Build Highlights
  • Body & Interior Mods
    • 4.5 inch chop top
    • Custom roll pans & rolled fenders
    • Rounded door corners
    • Smoothed & Peaked hood & deck
    • Rear hinged, electric actuated doors
    • Split bumpers
    • '53 Buick "Venti-port" portholes
    • '57 Buick side spear trim
    • PPG Tonic Brown & Ginger Beer paint
    • Rich Perez @ RP Interior did the awesome upholstery work
  • Chassis & Suspension
    • Ball-joint front suspension beam narrowed 6in Dropped spindles and modified shock towers Ride Tech Shockwave shocks all around 
    • Tube rail Reinforced stock VW pan
    • Brakes: 8-inch JBugs  front, Wilwood 8-inch rear
    • ET Classic V aluminum 15×12-inch wheels (Rear) 15×4-inch ETs (Front)
    • 345/50R15 Nitto Drag Radials (Rear)
    • Firestone 145SR15 tires (Front)
  • Engine & Drive Train
    • Jack Dineen-built 215 Buick V8
    • Custom flat-top 12.5 to 1 pistons
    • Range Rover 4.0 heads
    • Schneider flat-tappet cam with .484-inch lift
    • Hilborn stack fuel injection 
    • Holley stand-alone EFI system 
    • MSD Pro Billet distributor and MSD coils
    • Brown-built Zoomies
    • Davies Craig water pumps
    • Twin Spal fans
    • Medeola 4-speed with a Kennedy Engineering bellhousing
    • Driveshaft Shop 8-inch 930 CV drive axles
  • Appearances
    • 2017 GoodGuys Nationals Columbus : Street Machine of the Year Finalist
    • 2017 Syracuse Nationals : Designers Dozen Award 
    • 2017 Hot August Nights Cup, Reno, NV : 4th Place 
    • 2017 Deadman's Curve : DMC Pick 
    • 2017 ISCA Cincinnati : Squires Cup Contender 
    • 2017 ISCA Pittsburgh : Steel City 6 Finalist 
    • 2017/2018 ISCA Show Circuit : 1st Place Outstanding Radical Custom (Cincinnati/Pittsburgh/Detroit/Chicago/Cleveland) 
    • 2017 Darryl Starbird Show Tulsa : Next Generation Award 
    • 2018 ISCA Chicago FINALS : Select Six Legends Cup Finalist : 3rd Place Overall in Class 
    • 2018 Buffalo Motorama : Best In Show 
    • 2018 Syracuse Nationals : Winfield Award Select Six Finalist 
    • 2018 July HOT ROD Magazine 5 page spread feature 
    • 2018 SEMA Las Vegas : Battle of the Builders Top 10 Sport Compact 
    • 2019 "The Absorber" Car
The Berlin Buick is the result of 2 years of top-chopping, metal-shaping, mid-engine V8 madness and has become one of the hottest, most well known and well traveled customs in the country. But it didn't start out to be this way, although you could say that was "the plan" all along; when Robert Freeman took his beloved bug to Brown's Metal Mods, little did he know that what he had been looking for found him. See, the bug was just in for a 3 inch "chop" to right some previously attempted custom wrongs but then talk of the mid-engine bug Robert always wanted gave way to  Gary Brown's design sense,  his team's metal skills and how "perfect" an all aluminum Buick 215 cubic inch V8 would be nestled and rumbling away just behind the two front passenger seats.