I’m old enough to remember tiny cars like Chevrolet Chevettes, Pontiac T-1000s and other too-late reactions to the 1970s gas crisis incidents still toodling around the neighborhoods I grew up in. Pint-sized little things, especially when one uncle was driving a 1973 Chrysler Newport and the other was rocking a 1977 Ford LTD II Sport. Even my grandfather’s 1984 Chrysler E-class looked substantial next to a Chevette. Time has sent most of them off to the great used car lot in the sky, but for the few that still exist on the planet, there is an option: LS. 
No, not the trim level, the engine. Look, hate LS swaps all you want. But hot rodding does have a basic premise: smallest car, biggest engine, go. You want to see if you can actually crap through pants, LS-swap a Chevette, make sure the engine is stout and the first chance you get, pin the throttle. If you survive the experience, you’ll understand. At least whoever started this exploratory venture into madness did it right: there are front brakes and the whole rear axle from a Chevrolet S-10 Xtreme bolted up. Starting with the brakes is always a good idea. Starting with a surprisingly clean Chevette with one of the nicest interiors we’ve seen in one in decades is even better…it ain’t like you’re going to find a restoration catalog for one of these cars! Do whatever it takes to make any LS engine fit, put plates on it and may God have mercy on the first idiot in a V6 Mustang on a set of wheels who wants to challenge you. Don’t act like you wouldn’t put someone like that in their place with the 1980s whipping boy of a car, either. You would in a heartbeat.
“Rollerskate from Hell”
Wheres Magnante ? how about a 500 Caddy swap ?
I\’m waiting for that muppet \”chevy hatin\’ mad geordie\’\’ to put down his straight-from-the-aerosol Easy Cheese feast, wheeze his way up stairs from Mom\’s basement and rant about this project.
I’m waiting for that muppet “chevy hatin’ mad geordie” to put down his straight-from-the-aerosol Easy Cheese feast, wheeze his way up stairs from Mom’s basement and rant about this project.
Exactly… The dude is a complete tool bag.
I Had an ’81 4 door that was built by a local racer. it originally had a turbo 3.8 Buick with a glide. It ran low 10’s with a 3:55 gear in the narrowed 9 inch. He wanted to make it more street-able and put in a 290 horse good wrench crate motor with a M-22 and the same rear gear. Had rams horn exhaust manifolds that didn’t require any cutting in the engine bay to fit. It had a single 3 inch exhaust with a cat and muffler and actually passed the local E-check when we still had it. It was a fun car in a straight line and had a good WTF factor with having a cage, a cowl hood etc. Unfortunately actually driving it for any amount of time was terrible. Manual steering that sucked, brakes that sucked,
(ford aerostar rotors and calipers), in the summer it was an oven, and at the end of the day it was still a chevette.
This one is for Geordie!
It’s cool, but I am not sure if it’s $3500 cool.
Cool! That\’s my almost ride. There\’s no such thing as bad publicity. I\’m just excited one of my toys made the annals of bangshift.com