Let’s start this Question of the Day off with a confession: by the time you read this, I’ll probably be in the doghouse. Why? Because I have a confession: I am not a huge fan of my wife’s daily driver. She has a Chevrolet Silverado Super Sport in black. Pretty truck, but I’m not sold on it. Most of my feelings stem from my overall dislike of the GMT800 platform. Maybe I was expecting more from the 6.0L under the hood. Maybe I was expecting stronger acceleration from an all-wheel-drive truck. Maybe I’m still allergic to early 2000’s GM interior plastics. Whatever the case, she’s in absolute love with her machine and I can’t knock that. But I can knock the one seriously unforgivable part of her truck. It’s an extended cab, with the suicide rear doors, and after well over a hundred thousand miles, they rattle and let in enough wind noise to deafen you. That’s why I drive it only when I need a truck, or when it makes more sense to take it instead of the Angry Grandpa Chrysler somewhere.
The phantom build…gearhead imagination, brought to live via sheetmetal. It’s the ultimate kind of “what-if?” and we’ve seen some excellent forms: a phantom 1965 “DeSoto Conquest” built out of a Chrysler, a Buick Grand National station wagon, and the Oldsmobile 442 ute conversion, for examples. You don’t even have to get too in-depth with a build to have a little fun. Like I said earlier…it is a pretty truck. But we’ve talked about the need for a sports-utility vehicle for a bit, and we simply don’t do boring, soccer mom cars. Jalopnik ran this 2003 Chevrolet Suburban as one of their “Nice Price or Crack Pipe?” features a bit ago, and while we aren’t going to be in the market for a monster mover anytime soon, the theme of the build is what caught me. Chevrolet never offered a Tahoe or Suburban Super Sport model, but there’s plenty of parts in the aftermarket that it would be fairly straightforward to create one. One reader even ran up a rough cost of parts to properly duplicate the build, which puts it at around $12,000 for everything (though that might be a little bit off for paint).
Visually, the look would be on-par. Now, just because I’m a little mental, let’s look to a Duramax swap and a little bit of lowering. See the vision yet?
What about you, reader? What would you put together right now, if cash and talent weren’t an issue?
Put a turbocharged ls in a Pontiac Solstice GXP hardtop to make a modern day Bill Thomas Cheetah!
My ’70 Morgan +8 ex-endurance racer with aluminum 400cid 650hp SBC, lighter than original drive train. Only tell is the exhaust note! 0-60 3.2 sec, stops and turns better than it accelerates.
I recently found out that recent Maserati V8s are going for $2000-3000 on eBay in good working order. How about building what the Chrysler TC by Maserati looked like in an alternate universe, with V8 power driving the rear wheels?
Another what-if: I’ve thought that the Buick Reatta should have been mid engined. With a Getrag manual transmission. And the supercharged L67 instead of naturally aspirated.
1957-1958 Plymouth Fury Convert. No such thing in real life. All 57/58 Fury models were 2 door hard top ONLY. You cold special order the Fury v-800 engine in any model, but you couldn’t get the Fury trim, interior, or suspension.
Along those lines, it would be cool to see a same year Fury 2 door wagon. They made 2 door wagons, but again not in Fury spec.
I would like to do a 1966 SS396 Chevelle 4 door! Marina blue with bright blue interior. Only difference would be a 5 speed instead of 4 speed.
That same generation Suburban but a 2500 with the 8.1L and Quadrasteer. I don’t think you could get those two together though you could get either on their own. I’d also want a 9pass leather interior with no sunroof please.
My other is a 2003 Jaguar Super V8 (long wheelbase variant of the XJR with the Vanden Plas interior) with the 2003 S-type R’s 4.2L supercharged V8 vs. the stock 4.0L supercharged V8.
Hemi Powered 1970 Plymouth Fury Sport Suburban
Woody Trim, Hide-Away headlights, Bucket seats , with the Pistol Grip Shifter
I love shooting brakes. So I would take a 99 Subaru Impreza WRX stationwagon, fit the longer doors from the 2-door coupe of the same model, weld in the rear doors, shift B-pillar backward and then fill it with stripped out but trimmed interior similar to what you get with a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
Though to be honest, this recipe would work with anything that has a coupe and station wagon variant
1971 Polara R/T. Make it a four door hard top in triple black, with the buckets and console. Or, a 69 Coronet GT. 340 auto, Rally dash, console and buckets in a B5 blue 4 door with white interior and a black vinyl roof.
426 G2 Hemi Jensen Interceptor II. They came close to it, but never made it into production.