ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 2, 1994                   TAG: 9410040037
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-18   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: CHRIS COLSTON CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                  LENGTH: Long


A LIFELONG LOVE FOR CARS

AS BUD BRUSSEAU grew up he went from Go Karts to fast cars. Now, he's building his own cars from kits and working on his special dream car.

Forty years ago Rusty Brusseau purchased a gas-powered lawn mower - a big deal in the 1950s - then took off on a short business trip.

When he returned, the motor was gone. Outside, his son Bud was tooling around the family's 40-acre New England farm in a homemade Go Kart.

Rusty didn't get mad. He waved his son in and said, simply, ``you took the motor out, you put it back in.''

His son did.

The elder Brusseau had only himself to blame. After all, his son was just 8 years old when, one day, Rusty put him on a tractor and said, ``drive it.''

His son drove it.

``I've loved cars ever since,'' he said. ``They just come natural to me.''

Growing up, Bud Brusseau spent most of his time in the family garage. ``If anybody was looking for me, they always knew where to find me,'' he said. ``I was just messin' with cars.''

All those oil-stained hours. The smell of old upholstery. Hearing the roar of a revving engine, newly tuned. The simple pleasure of turning a bolt. The way the car seemed to run better after a fresh paint job.

When you spend that much time alone with a machine, it becomes an obsession. You learn to love the smooth body lines, the powerful engines, the glistening chrome.

You become a man who, at age 47, can build a $35,000 sports car from scratch.

Brusseau builds Cobra Warriors. He can take a set of iron beams stacked against the wall and in four days turn them into a chassis. He can take 8-by-14 inch strips of Fiberglas, hanging from the wall, drape them over a mold and in two weeks create a body.

Brusseau is a designer, welder, painter and electrician all rolled into one.

He's a man living a dream. He's the Cobra King of Christiansburg, and if you're willing to work, he can help make your dream come true, too

Brusseau had been operating his garage, Classic Cars of Christiansburg, since 1981. But it was only a year ago he entered the car-kit business.

Last June he answered an automobile ad in a trade magazine placed by a Cobra manufacturer. He ended up buying the car - and the company.

``I was talking to the man and he asked if I was interested,'' Brusseau said. ``I always wanted to own a car that I built with my own hands, and I've always had a passion for the Cobras. They have the ultimate look for a small sports car with a V-8 engine. I didn't have to think about it too much.''

But Brusseau wasn't sure what his wife, Joyce, would say. He figured she would nix the idea.

``I think I can do it,'' he told her that night.

``If you think you can do it, then do it,'' she replied.

The next day his was at the First National Bank of Christiansburg asking for a loan. The bank gave it to him.

Brusseau can make you a Cobra Warrior start-to-finish, if you wish. One hand-crafted car - he calls it a ``Turn-Key'' because ``that's all the buyer has to do'' - costs between $34,000 and $35,000. He figures he could build two a month, 24 a year. But he'd rather make your body and let you do the rest for half the price - under his guidance, of course.

Mike Fox, a mechanic for New River Nissan, is building a shiny red one. ``I always wanted something no one else had,'' he said. ``I guess there's a little bit of that in everybody.''

Building a car is hard work, but it has its rewards. ``Every step of the procedure, you can use your personal touch,'' Fox said. ``You make it as original as you want. I'm putting in a white leather interior, dark gray seats, air-conditioning and a tilt steering wheel - all the creature features.''

While most roadsters are built just for sunny days, Brusseau sells year-round kits. That's what makes it a Warrior. ``We have steel doors, roll-up windows and a full top taken from an MG Midget,'' he said. ``It's designed to be a practical car. You can drive it every day.''

Brusseau bought his first automobile, a 1947 Plymouth two-door sedan, when he was 11 years old. He paid $7 with money he earned from mowing grass.

Brusseau's love of cars has never left him. ``On Saturday mornings I like to take a cup of coffee out to the garage and work,'' he said. ``It's peaceful. I feel great even if I just turn a few bolts.''

Although he owns one of only two polyurethane Cobras in the world - ``The body is like one big rubber bumper,'' he says - Brusseau is working on his dream car: a fully-accessorized black Cobra with gold stripes and a 457-cubic inch engine.

``I'm doing what I intended to do all my life,'' Brusseau says of his car-kit business. ``This is everything I've ever wanted.''

Except one thing.

``I have my 30th high school reunion next year,'' he said. ``I'm going to drive up in that shiny black Cobra and tell everybody, `I built this. This is what my company is about.'

``'This,''' he will say, caressing the Cobra's smooth coat of paint, ``'is what I build.'''



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