Most people strive to not be a problem to others in their day to day lives. Regardless of what they might say, they don’t want trouble, they don’t want conflict. They just want to enjoy their time and let others be…and that’s a good thing. The Golden Rule is always a proper way to live your life. But here’s a secret: most of you secretly love it when you infuriate the hell out of someone. You like the reaction. You love the facial expressions, the stammering, quickly angering sentences that come flying out of their mouth. You love the gesturing, the face-palming, and the bewilderment. Case in point: LS Fest. Each year I seek out the swapped vehicles that you normally wouldn’t expect to see. I’m not looking for the legions of Fox bodies or Nissan S-chassis cars that are sporting GM’s wonder mill. I’m looking for that 2006 Charger, that Nissan Sentra, that Mercury Cougar that I still get hate messages about four years after that story debuted.
Now, before someone threatens to draw and quarter me using a 5.0 GT and a S15 Silvia, here’s some reasoning: I don’t want to see cars that are just hacked together because “the hell with it”. I want to see an honest-to-God build. I want to see someone who actually took the time to make things work, to sort out the whole car properly instead of just “ENGINE MAKE CAR DRIVE GOODER”. I want to see a car so well-done that even the haters have to begrudgingly admit that it’s not the worst thing on the world…even if they are grinding their teeth hard enough to crack the enamel when they say it.
Honestly, I can’t think of a better example than this R34 Skyline sedan. What was a left-for-dead shell is now an four-door Skyline that has the GT-R look and a small-block Chevrolet that is sporting a single turbo and a carburetor. Hood closed and engine off, it looks like a JDM fanboy’s dream. Close your eyes and hit play and it sounds like a killer third-gen Camaro ripping through the gears. Open your eyes, see what’s going on, and you’ll either nod your head in appreciation or puke.
What would your build be?
Find a 90s two door Rolls-Royce BEATER . Gut it and install a Race Chassie legal roll cage.Drop in a FULL RACE JOHN KAASE Supercharged FORD and drive line that will run 6s in TOP SPORTSMAN .
‘69 Camaro built pro touring style with all the latest goodies and a SBF. License plate would read LSNONE
hey McT, great question. I inadvertently have built a car that that’s a a total love or hate mobile.Bought as a mostly stock MGB with a sbc/4-speed combo (show car pretty) it became apparent even with 300ish HP it was a bad idea (doors wouldn’t open after spirited driving, rear suspension points moving, etc.). Fixed that, got hit and run, chopped the front off to fix that.Now a custom frame, suspension, 500hp sbc little beast it’s great fun.Here in Ca. the snowflakes hate it (12 to 1 comp..600″ roller cam, loud and obnoxious. British purists and muscle car people it just befuddles). LOVE IT
A ’63 Sting Ray with a Hellephant…
the absolute second day of the new Bronco release – someone please install a Cummins 4bT with 5 speed do not forget to pull off the top and doors.
Does the windshield fold on the new Bronco ? Anyone know…
Always liked the 70’s Mercedes 280 coupe. I would pro street it with a 632 BBC and a nitrous setup.
I would build a 72 Vette roadster and put a blown 5.2 GT500 engine in it turned up to 11. A belly-button, 69 Camaro with a Kaase 429 or a double throw-down SOHC 427 would do as well. F ’em all…..
Cut up a COPO Camaro go full pro touring and LS or Coyote swap, Any original Hemi car and cut it up and LS swap and just tell people that I had to get rid of all that old \”junk\”
LS engine in a Ford GT
copy anything boyd built
Anything the great mctaggart would build because it would be total garbage
find a 60’s Hemi Mopar, rip out that numbers matching engine, throw in a junkyard 5.3 with an equally junkyard turbo.
I personally dig the looks of a 67′ Nova. It’s on my short list of cars I would like to have. I would enjoy putting a 300 cu in Six, a tremec and a 9 inch underneath the bone stock sheet metal. My friend has a 60 Falcon wagon that we are putting a Mazda Rotary in. The noise from either should be enough to draw attention!
Forgot in my first comment, just for Geordie–LS (or new LT) EVERYTHING!!
Anything Chevy with a Toyota V8.
For pure trolling, rig up a smoke generator on a Toyota Prius or a Nissan Leaf to see if the bro-dozer crowd would love it or have a coronary.
For something that would need to be an actual, serious, high quality build… take a C5 or C6 Corvette, a prime LSx donor – and power it with a built Honda K series or a peripheral port 13B.
I’d put a draw-through turboed SBC in a genuine Jag E-type, just to offend the technology and brand purists both in one shot.
And if I was going that far, I might as well put a semi modern computer-controlled overdrive automatic behind the motor, just to prove I could’ve done it the right way if I’d’ve cared.
Diabolical.
A Ferrari GTO with an FE Ford 427.
Convertible Hemi Cuda with an Iron Duke and a powerglide
A honest to goodness real 1960s Ford GT40 with a Telsa powertrain. Cause you know the environment and soy and being a cuck.
Take the engine out of a new mid engine vette and install an early 50’s hudson straight six. Then go to vette shows.