Patrick Hagerman EdD is a professor of exercise science at the University of Tulsa and the author of five books so related, the latest of which is considered the bible for the triathlete discipline. In essence, he reveals how small changes in muscle strength can add up to big race results. Pat's other self has been involved with building and driving specialty hot rods, a subculture he's been immersed in since childhood (his father had a chassis shop in Oklahoma City). In that domain, Pat is the proprietor of Scotlea Hot Rods in Nowata, Oklahoma, about 30 miles north of Tulsa. But Scotlea is now on hiatus and likely to remain that way. Pat will be helping friends with their rides but mostly concentrating on his own rides.
"I've built so many cars in the past 25 years but I never built a full-tilt Camaro, just drag cars and restorations, so I wanted something that would drive nice and handle just as well. 'Slider' is a misnomer. The car is really sticky through the curves," he announced. "Since the car was nothing out of the ordinary, I wasn't compelled to rush into it. I found it in a barn about 10 miles from my house. I bought it and it sat for a while. Then my painter bought it, and soon sold it to someone else, who sold it to a friend of mine. He needed to sell it, so I bought it back. All of this occurred in just three months," said Pat.
Could one passion join with the other? Could Pat successfully integrate the nuances of his vocation with his little professor side directly into the fiber of the car he wanted build? Aside from his customers' cars, Pat's experience includes a '69 Charger "General Lee" rendition, an '82 KITT Firebird ala the Knight Rider TV series, a Pro Street '65 Corvair he's had since he was 14 that is in its third iteration, and now his latest ward: Slider.
To satisfy his yen, Pat began Slider as if it was any other build he'd ever done, but this time he'd lay down some things he'd always wanted to try, things that wouldn't necessarily spotlight the car and that would work "underground" and make the package more copacetic and more responsive. He was also more enamored of the car's ability to brake and handle than a killer motor combo that just wouldn't suit the street. Far from a daily driver, the longest squirt Pat's ever made in Slider is 60 miles.
The most notable mechanical departures that bless this agglomerate are the induction system and the rear suspension. Both incorporate systems that are sorely overlooked simply because they aren't mainstream cues, even though they may function decidedly better than their more mundane counterparts. Anybody who builds General Lee Chargers and wacky TV Pontiacs was the perfect foil for such relatively obscure equipment.
Prior to the fuel injection retro-fit, Pat had relied on an 850-cfm mechanical air/fuel mixer from a well-known source. He wanted to refine the breathing apparatus and give the engine a more defined selection, one that would never need a screwdriver or a wrench to adjust. His propensity for the original design led him to a body that looks like a four-barrel carburetor, a body that retains all the dimensions and measurements of the carb. Was it his infatuation with the electronic fields that infused the KITT Pontiac?
Now perhaps closer to the physical ethic that Pat reinforces and unquestionably the more obvious of the two major changes is the truck arm suspension system, a linkage that works fantastically well, offering a Caddy-like ride infused with otherworld handling capability. All NASCAR Sprint Cup racers are equipped as such, so how come this progeny hasn't taken the hot rod world by storm? Is it too bold, too off-center, too strange, too different for (mostly) conservative car builders? Yup, more than likely?
Pat further deviated from the norm with the two-tone paint scheme and the lines to which it has been drawn: sanguine top; steel bottom. Slider slithers supreme.