It wasn’t that long ago that I featured another Porsche with a Subaru engine swap, but while the titles may seem similar at first glance, they are two completely different cars. Here we have a Porsche 914 with a Subuaru WRX engine swap, and while that might seem interesting enough on it’s own, this car is about much more than the motor that powers it. Dana, the very talented man behind the build, has had is paws on every part of the car, creating removable tube frame front and rear sections that can be quickly detached from the tub via a trick coupler system, enabling the car to be split into 3 pieces at will. Be sure to check it out in detail.
Tag: fabrication
Fabrication 101: CBR600
When someone emails me and tells me they learnt their skills working at NASA as a machinist and composite fabrication tech, you can bet your torque wrench that I’m gonna sit up and take notice. Not only has Chris used aerospace grade aluminium and carbon fiber on this highly customised CBR, but he also puts his talents to good use making non motor-powered parts, namely knives.
Click here for more bike builds.
UPDATE – MK2 Golf Mid-Engine RWD
I love posting updates to previously featured projects, but it’s always a bittersweet moment as it usually means there’ll be no more progress pictures to enjoy. But hey, cars are built to be driven and bikes are built to be ridden, so we should rejoice when a build reaches it’s final destination. I posted this mid-engine converted MK2 Golf way back in June 2009, and it’s been one of the most popular cars I’ve ever put on the site, I always see links in my stats to this build popping up on forums regularly. Well, just this week a video was posted of the wide-body creating roaring into life, so it’s time to reacquaint yourself with this incredible home-built ride and see how much work has been carried out over the past few years.
The Adventures of Mystery Machine
Earlier this year I made two consecutive posts about the automotive exploits of one Retro Rides member by the name of Bruce (aka Mystery Machine), a person who truly understands the appeal of a good build thread. Bruce not only built a very cool MX5 along with a number of other awesome rides, but he also spearheads and bankrolls a communal garage space known as Area52. You should already know what type of guy he is (a die-hard car nut), so it’s no surprise to learn his hands have been less than idle since the last time he graced these pages. I thought I’d do a little ‘catch up’ piece on his latest projects (a Land Rover and a Lotus, can’t get more variance than that!), since I’m enjoying reading them so much myself, it’s only fair to share it with all of you…
Batmobile…nuff said.
If you have a pulse, then there’s a good chance you wanted to drive a Batmobile at some stage in your life, and probably still do. The only variable is which Batmobile you prefer, depending on your age. Hell, I still vividly remember the glow-in-the-dark Batman poster I used to have hanging in my room as a kid. Well, some people out there take this desire a step further and actually go out and build one, just like Tim here, who planned his own Batmobile replica for 10 long years before starting on the actual build. The fiberglass body sits atop a stretched Chevy Caprice donor chassis, plus plenty of trick fabrication going on to make this dream a detailed reality, not to mention the Blackberry controlled mechanics!
Thanks to Dave from StanceIsEverything for submitting. I’ve also featured a link to a more modern Batmobile build, click here to read about it.
E46 M3 Road-to-Race
How many times have you caught yourself daydreaming about turning your road-going pride and joy into an all-out race car? A stripped interior, beefy roll cage, some fixed bucket seats, sticky rubber, top of the line suspension, and of course some engine upgrades to round it off…sound accurate? Come and take a look as a lucky E46 M3 road car gets the race car make over we all desire.
Thanks to Jaime for submitting.
Baja 1000 Subaru WRX
Who’s up for some hot ‘n’ heavy fabrication action? Geoff emailed me a link to a Subaru Impreza being transformed into an off-road racer capable of completing the Baja 1000. The build isn’t even finished yet but it still commands a feature simply for the quantity of work being applied to it. The amount of raw metal being manipulated reminds me of another fabricators dream that I featured in the past, Desert Racer Fabrication.
If welding and fabrication is your thing, hit up the Fabrication tag for more features that are sure to be up your tig’d and bead-rolled alley.
’72 Chevrolet Crew-Cab Pickup
Every few days I’ll get a build submission emailed to me, sometimes they’re great, sometimes not so great. But this particular submission – apart from being a great build – interested me for a different reason, it took me back to when I launched this blog back in February of 2009 (3 years strong!). That’s because this build is hosted on the same forum as the ’69 Chevy Tahoe that was a part of the first handful of posts I ever made. What we have here is a custom built 1972 Chevy crew-cab pickup. Since Chevrolet never built a crew-cab in this model, the owner has constructed his own version by splicing a pickup with a Suburban and resting the whole thing on an aired-out 2002 Silverado chassis. Peep below to dive into the very detailed 100+ page thread.
BMW E30 V8 $2010 Challenge
What better way to kick off the new year than with one of the most popular platforms in the word for modifying, the BMW E30. This E30, concocted by the team at Vorshlag, was built to compete in the Grassroots Motorsports $2010 Challenge, and then went on to win the $2012 event the following year. Watch as it goes through three engine swaps and two paint-schemes, all while being cleverly modified by the Vorshlag team to be competitive while keeping under the budget limit.
Custom CNC-built bike
So, I heard you like CNC machined parts? Check out the astonishing amount of work being poured into this 1-off bike by Shaun Wainford, the man behind SW Engineering. Having a CAD/CNC setup in your home would deinitely come in handy for hobbies like ours, and Shaun definitely makes full use of the tools on offer.
Thanks to Matt for submitting.