49 Merc Kit Car

Cassidy: Net Optics' Eldad Matityahu shows different business drive

The best thing about starting and becoming chairman of your own self-funded network security and analysis company is that if you want to make exotic cars a pillar of your corporate culture, who's going to stop you?

Look at Eldad Matityahu, who's been nuts about cars ever since he watched his brother build a go-cart when they were kids in Israel. He uses cars as employee perks and team-builders at his company, Net Optics in Santa Clara. He uses driving analogies in pep talks. He parks eye-popping exotics at trade shows to serve as the shiny object to reel in prospects. He swears there are legitimate business goals being achieved here.

"I'm marrying my passion with my business," Matityahu says, standing in a Palo Alto garage where he keeps a rebuilt 1914 Buick Speedster, a 1957 Continental Mark II, a 1957 Cadillac convertible, a rebuilt 1955 Chevy Bel Air, a 1946 Indy race car, a 1965 Volkswagen 21-window bus and a 1965 Cobra replica, among others.

There's another car here, too, or parts of one. Matityahu and a handful of Net Optics employees are piecing together and modifying a 1923 Ford Roadster replica that came as a kit. The assembled Roadster would serve as the centerpiece of the company's booth at this week's annual Interop trade show in Las Vegas.

"I love creating and changing things and customizing," says Matityahu, which is why his crew is building a fighter jet theme into the car. For months, Matityahu has been rounding up vintage instrument gauges and even a military airplane yoke to use as a steering wheel in the open cockpit car. He's upholstered the seats with leather from old flight jackets.

"Every day that I'd come into my cubicle, there would be something from eBay ( EBAY ) for me to work into this project," says Chris DuBurg, a graphic designer at Net Optics who worked on the car's interior. "It was a little out of my job description."

Silicon Valley is known for quirky workplace traditions and perks. The idea of working hard and playing hard makes sense in a place where so much of so many lives is given over to the job. Release is a necessity.

Revell 49 Merc 4 door project - wenzeltavoi's blog

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