KVD is a Mornington Peninsula based business that specialises in kustomising Volkswagens. The business was created from a lifelong love for VW's and a particular eye for detail when it comes to the kustomisation. 

Our father and son team have been working together since 2010 when Rod Smith employed Jesse Smith as his apprentice.

 

Roderick Grant Smith

Born: Australia 04/04/1960

Education: Year 11 passes in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and English.

Qualified Motor Mechanic

Heavy articulated licence    

  

         

I have been involved in motor racing from an early age, beginning my career in Go-Karts.

 

After completing my trade as a Motor Mechanic, I resumed my racing in the Victorian 
Motorcraft Lazer series and the Goodyear series in N.S.W. In August 1986 I took up a position with the highly successful Larry Perkins organisation, assisting in the development of Larry’s two ENZED sponsored V.K. Commodores.

 

In April 1987 I took over the preparation and development of Brian Bolwell’s BMW 323I Group A Touring Car. This vehicle competed successfully several times while in my care:- notably twice in long distance events with myself as co-driver. The Hardie Irrigation 100 at Amaroo, 11th outright and 4th in our class. The Sandown 500, 12th outright and 3rd in our class.

 

To further my experience on the most competitive circuits in the world, I left for Europe in the winter of 1988. Whilst there I worked with Dick Johnson in Silverstone, England. Also for the legendary Bob Holden at the Spa 24 hour race in Belgium.

 

I then returned to Australia to take up a position with Gibson (Nissan) Motorsport in general race preparation and as a driveline specialist. With Gibson’s I worked on the Touring Car Championship winning HR31 Skylines and the all conquering Nissan GTR. I was responsible for the maintenance and preparation of the GTR that Gibson’s sold to Thailand, which also included numerous trips to Thailand in this package. Until their closure I still did work for Gibson Motorsport on a contract basis and was responsible for the driveline and running of Mark Skaife’s triple Australian Championship winning Formula Brabham. And team managing the Konica Commodores of Paul Dumbrell and David Parsons.

 

I have  prepared gearboxes for most of the leading Touring Car teams including The Holden Racing Team in 1990 when Win Percy and Allan Grice won the Bathurst 1000.

 

1993 I took over the preparation of the TOLL EXPRESS sponsored “B” class Porsche of Paul Little and undertook the building of an “A” class car. Both cars ran well all season with the “B” class car proving unbeatable at the end of the season.

 

With only three weeks time available I undertook the rebuilding of an ex Larry Perkins VL Commodore to be ready to race in the 500 kilometre Touring Car classic at Sandown in September. This car, driven by Anthony Tratt and the veteran (Captain) Peter Janson, ran faultlessly all day and finished 5th. If not for a spin by Janson, that cost them 7 laps, the car would have finished 3rd.         

 

I prepared the Porsche Cup Team for Toll Express from 1993 and developed both their cars to absolute front runners. Third in the 1995 Championship and second in the 1996 title. A “B” class car was also prepared for Darcy Russell in 1996. Darcy had never raced a Porsche Cup car before and in his first season came second in his class and also became “Rookie of the Year.” With numerous wins in the 1996 season, Rod Smith Racing capped that season off with two run away wins in the final rounds of the Championship and 2 Lap Records.

 

In 1997 My company, Rod Smith Racing ran Darcy Russell’s “B” Class car in the Porsche Cup. In 10 rounds the car finished 1st 16 times and 2nd 4 times, claiming the “B” Class Championship and 2nd Outright.

 

For 1998 the R.S.R. Team took on a V8 Supercar for Darcy. After running 6 of the 10 rounds, finished 4th in the Privateers Championship and took out “Rookie of The Year”, with no DNF’s.

 

For the 1999 season the team ran in the Shell Series however a large crash at the Darwin Round  eliminated the chances of a good placing in the championship, the team then concentrated on the endurance events. The Willowbank 500 was all going to plan when  a conrod broke [later found to be a faulty batch that caught out some of the better funded teams also, HRT, Faulkner and Seton]. Bathurst again proved to be a happy hunting ground for RSR finishing 18^th outright and 4^th in class in a maximum field of 55 cars.

 

For the 2000 season we built an R32 Nissan Skyline GTR to run in Nations cup  the car ran at Melbourne Grand Prix in the hands of Greg Crick and was running as high as fifth until taken out by another competitor, unfortunately the owner of that car ran out of money and the project was shelved. During the same period and until present day I have been involved in the development of the very successful 944 Porsche Challenge Series, building in that period some 15 odd cars  95% of the cars in the series carry components manufactured by RSR including lower control arms of which RSR has manufactured 58 car sets to date. In 2002 I recognised the potential of one of the new drivers to the category and sponsored him, he went on to win the Championship that year and the following year he also won the Porsche Drivers Challenge. He also won the  944 challenge in the same year. For 2004 we took on the task of building a GT2 Porsche for the Victorian Sports Car Championship in 2005 and 2006 the car won the championship. 2007 saw us take on the 944 Challenge series again which we won in convincing style, for 2008 we  ran in the 944 challenge again winning the championship over the summer of 2007-2008 we constructed a Nissan 350Z in just 4 weeks to run at the Bathurst 12 hour the car was driven by Jon Webb, Paul Stokell and Josh Hunt and was running inside the top ten at the nine hour mark when walled by Josh. 2009 again saw us run in the 944 Challenge and winning the championship, we also took over the running of a Nissan GTR running in the Victorian State Series for a chap from Papua New Guinea, 2010 again saw us running in the 944 Challenge which we have just wrapped up again, 2010 also saw RSR move into the Touring Car Masters with a GTHO Falcon and a HQ Monaro both cars have been running quite well but neither drivers are “guns” both in their 50s (and no Jimmy Richards). In 2011 we have been maintaining a Nissan GTR, and a Porsche GT2 that both run in the Vic State Series as well as running some young kids in the 944 series, we finished 3^rd in the 944 Championship this year (not as we would like) due to our lead driver giving the scenery a few visits throughout the year. In 2012 I took a step back from Motorsport and concentrated on component construction, ie suspension and chassis components in chrome moly as well as doing some restoration work and high performance/racing engine building.

 

 

Jesse William Smith

Born: Australia 29/01/1992

Education: Year 12 VCE passes in English, Maths, Geography, Design & Technology and Physical Education.

Certificate III in Automotive Mechanical Technology (Light Vehicle)

Certificate II in Automotive Air Conditioning Technology          

 

 

My passion for cars started at a very young age, as I was born and raised into the industry.

 

At the age of 7 years old, I was driving a car around my parents property. My teacher was my dads best friend, Mark Skaife. Someone with the knowledge and experience that Mark obtained, made him the perfect roll model.

 

Throughout my teen years, every day after school and weekends consisted of racing cars around the paddocks with my older brother. However when problems occurred, dad taught me how to fix them.

 

After I finished my VCE in 2010, I jumped straight into working with dad. At this time we were heavily involved with the 944 Challenge series. Many weekends were spent at various race tracks around Victoria.

 

In 2012 I started my mechanical apprenticeship at Chisholm Institute in Frankston. While I was at school I also completed my Cert II in A/C. I completed my apprenticeship in 2014.

 

For the past 12-18 months I have been pushing and building KVD. We started out with one customer who owned a 1979 bay window kombi, which was his pride and joy! From there we have escalated at a rapid rate and now maintain and kustomise between 25-30 Volkswagens (kombis, beetles, buggys, karmann ghias, etc)

 

Both Rod and I have a massive passion for the beautiful cars and would love to share that with you.