Tom Saunders
2015 WINNER
Photo: Street Machine Summernats 28 Magazine
Simon Telford, Tom Saunders and Rob Starling at the 2016 Valvoline SMOTY VIP Party
Tom started building a minitruck before he had his driving licence. His hobby of building minitrucks continued while he completed a Certificate III in Carpentry/Joinery. Then in 2013 he joined Weld Logic Fabrication as an apprentice and enrolled in a Certificate III in Engineering specialising in metal fabrication.
Tom has built, and been involved in building, a number of minitrucks and is very active in the Sinister Minitrucks and Custom Car Club. While admiring Laurie’s shorty LS1 powered black Rodeo and chopper at Summernats 21 he had a chat with Laurie and, as Tom said “I decided then that I want to build cars like that”. They also met at East Coast Cruise over the following years. According to the referees for his Scholarship Application Tom is the “go to person in Tassie” when folks are having problems with their builds, his advice and some hands on work gets them underway again.
Tom built this air intake for his Rodeo minitruck as a special feature honouring the work that Laurie and The Chop Shop did on the original design for Henry Parry’s Summernats (2014) Grand Champion FB Holden.
Front and Centre
Parked at the entrance to the
Valvoline Street Machine of the Year VIP Party
Road trip!
Tom and mates from his club, Sinister Minitrucks and Customs drove from Hobart to Canberra for Summernats.
Build pics of the engine bay in Tom’s Rodeo
Thanks for setting the benchmark for
future Award Winners Tom!
Since receiving The Laurie Award, Tom has continued to build on his career as the go-to custom vehicle fabricator in Tassie. His business, Handmade Metal has been steadily growing requiring larger locations along the way until landing on this sweet premises mid-way through 2019.
Handmade Metal
69 Albert Rd, Moonah, Hobart, TAS, Australia, Tasmania
Slide into Tom’s socials to see his killer work!
Rob Starling presenting Tom with The Laurie Award at the 2016 Valvoline SMOTY VIP Party.
