While Stanley built a successful design-engineer-build shop and explored his automotive dreams, Daisy had opened a growing luxury hair salon. On December 31st, 2010, baby Stanley Jr. was born – and life was good.

America; the land seen on the silver screen with movie stars, fast cars, unlimited opportunity, and freedom. Stanley and Daisy were raised on American movies, World War II surplus, and imported American cars, so the “American Dream” was firmly planted. They were born under the communist reign in Czechoslovakia, had lived through the oppression and turmoil of the revolution in 1992, and the struggles of the newborn democracy of the Czech Republic, making the American Dream even more appealing. Stanley had long dreamed of living in the USA, so one day when Daisy, said “Let’s move to America!” it took almost no time for an enthusiastic Stanley to say “YES!!!”.

Many of the hot rod movies that they had seen were based in the land of sunshine and opportunity – California. With hopes high, they considered Southern California to search for their own American Dream. The first time that they arrived in Huntington Beach, they immediately felt like they had been there before. It felt like home. They went back and watched many of their favorite American hot rod movies and then searched out the actual places where they were filmed and then visited them in person.

This was the America they had dreamed of. They found a condo in Huntington Beach and while corresponding with the owner he noticed that their email address said “HotRodChavik” and asked if they were “car guys”. They immediately became great friends, and he went on to help them in so many ways as they started their journey to becoming Americans.

Stanley, Daisy and Stanley Jr. “came here to be American”. What does that even mean? If you watch old American western movies it looks like America is the Wild West, filled with open lands, outlaws and cowboys. If you watch the next generation of movies, America is a land of great opportunity and hope, filled with people who love their cars and motorcycles. Growing up watching these movies you can see the grand appeal of a place like this for people growing up under the thumb of communism and repression. The dream that had begun so many years before was slowly becoming more than a dream. Now, fueled by hope and passion it was time to begin the truly hard work to build their dream business not far from their Huntington Beach home, Hot Rod Chavik, in Orange, California.

Four months after landing in Los Angeles, California, the Shaffer 8 arrived and has been gathering crowds everywhere it goes ever sense. Hot Rod Chavik now is bustling, building cars for people and even well-known museums. The Shaffer 8 has been the recipient of many awards to date including events such as The Grand National Roadster Show (first place, racing category), La Jolla Concours (Best of Show), Huntington Beach Concours (first place, racing category), Highway Earth Car Show (Jay Leno’s Best of Show pick), and others, and has been featured in magazines and stories around the world.

Using a combination of as many original parts as possible, custom fabricated parts and built on a meticulously crafted chassis, their ethos of “perfection is not optional” comes to life for each and every one of their clients. With a love for classic restorations and custom builds, Hot Rod Chavik truly builds what they love with clients who are passionate and collaborative in the process – and it shows.

Ok, you’ve met the people, now let’s get into what you’re here for–this stunning 1936/‘38/‘39 Buick.

Back to the Czech Republic. Stanley’s dream was to craft something incredibly special that for one reason or another no longer existed. This is where the pictures of the Indy car called the Victory Gasket Special come back into the story.

Phil “Red” Shaffer had been quite a success around the Indy circuit. Between 1925 and 1934 seven of his cars had qualified for the Indy 500. In 1935, Shaffer had three Victory Gasket Special, Buick-powered cars attempting to qualify for Indy. During qualifying, one of his drivers, Stubby Stubblefield and his mechanic, were killed and the car destroyed when their car went over the retaining wall. This is the car that Stanley would painstakingly recreate.

Stanley had the Buick engine that he had picked up as part of a project years before. With the photographs he had found, he reverse engineered the specifications. He determined that the original car had a 105-inch wheelbase. Using the pictures as reference he painstakingly built a frame as the foundation of his own Shaffer 8. With his love for using original parts, he started with the 1936 straight-8 engine, a 1936 3-speed transmission, 1938 brakes and 1939 rear axle from the previous project. Other than a few various other parts he had to build the rest of the parts himself.

The frame, the grill, and the body parts were all beat into submission by hand, using the tools that Stanley had made himself. He used the well-loved photographs he’d been carrying as reference to get the forms and shapes as close as possible to the original. After focusing meticulously on every detail he could discover, the “new” Victory Gasket Special was revealed in the Czech Republic in June 2017. Needless to say, this car received much attention around the city of Zlin and many newspaper and magazine stories created a lot of buzz about Stanley and Hot Rod Chavik.

This brings us back to a few years later when the decision was boldly made to find their American Dream. Driving the Shaffer 8 (and drive it Stanley does!) has garnered a lot of attention in America as well. The interesting thing was that Stanley and Daisy had originally planned to sell the car to help fund the new shop. Fortunately, this didn’t end up needing to happen and the car has now gone on to inspire people here in America and attract commissioned builds for their now thriving shop in Orange, CA.

Stanley Jr. seems to have inherited a lot of the Chavik magic genes. At 13 years old he’s already in the family business, contributing design ideas and supporting the marketing efforts.

He’s learning the craft of fabrication with Stanley Sr. and creativity and business skills needed to succeed with Daisy – two generations, side-by-side, sharing passions from past generations to present and on to the next. Stanley Jr. is already pushing into the future, having earned diplomas at ID Tech camp, for Robotic Engineering and 3D modeling.

Young people like this are the future of automotive engineering and development and we truly need more young people like this to keep this passion we all share alive and well.

In so many ways this story lives up to the proverbial “American Dream” – people with big dreams coming to America with hopes to build a successful business and a life, and through determination, endless faith, and a lot of hard work, begin to build a life that so many can only dream of. And the dream continues as they work every day to not only build cars, but to build a future, a reputation and a life that they always dreamed of, one car at a time.

Details:

Vehicle: 1933 Buick Shafer 8 – Victory Gasket Special tribute

Owners: Stanley & Daisy Chavik, Hot Rod Chavik, Orange, CA. www.hotrodchavik.com

Engine: 248 Straight 8 Buick

Carb: 4 Stromberg 97s

Trans: 5-Speed

Shifter: Custom hand-made

Front axle: Forged I-beam Bendix

Rear axle: Custom-made posi

Springs: Hand-made

Shocks: GM lever shocks - late 30's

Brakes: Buick 1938

Headlights: 1933 Buick

Taillights: Chevy 39

Wheels: Custom, special-order, 72 spoke rolled edge w/knock-offs

About the author: Tim Scott

Tim Scott is a creative director, photographer, writer, and storyteller based in Los Angeles, California. Always on the hunt for images and moments that inspire, Tim’s work is both timeless and modern. Offering a taste of days past, his focus on black and white feels just right for the historic Americana subject matter often in front of his lens. Tim’s motorsports photographs and writing has been published in books and magazines such as HOT ROD Magazine, Hop Up Magazine, and Men’s File Magazine. His work has also been exhibited in galleries, museums and is held in exclusive private collections worldwide.