With the season essentially completely behind us Meguair’s Canada, Race Day Media, and Six Feat Media have decided that now is the perfect time to drop two different takes on this years Importfest.
Yes for those of us about to face a long winter this Thursday throwback may be a little torturous but think of all the wrench time coming up…. if you are lucky enough to have the space and a daily that is.
Enjoy!
Yesterday a friend of mine shared a photo of three piece converted factory e30 bottle cap wheels that quite frankly looked damn good.
This was not the first set of wheels I had seen this done too –that honor goes to the ATS Barock wheels later in this post– but it was the first time I had seen it done to a wheel that I previously despised.
To quote the same friend “It’s ridiculous the difference removing a lip and replacing it with a step lip and bolts makes”.
Due to the precision needed to do such conversions there are not a whole lot of these wheels in existence but that’s what makes them pretty unique and interesting.
Below are some of my favorites, oddly enough couldn’t find mounted shots of all of them but perhaps that is where you guys can help out.
As enthusiasts we’ve all got first car memories that we hold dear. Some of us began our journey with unfit vehicles we coaxed into road worthiness with months of tireless work, while others were lucky enough acquire hand me down vehicles that have been in the family since new.
The last scenario describes Guillaume and his GTI, a car that his mother first purchased in 2004.
When it came time for him to drive home his first car he side stepped used car dealerships and their unethical, slick talking, salespeople and purchased an auto mobile whose history was not a mystery to him from the very person that brought him into this world.
For two years Guillaume managed to keep the car stock while he used it as a daily driver, that was until he purchased the first suspension set-up for the car and things predictably escalated from that point forward.
Guilliame’s mother did an excellent job of keeping the car in great shape which translates into the car looking much younger than the 235,000km the odometer reads. Not wanting to disturb the unmolested factory paint Guillaume kept the exterior modifications minimal and OEM plus.
Twentieth anniversary headlights replaced the standard ones the car was fitted with and a matching twentieth anniversary lip package seals the deal. Motor wise OEM wouldn’t do and Guillame spent a little bit more time for a greater return.
A front mount intercooler went behind the bumper and a Forge 3″ inlet was installed a long with a Forge 007 diverter valve and 3″ custom down pipe. Continuing through to the rear bumper is 2.5″ exhaust piping mated to a stainless steel Magnaflow muffler.
Not content with stopping just yet Guillaume upgraded the car to stage 2+ by adding a k04 turbo, Audi TT injectors, and 3 inch MAF. Keeping shifts short and precise is an after market clutch and pressure plate combo matched with a lightweight flywheel and short shifter.
With the Silverstone Grey GTI now significantly more fun to drive Guillaume shifted his attention to suspension of the car. While the motor upgrades made taking the long way around terrible roads more enjoyable Guilliuame was eventually lured away from the static life by the versatility of air suspension.
This year he took the plunge and made the switch to an Air Lift Performance suspension set-up.
Now he can ride at the height he rocked when he was on coil-overs, and park a heck of a lot lower.
Filling the fenders at 0psi and above are step lipped 17×8.5/9.5 JLine SDMs12 wheels that are finished in gold chrome.
A built not bought project Guilliaume admits that this car has pretty well taken all the money out of his wallet but quite frankly he wouldn’t have it anyway.
In the owners own words this car is his true passion and he doesn’t plan on getting rid of it any time soon.
A few months ago it occurred to me that Viper V10s have been somewhat rapidly departing their homes for greener pastures.
I always assumed the motor was fairly expensive (given the sticker on the car) but if you factor in how many have probably been wrecked between 1992 to today you’ve got to imagine there’s a decent amount of these motors floating around at reasonable prices.
Today’s WTF Friday is a list of ten Viper 10 swaps that stood out among what turned out to be quite a few.
This particular one is pretty old, and I’m sure most of you have seen it before, but it’s a good starting point as on the ridiculousness scale it fairly low. A little weird at first glance it seems this swap might actually be almost common as it’s been done at least a couple of times.
I’ve never really felt much of a pull towards Wranglers before but given one of these I could be persuaded.
This is a bit of a frustrating vehicle to include because while it is awesome, I can’t find much of any information about it. These same few pictures resurface about every eight months and seemingly not much else.
Frustration aside I couldn’t leave it out and chances are I might be lucky and someone knows where it is at.
This SAAB 9-3 took the internet by storm when it was completed in 2011 and for damn good reason, it’s probably one of the best looking cars on this entire list. It also has a lengthy build thread with lots of photos that is pretty mind blowing.
Those crazy Swedes are always up to something and I could probably dedicate a post solely to the crazy rides coming out of Sweden.
For how unappealing the PT Cruiser is to most of the enthusiast community there’s a small (minuscule?) group of people determined to bring some respect to the chassis, case in point swaps like this.
This particular one was built thirteen years ago and since then it’s been sold a number of times since and is now most likely now collecting dust in some rich curmudgeons garage.
To say a Viper v10 powered motorcycle is excessive would be quite the understatement, Dodge’s Tomawhak did little more than parade around for a brief period before vanishing into obscurity and the same could probably be said for this bike built by Tony Reynolds.
Starting as a nearly equally terrifying Boss Hoss zz4 ( motorcycles powered by small block Chevrolet motors) this bike was extensively retooled to fit the Viper V10 and looks significantly more motorcycle like than the Tomahawk.
Did anyone really ride the things? Probably not but they look cool.
This swap sort of makes sense seeing that Jaguar motors are fairly temperamental and their engine bays are quite long.
If you want to hoon like a sir this would also be a great starting point.
If a Jaguar is not classy enough for you how about a Rolls Royce? This is the only car on today’s list that I’ve actually seen in person and it looked great sitting on the Detroit Autorama floor.
The Michigan based shop that built the car managed to give it all the bells and whistles of a modern luxury car (A/C and heat among other things) making it a comfortable driver for the owner who wanted a unique resto-rod.
Not a ton of information on this car on line but It looks pretty cool and if you understand German(?) I am sure you could pull some info out of the videos below.
Should the Jar or Rolls not be regal enough for you how about a ’26 Packard? More info about the car is here and surprisingly it’s still (mostly) a Packard frame under there.
Seeing as how it was up for auction a few years ago one can only assume it’s fate is similar to the PT Cruiser above.
That or Jay Leno’s got it.
Figures the year after my first visit to SEMA this ’44 Mack Fire truck would show up. While it might not be the fastest vehicle in this list it’s perhaps the most unique and it sits nice and low which is a plus around here.
It also does a damn good burnout.
I’m already about half way through a sequel to this post (which includes a local build) so if it was up your alley just wait a few months for the second!
I’m sure many of you have seen these photos already but I am going to post them here anyway because I am that pumped on the idea of a bagged, LS powered, s14 drift car.
While visiting the Air Lift factory back in March I had the opportunity to take a look at an early production version of their Nissan s14 kit and at the time they didn’t say much either way about whether or not it would be released officially.
About a month or so ago the kit was in fact released and expectedly people were split on the idea of an air ride suspension system for a platform that is probably most notably known for it’s drift capability.
The thing that people often forget is that the Performance in ‘Air Lift Performance’ is not a marketing gimmick.
They firmly stand behind the fact that their current line of products are fit for the street, track, and show and AB Motoring has decided to put the work of the Air Lift R&D department to test on the S14 below.
Not just a pretty face the car was recently given a proper shakedown at Risky Devil Drift day where (based on the photo below) it looks to have performed admirably.
Hopefully the driver will toss up some video of the car being abused on the track and share a few words on just how well it did.
If I find any more photos or info on the car I will be sure to post them up as well. Really excited to see the progression of air in track applications.
Photo Credit:
Last week I said that this weeks Theme Tuesday would be something normal and after getting about half way through a more standard chassis I got a little distracted and well… here is a Chevrolet Corvair Theme Tuesday instead.
Dubbed ‘unsafe at any speed’ due to it’s swing arm rear suspension (and it’s tendency to be a bit wacky while cornering) the Corvair is a bit of a love/hate car among enthusiasts. Like any ‘misfit’ vehicle however the Corvair has a dedicated following from Motorsports nuts all the way to the wire and flaked paint crowd.
Today I’ve tried to cover all the bases of Corvair modification though I didn’t look for any off-road ones…
This Courier ended up on my screen a couple months ago while gathering photos for a Theme Tuesday and quite honestly blew me away.
I’m not sure I have ever seen a Courier before (stock or otherwise) so happening across this was pretty rad, more rad is the fact that it is an Ontario build.
It’s always nice to stumble upon photos of an unfamiliar build from Ontario because it means that I’m no where near the end of amazing builds this province (or even just the GTA) has to offer.
Additionally the truck was shot by a local photographer who’s work is pretty awesome and worth checking out.
In the description of these photos Josh explains that the truck belongs his friend Dennis who built it at home in his garage and in 2012 Dennis drove the blue, blue oval from Ontario to Ohio to take home the “No Shine” award at Dropt & Destroyed in 2012.
Hopefully this truck is still around because I wouldn’t mind seeing it in person some day.
The complete set of photos is here.
Photo Credit: Josh Crump.
It’s been some time since a craigslist find was the focal point of a WTF Friday post so this week I’ve got one wicked creation from the mean streets of El Paso.
Like most other odd, black, vehicular creations listed Craigslist (or Kijiji for that matter) this vehicle is touted as a custom built ‘rat rod’ by it’s owner.
With no mention (or indicative signs) of the original chassis, what this started as is really anyone’s best guess but now it is a curiously styled ‘heavy-duty’ daily driver with at least 15,000 invested says the owner in the description below:
Completely custom built 2-seat hot rod. 38,000 miles. All street legal and has been used as a daily driver since 2006. Overbuilt and heavy-duty. Powered by a small-block 377 Chevy (destroked 400) and 700R4 transmission. Rear radiator. Three Optima batteries and two alternators. All-steel, all-welded construction is extremely rigid. Fun to drive. I have most receipts (at least $15,000 in this car) and a clear title.
As a bonus this beast comes with a second set of tires fit for roasting into the earth in a quiet stretch of road somewhere.
Should you want to purchase this piece of machinery it is currently listed on craigslist for reduced price of $3,500.
If you do go take a look could you figure out why on earth it needs three batteries and two alternators? Yes of all the weird aspects of this build that is the one I am going to dwell on.
There may or may not be a show at a strip club on Sunday. I’m not sure exactly and no one seems to be offering up any real information other than the questionable flyer below:
Same guys putting it on are behind the video below which honestly turned out the best it could all things considered.
I was recently reminded how awesome the blog Low-Tech which in turn reminded me of this awesome Nash:
Really can’t be happier with my first trip to H2O and I’m glad to have finally gone. Thanks to Blair and Kristina for guiding the way and Shayan for riding shotgun and preventing me from dozing off and ending up shiny side down in a ditch.
Going to round out the last of the coverage with a few photos from the Taphouse and a couple shots of cars that were running up and down the strip. Hopefully I’ll be saying to hello to Ocean City once more in 2014!
At first pass a few of you are going to think I am off my rocker –which I might be– for posting 70s Street Machines in the Theme Tuesday category and not the WTF Friday one but, in my opinion 70s Street Machines and today’s aggressive fitment scene are really not that different from one another.
Swap BBS wheels (or your 3 piece of choice) for Cragars (or you slotted mag of choice), coils for shackles, stretched tires for the widest tires possible, wild vinyl wraps for wild custom paint, and it’s tomato, tomato.
Also like aggressive fitment it is/was a style employed on nearly every type of vehicle in existence with no doubt more than a few naysayers ready to point fingers and make “you’ve ruined that car” accusations.
If this type of stuff is your thing check out 70s Street Machines on Tumblr. If it’s not I’ll be back with something ‘normal’ next week.
