DUELING OVER DEUCES; Companies behind popular '32 roadster knockoff part ways.(News)

Byline: BOB GRITZINGER

As you read this, a nearly three-year relationship is over between Michigan-based automotive supplier American Specialty Cars and Connecticut-based Hot Rods & Horsepower. The fruit of the partnership was the steel-bodied '32 Ford roadster remake dubbed the Dearborn Deuce convertible ("All Hot Rod, No Hassle,'' Jan. 5, 2004).

The companies' parting came March 31, after ASC completed its contract to design, engineer, tool and build 300 Dearborn Deuce convertibles. Hot Rods & Horsepower is already shifting production to other suppliers and predicts just an eight-week downtime as it moves equipment.

"We're moving on-and up,'' said Craig Knight, managing partner and the driving force behind Hot Rods & Horsepower. In addition to the Deuce, the company is readying several new products, including a Shelby Deuce (licensed by Carroll Shelby), a 75th Anniversary Chevy Deuce and a Hemi Deuce.

ASC is moving on as well. "It's been a good run-in fact the original contract called for just 100 bodies-but now we feel it appropriate to focus more on our original-equipment-manufacturer supply businesses, as well as other market opportunities that we constantly evaluate,'' said ASC spokesman Tim Yost.

All that sounds relatively amicable, considering some of the bad blood that has been brewing since November at the Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas. That's when Tonight Show host Jay Leno took delivery of the one-off Leno '32 Bowtie Deuce ("Hot Rod Leno,'' Nov. 14, 2005), built through a collaborative effort by Leno, General Motors Performance Division and Hot Rods & Horsepower.

Shortly after the car was revealed on the GM stand at SEMA, a Hot Rods & Horsepower representative was on the stand handing out 8-by-10-inch cards that prominently featured Leno, a GM Performance Division logo and the car. According to Steve Reich, Leno's logistics man at SEMA, the card wasn't authorized by Leno. Nor was a press conference featuring the car and Leno that Knight was announcing.