Welcome to the Larry Larson Channel

Whenever you're ready .

Oh , boy .

And you want this to be the introduction to him ?

Well , we're here at Larson race cars and , uh , if you're watching this channel , you probably know who I am already .

But I'm Larry Larson here in Oak Grove , Missouri didn't know if I'd ever start doing this , but , uh , everybody's getting into the big youtube thing .

So I figured I'd just as well .

A lot of people over the years have questioned what I do and how I got started and what possesses me to do some of these things .

So where I'm at and what we do here at the shop .

So we're gonna go over a little bit of that today .

Uh , introduction to the youtube channel .

We're getting a get started up and see if we can , uh , give you a little insight into how things work around here .

Also a little insight into what we're planning on doing and some up and coming videos .

So we're gonna go from there .

Oh , so I shop and look at your double check on that .

Look at her .

You not me , right .

So as we come out in the shop , we're full house right now , we've got a bunch of stuff going on , plenty of cars to work on .

Some of them .

We're waiting on customers to come , get some of them are in the middle , some of them are finishing stages of things .

So we do a little bit of everything .

We , uh we do anything from roll bars , roll cages to complete cars .

Uh , and when I say complete cars , I mean , you know , turn key cars .

So if you don't even own a car but want have a vision of what you want and what you want to see at the end of the tunnel and we can do that for you .

Uh complete from drive train , paint , everything .

We , we don't do any injured and transmission work here or paint work , but we have good relationships with some other people that we can outsource that for you depending on what you want to have happen and how you want it to end up .

So I guess some of the stuff starts over here .

We've got actually one of my employees is doing a project of his own that he's starting on .

This thing is a 31 model .

A it's gonna be a street strip car that he's planning on doing .

Um , a little different just because of the body style gonna be quite different .

Actually , it's been a little bit of a challenge trying to figure out how to run some of the tubing in the back of the back of the car and not have it be so intrusive , but everything starts out , uh , straight tubing over on the rack , we bend everything up so everything's custom fit and , uh , once again , try to make it as nice and clean as we can and make it .

I joke with everybody .

I tell everybody I'm lazy .

So we always try to make everything where it's as easy to work on as it can possibly be .

It seems like you always end up getting in a hurry at the racetrack .

Something's wrong .

They're calling for the lane .

So any time something goes together faster , better , easier in my viewpoint , it's a better deal .

So that's quite a bit of how our engineering I guess goes into it is to make stuff fit together , be aesthetically nice but still be where you can actually work on stuff and not fight yourself to death .

Yeah .

So once again , this is something that we just started on and then we've got another car over here that belongs to another customer that we're finishing some stuff up on .

We did the cage and everything in it .

As , as usual , we try to figure everything up just as nice as we can get it up to the headliner around the doors , um , a pillar area trying to get everything fit .

We're always trying to run them through the dash so they're nice and clean .

Uh This particular one has got a mini tub in it , then we went in and narrowed the gas tank up , did a bunch of stuff to , to make things better there and then this is gonna end up with a twin turbo L s in it .

Uh , it's gonna be once again street strip go get ice cream in it .

So we've got a Mount Turbos do headers on this particular car to get it finished .

It'll go back , then they'll do body and paint on it , interior finish the thing up and uh they have a really , really nice , it'll , it'll end up being more of a show car , but he'll , he'll drive the wheels off this thing .

So just a lot of the stuff we do is is more street and strip cars .

Um We still do some all out race cars , but a lot of it is street strip .

We've got one over here that we did for another customer that's not done yet .

Same thing .

This has been a twin turbo car since 96 probably .

And he brought it in for some updates .

We talked about quite a few things .

Decided to go ahead and completely revamp everything .

So we cut the chassis out , upgraded to late model , newer , infinitely adjustable four length brackets in the back , modular rear end housing .

The thing's got an all billet water block in it .

Once again it street strip car have a clutch and a Jeffco in it .

But once again , everything's all custom built , custom made clear down to the oval exhaust we've done for this thing .

We'll probably have a breakdown on it .

One of these days , we might do a , a complete video of it and really go through some of the stuff we've done and show you how the seats fit , how the exhaust goes in this thing , how the fuel tanks are in it .

But right now it just gives you a little bit of an idea of what we do and all the different variations of things we do .

We've got one more over here that is real close to getting ready to go to the body shop .

Same thing .

Another street strip car should run six something .

Uh more of a back as style car per se , but you can see some of the tanks .

We do , we build all these with all the radius edges .

Uh We make them once again to fit the car no matter what it is , fit the application .

Um This thing is similar , we did exhaust on it , full stainless , exhaust out the back , um , removable , shoot just a whole lot of things that we do .

Freestanding wing with the deck lid comes down , seals to it .

Same thing .

Just a little different than what most people are used to seeing .

This particular one .

The tunnel got raised in the car to be able to facilitate the engine or transmission where we wanted to put it some of this area back here in the back is a little different than most people do it .

But the exhaust actually goes up through there , through the four length area up over the rear end housing .

So it once again , full exhaust and it's will be big block twin turbo .

Uh once again , street car .

So a lot of the little things and we've got one other one yet from , oh , Arizona that we're doing .

We had done this similar thing in , in a 2013 001 that we built a few years back .

But this particular gentleman saw it , wanted a cage , how we had done it , which entails a lot of work .

But this thing is in here for a 7 50 legal cage .

But the way we've done the one is we had tucked everything up inside the headliner .

So this a pillar when we're all done and get the headliner back in this car , it will have the factory headliner .

All this a pillar will be hidden , the windshield bar will come out of the headliner .

The funny car cage will come out of the headliner , but this a pillar will be completely tucked up in there .

But to do all that , once again , you've got to take the car down to this level to get all the dashboard tucked in across it clears all the factory air conditioning heater , steering , everything still will work in this one .

It's done , but it's not near $4500 roll cage .

Or something either .

So , once again , a lot of the things we do just entail a lot of time and effort .

So , we've got a 62 vet that we're doing a lot of work too .

We'll , once again we'll probably do a video on that later on .

Um , a friend of mine from New York that we're doing this too .

It is a drag week car with an L S nationally aspirated L S in it .

Um He's planning on keeping the car forever .

So we're gonna make this thing the way as he would say , the way I want it , but he'll have it .

Uh , like I said , we , we'll do some video of it later to show you how it started and how it turns out and , and go from there .

Um , a lot of people ask , a lot of people ask how I got started in doing this .

Um I was a decent mechanic for 11 years out in western Kansas was always in the cars , race motor cross through the eighties .

And then , uh I had been in the car since , well , shoot , since I could drive .

But about the early nineties , I uh was looking for something else to do , went to a Super Chevy show in Topeka and ran into a couple of guys there that had just started a shop in Topeka building , building chassis and doing race cars .

So they looked at my Chevy too , which at that point in time was just a back half car and asked me who had done it .

And I said I had , and they asked me for if I wanted a job .

So long story short went to Topeka .

I went to work for those guys for three years and , uh , they run into some problems left .

There wasn't sure what I was gonna do .

Um , phone started ringing , asked me where I was going , what I was working on if I'd work on their car .

So necessitated the me actually opening my own shop and starting my own business in 1996 building cars .

So here we are 25 years later , seems more like five years later in my mind , but we've been building cars here and uh since 96 .

So to go back on some of that , we started off doing basically race cars .

I mean , I had my sugar too once again since 1988 and started off as a back half car when I was in Topeka , cut it up , made a chassis car out of it , but it was just something to drive .

It was just AAA toy , I guess just a release to go drive and have some fun with which it still is , but turned it into a chassis car .

Um , drove the thing everywhere .

The goal was at that point in time to , to get it into the eights .

Um , and we did and then along with that , when I started my business .

I started driving it more changing things more on it .

But everything was pretty much race car oriented and as the years went along along came drag week in oh five , uh , ran the Chevy Two , then converted it over to Twin Turbos .

Uh , did some work with Mike Moran through the years and switch it over to Turbos .

Well , after winter drag week for five years , then everybody started chasing me down for doing more street strip style cars , which once again , everybody can build a race car per se .

But there's not a lot of people out there that do really nice street strip cars that do , do a purpose , do both , do both duties and do it and then try to do it .

Well , it's , it's still a compromise on both sides .

So if you get a car that you want to drive and you wanna race , you've got to cut some corners on both sides of it .

But that's kind of what our business is really turned into .

And once again , most everything back there right now has got a license plate on it and it's gonna get driven on the street .

So that is over the years .

What has happened and , and what has morphed into more street strips up than it has , uh , are drag race only .

I mean , my Cadillac is drag race only car , but that's the first car I've owned in all my years of having cars that I couldn't drive down the corner , put pump gas in .

So that's what's brought us to where we're at here in the end , towards the end of 2021 .

Um , rolled into a lot of this , uh , no prep style racing in the last four or five years .

Really enjoyed that .

So brought , brought us some more business in that venue and uh some popularity on TV .

And here we are trying to get this youtube deal up and going .

So hopefully you'll follow us along and um we'll get some videos up , hopefully keep you guys all interested and , and tell your buddy , have them take a look and let's have some fun .