A yellow Lamborghini Gallardo. Woo. Look, we wouldn’t shut down the chance to let one of these wedgy Italian jobs feel the wrath of our right foot on the pedal, but overall…we aren’t into exotics. But this particular Lamborghini isn’t going to be “typical” much longer, because a shop in Quebec is preparing to dump the V-10 currently in the car for a quad-rotor. That’s right, a Dorito-powered Lamborghini that Derwin Performance is hoping to make over 600 horsepower with. Jalopnik contacted the shop and asked the same question you all are probably thinking in your heads, and the gist of the build is this: a V-10 shared with an Audi isn’t exotic. A quad-rotor engine…now that’s exotic. Hmm.
That’s one way of thinking. Another is one of the most read stories I’ve ever written, the case of the 1999 Dodge Durango that looked really clean, but was packing a Slant Six that had been liberated from a Plymouth Volaré. The swap looked clean enough, but we had to question the reasons behind going backwards on power in an SUV.
So with that in mind, what are the strangest engine swap choices you’ve ever seen out and about? We aren’t limiting this one at all, either, for the sake of some of the strange homebrew contraptions that are out there. Some “go-karts” pack better engines that your standard Briggs and Stratton mill, you know…
I think the biggest surprise I saw was an older gentleman in Tulsa had build a Fiero with a Northstar V-8 in it. I know there’s several of these running around today, hell somebody might be making a kit for them for all I know, but this one was clean, quick, and looked like a factory job (except for the Supertrap’s).
there are kits for them and lots of swaps have been done. there are even kits for ls swaps, small blocks, 3.8l v6 supercharged, 3.4l dohc, pretty much any gm engine has a kit available to swap in a fiero.
ANY Ford with LS power…..
409 W in a 1965 chevelle.
Recently a Cuda with a Cummins, just not right.
A 8v71 Detroit with a Mil spec Allison auto in a 78 F350 pulling truck. That 871 wound for days!
A flat head ford in a ’67 Camaro.
Big block Mopar in a ’69 Camaro.
Big block Mopar in 65/66 mustang.
318 Mopar in a ’55 buick.
400 Pontiac ina ’57 Plymouth.
Ford flathead in a Nissan 240SX.
LS1 in a Mazda 5 Being done at Sinned Customs !
Unusual engine swap…that also makes sense:
1.6 DOHC / injected Suzuki Swift engine and trans put sideways in back of
an ISETTA.
Car has 14-inch tires all around ….and it is faster than stink.
Car is very yellow…and resides in Lake Havasu, Az with it’s builder.
cant remember where I saw it (maybe here??) but Harley powered Prius…
Oh and while I’ve got your ear…that new show Chad and some other guy is doing is just…no. Blowing shit up for zero reason is stupid enough, but Chad and the other guy hamming it up and poncing around Westech was just cringeworthy. Steve looked soo embarrassed to be in the same room so, kindly stop it now. Dumb premise for a show, executed really badly.
is this something thats only on motortrend on demand or something?
Seen a few over the years. Most of them many years ago when opportunity and need outweighed correctness. 440 six pack sitting in the middle of a +/- ’70 Ford Econoline van. A 400 Pontiac in a 68 Mustang. And an oddball NHRA class racer Corvette with a rally tricked out 300 Ford six
Viper V10 in a 1930s Dodge or Plymouth coupe. Twin turbos on an LA V8 in an 84 D100 pickup. Viper V10 in a 1979 Warlock dressed up like a Little Red Express.
My ’64 Riviera with a Buick Turbo6 in it…
The one that blew me away was a guy that had two Triumphs, a TR4 with a GM 2.8 V6, and a TR3A with a Pontiac 301. I almost cried. They ran but had major redneck engineering and booger welds for days. I mean what kind of lunatic would destroy a Triumph to install a complete boat anchor.
500 CID cadillac into a 53 IH R-100 stepside.
it was CRAZY, had a custom ground compcams
297/.631/110 in it….
i really miss that truck.
The same kind of lunatic who puts an LS into a Ford!
Oh the silly things we did when we were young.
Small block chevy in a Volvo PV544.
A 500 inch Caddy engine in a 68 Buick Cutlass.
Then there was a 750cc Honda in a Harley decker.
A Perkins diesel in 78 Ford F150.
Too bad we were too young to know better, but we had a lot of fun breaking and fixing things anyway!
Knew a guy that put a 440 mopar in a Vega panel wagon. The Ford guys were the only ones who liked it.
Can someone please euthanize that putz Geordie? No one reads your comments, go away and stay away.
304 AMC in a ’63 C10
Flathead in am ’80 Pinto Wagon
500 Caddy in a ’72 Chevelle
LS in ANYTHING is not a surprising engine swap. Hell, any Chevy motor in anything is not a surprising engine swap.
Tuerk’s GT-4586 is pretty crazy…Ferrari 458 V8 into a Toyota 86.
I helped put an Acura 3.2 liter in a 1970 Baja big. Talk about fun!
05 viper engine and trans in a 1975 Plymouth valiant 4 door
Chevy 427 on cut 65 pickup frame, VW Beetle body. SCARY.
Hayabusa into SMART car.
Vmax engine & trans in go-kart. Insane.
2 Kawasaki 750cc triples in VW thing. Rowdy. Sand only.
GSX-R1100 engine/trans in quad ATV – Dune racer.
V-10 Viper engine in Dakota R/T.
Funniest one I ever saw (for reactions) was an original Hondai 500 (first gen Jappa – tiny things) – running a pair of Honda VFR100 motorcycle engines.
At the local drag strip in Auckland, New Zealand (in the days of roll up on car trailers), a full on race transporter fronts up (one of about 3 in the whole pit area) to a test and tune day. Crew immediately erects a tent around the back of the rig, so that the car can be rolled off in secrecy.
Tech inspector gets taken into the tent, comes out laughing fit to burst, but ignoring repeated requests to reveal what is in the tent.
Lanes are filling up, when the tent opens, and there is this tiny little bubble of a car sitting there. Everyone just cracks up. It is almost dwarfed by the ATV they are using to push it into the staging lanes. Come time to light the fire, the thing sounds insane.
Does a half track burnout to the delight of the crowd, then proceeds to rip off a 10 second pass – and is promptly trailered for not having a parachute.
crazyest i have actually ridden in was a 72 amc gremlin with a real 440 sixpack out of a 69 charger i was in high school so that was about 1978 lol