March 4, 2006
He’s back on his feet and winning awards
By TERRY BOX / The Dallas Morning News
Sunday, March 4, 2006 – It was no coincidence that the slick ’61 Corvette getting some adjustments at Rucker Performance last week is owned by a doctor’s wife.
The doctor is one of several who worked to get Bill Rucker back at his custom-bike and hot-rod shop after a nasty motorcycle crash.
“In the hospital, he had said, ‘Can you build me one of those Corvettes?’” said Mr. Rucker, 48. “I said, ‘Get me out of here and I can.’”
Eighteen months ago, he and his wife were returning from the big bike fest in Sturgis, S.D., on a large Harley-Davidson. As they rounded a curve near Montrose, Colo., going about 40 mph, a car headed the other direction drifted toward them.
“I corrected, and he corrected, and we ended up in the same place,” Mr. Rucker said. He and his wife were thrown at least 40 feet. She escaped serious injury, but Mr. Rucker broke his left foot, leg, and hip in 18 places.
He relied on his daughter, Erin, and employees to keep the business running while he was healing and returned to the shop about a year ago.
Mr. Rucker, one of the founders of American IronHorse in Fort Worth, is a veteran hot bike and car guy.
Two years ago, American IronHorse bought him out. He bought a building on East Belknap and started his business – which now employees 25 people, nine of them former IronHorse workers.
Last month, two of the cars built at his shop – Mr. Rucker’s 1973 Camaro Z28 and a Lamborghini yellow ’32 highboy hot rod – won best in their respective classes at the AutoRama car show in Dallas.
One of six cars there recently was a ’49 Mercury custom whose top had recently been lowered by seven inches – a tricky job even for pros.
But Mr. Rucker is associated mostly with motorcycles, and he builds some fire-breathers. The company offers five models, most of them costing around $50,000. A maroon and gray carbon-fiber beast in the showroom – a model known as the Vandal that has a 13-inch-wide rear tire – sported a 145-cubic-inch S&S twin pumping out 190 horsepower.
The company sold 40 motorcycles last year and generated $2.5 million in revenue. It hopes to break even this year.
Mr. Rucker is adjusting to a prosthetic left foot and uses an aluminum cane to get around.
“I live a dream life,” he said. “I teach scuba diving at Texas Wesleyan College. I have a fun business, I drive the best looking cars, and I’ve got all the best motorcycles. I tell people I’m a blessed man.”
August 8, 2006 11:15 AM | send page | Press Releases