Kyle Johnson
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Flash Rods is a Storage Solution for Your Inner Child

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Flash Rods

Need a flash drive with a little bit more personality? Flash Rods has you covered. Photos courtesy of Dave Hersch

Need an external hard drive or flash drive that will accomplish the goals of 1) backing up all of your important files and 2) looking significantly more awesome than your co-workers’ external storage solutions?  Then you should probably check out Flash Rods, where you can purchase a storage drive that comes in the shape of pretty much any car you choose.

Flash Rods is the brainchild of Dave Hersch and his son, Miles, who came up with the idea of making flash drives and external hard drives in the shape of cars about a decade ago.  At the Flash Rods page (www.FlashRods.com), you can peruse Dave’s catalog of High-Speed Flash USB 3.0 Mid-Size Rods and High-Capacity, Heavy Metal Hard Drive Rods.  Each is lovingly rendered and arrestingly beautiful, proving that a good deal of ingenuity can make even the dull task of saving your spreadsheets into something exciting.

What’s the difference between mid-size and hard drive?  Dave’s got a handy side-by-side comparison to help you make up your mind.  The 64 gigabyte USB drive can store 10 DVDs, utilizes USB 3.0 speed, weighs one pound, and has a “Very High” envy factor; the 750 gigabyte hard drive can store around 150,000 MP3s, weighs two pounds, and has an “Off the Chart” envy factor.  Prices range from $79 to $109 for the 64GB and $225 to $300 for the 750GB, and given the look of the final product, Flash Rods are worth every penny.

“I’m always looking for new cars to integrate hard drives and flash drives into,” said Hersch.  “I spend a lot of time every week looking for the coolest, high quality cars and only the ones that get a fire started in my belly are ever built.”

Gallery: New Flash Rods Available This Year (Photos Courtesy of Dave Hersch)

The Mid-Size Rods are available in a number of styles including the 1967 Mustang GT500, 1963 Lincoln Continental, 1957 Corvette, and modern iterations of the Chevy Corvette Z06 and Audi R8.  Upcoming models include the Austin Mini, Porsche 911 Turbo, and a classic Pontiac Trans Am akin to the one driven by the Bandit himself.

The Hard Drive Rods are offered in models ranging from the Mercedes SLS Gullwing, new versions of the Camaro and C7 Corvette, and three screen-accurate versions of the DeLorean DMC -12.  Yep, you can now save all of your important files on Doc Brown’s car.

Flash Rods

We don’t need roads where we’re going, and these hard drives won’t need 1.21 jigawats of electricity.

See what he means about only the coolest cars?  There’s a little bit of everything to be had here.

In fact, one of the most interesting things about Flash Rods is the potential to get a drive custom-made to cater to all of your nerdy needs.  I only became hip to the brilliance of Flash Rods after reading Douglas Sonders’ piece on Jalopnik about his customized hard drive made to emulate the oh-so-gorgeous Mad Max Pursuit Special.  (“She’s the last of the V8s!”)  It is also fair to note that in addition to becoming hip to Flash Rods’ product, I also simultaneously become overwhelmingly jealous of Sonders and his amazing one-of-a-kind hard drive.  Seriously, there is a lot of coveting happening over here.

Need any more proof that Dave Hersch not just fulfills the criteria for “awesome guy,” but blows it out of the water?  He has also donated more than 100 pounds of new car toys to a number of Colorado charities including the Tennyson Center for Children, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Children’s Hospital Colorado.  He not only makes gearheads and movie geeks inordinately giddy with his creations, but he also goes out of his way to make life brighter for sick and underprivileged children in his community.

“Flash Rods to me is about the passion that resides deep in our soul.  The ‘cool,’” Hersch told me.  “After hand building a lot of cars, you can get a little burnt out, but when I see a grown man’s eyes light up as he looks at his dream car and thinks about what truly makes him happy, it’s worth every minute I put into building them.”

Still not convinced?  Then check out a gallery of some of Dave Hersch’s finest work below.  When you’re finished, be sure to leave a comment telling me just what car you’d like to have made into a Flash Rod.  Me?  I’m waffling between Deckard’s sedan from Blade Runner, Michael Myers’ station wagon from Halloween, or the 1989 Batmobile.  Choices, choices.