I caught a glimpse of this red hot 1966 Ford Mustang on display at the Wilwood Brakes booth at SEMA 2014. As you can tell, this pony car is healthy as a horse!
This car has been completely transformed from a regular passenger car to a street machine. It was a contestant in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational, which took place alongside SEMA 2014 in Las Vegas.
When it comes to muscle cars, swapping out the engine is a great way to get more power. But you won’t find a 350, 383, or even a 454 cubic inch engine under the hood of this 1970 Chevelle. That’s because it’s powered by a 6.6L (403 cid) Chevrolet Duramax engine. That’s right, a diesel-powered muscle car!
As if that weren’t wild enough, the car also sports a custom twin turbo setup with two Garrett T-38R turbos pushing 30lbs of boost into the motor. Altogether, this little Chevelle makes 950 HP and 1,800 lb-ft of torque!
When you take an ordinary car and do an engine swap, it transforms the car into something cool. When you take a car that’s already cool and do an engine swap, that makes it badass!
At SEMA 2014, I saw this Chrysler Conquest TSI lined up for the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. It belongs to John Lazorack of Lazorack Motorsports. As you can tell, this is no ordinary Conquest – this one is powered by an LS1 engine from a 2002 Corvette!
In the world of motorsports, the Nissan 240SX is the poster child of drifting. These cars are often modified to slide sideways and generate as much tire smoke as possible – a juvenile use of a car when compared to precision automotive events like autocross, drag racing, and rally racing.
This car, however, is not guilty by association. It is tasteful in appearance, with nary an anodized tow hook or band-aid sticker to be seen. This is not some teenager’s ironic drift machine – this is a serious street car that competed in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge in Las Vegas in 2014.
We continue our series of engine swapped cars with this 1958 Ford Fairlane. This is a real classic cruiser from the era of whitewall tires and acres of chrome trim. I don’t know what the story was on the original motor, if it was underpowered or just not worth the cost to rebuild.
In either case, this car has been swapped to a 5.0L Ford small block from a Fox-body Mustang! It makes me wonder if this car was restored sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s. Based on this engine, I would guess the car was done before 2005 when the S197 platform made its debut. I particularly like the black painted intake manifold. Continue reading
Yesterday’s post featured a Nissan 280ZX with a Chevrolet LS1 motor. If you take that same concept and turn back the clock, you would have this car: a Datsun 240Z with a small block Chevrolet engine.
I crossed paths with this car at a show in Scottsdale. Unfortunately I did not get to meet the owner, so I don’t have too many details about the vehicle.
