KING of ECO-FRIENDLY off-roadin’

He wears western boots to play baseball, has a passion for fast cars and is a fan of all things Barely Legal.

Len Werden heads up Barely Legal Motorsports Manufacturing Limited, offering world class backcountry touring adventures in a fleet of custom built, street legal hot rods.

His tours have taken people to the height of B.C.’s reality, including Black Tusk, Jane Lake, Alexander Falls, the Callaghan Valley, and natural hot springs like Sloquette.

“The adventure starts the moment we leave the driveway,” Werden said of the tours.

The former millwright and past president of the B.C. & Yukon Building Trades Council started up the company with former Toronto Argonauts football player Bill Norton in 2001, but it’s Werden’s expertise that continues to fuel the concept.

He said his initial retirement dream was to raise Clydesdales, but somewhere along the line his mechanical instincts took over and today he’s on the crest of a motorized dream.

“We call it Barely Legal because they barely have all the things on them to be legal. One windshield wiper, signal lights...the cars were built to the specs to be very safe, but also to be something that’s very eye-catching. And I wanted something to look like the old hot rod,” he said.

“If you see the car, the fenders on the front turn with the wheels, which is hot rod stuff, but never before done off-road.”

The 58-year-old has also become a bit of a celebrity in Whistler, flying down the Sea to Sky in his ride.

He said of all the projects he’s taken on, the audience for this one is different. He’s built motorcyles, muscle cars, race cars and hot rods, but this is the first that really spans all age barriers and genders.

“From three to 103, there’s something that makes them look.”

Always pressing for quality, Werden selected German technology to power the rods, using the old 914 Porsche engines.

And there’s more to come. Just a couple of months ago, Werden’s team got the green light from the B.C. government to raise $2-million to establish a plant in Squamish and expand the Barely Legal operation into franchises. }

{ He said by the end of June, they’re hoping to be running seven hot rods into the wilderness. In total, they’re aiming to build 30 hot rods and start branching out.

“The idea is to build a unique, world-class backcountry adventure business, to develop the model in Whistler and franchise it around North America.”

He said there’s been interest from Tofino to Cabo San Lucas.

The rods are also animal and eco-friendly.

“We want to visit the animals in their natural environment and not harass them. I’ve got the big 4x4, but these are far nicer to the environment. They weigh 1,600 lbs, and don’t tear up the ground, leaving a light footprint.

“We don’t go wailing up mountains, but rather we follow old logging roads. We don’t want to be tearing up the soil. That’s not how you look after what we have here.”

He’s also senstive to people with disabilities. One of Werden’s most memorable tours was with a young, life-long quadriplegic.

“This boy had never been away from his big electric wheelchair in his life. He was in tears when we pulled away from the hotel. To him it was a sense of freedom,” Werden recalled.

When they arrived at their destination, they walked the boy about a kilometre over rocks and logs and set him up at a viewpoint with his family. He turned to his Dad and said, “I’ll bet there’s never been a quad here before.”

Check them out at www.blhotrod.com