Porsche 911 V8 RSR

You have to give it to Hal, he sure is sticking it to the man! Not only does he shove a V8 into the rear of his Porsche, he actually cuts up his own fenders and fits his own wide body kit without having to fly someone half way around the world to do it for him. But in all seriousness, this is a great looking car with an engine that many won’t approve of, but makes a lot of sense if you want some affordable and reliable power in your P-car. Purists look away now.

Click here for more Porsche builds.

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A Tale of Three Lotii

Colin Chapman, James Bond, Formula 1, Pretty Woman. These are some of things that you might associate with the word “Lotus”. But what about air ride, engine swaps, wide wheels and interior re-trims? I’ve mentioned before how much I love seeing once pampered classics being torn down and fettled with as they become more affordable, and these three examples truly embody the guiltless “modify everything regardless of the badge” train of thought. You might not agree with some of the styles of modification, but I’m not here to convince you one way or another, I just like seeing people modify cars, especially cars that are rarely messed with.

All three builds reside together on the Retro Rides forums, and whilst enjoying their threads individually, I thought they’d make a great combined post to showcase how these vintage British sports cars are being re-imagined by the DIY crowd. I’ve added some captions to the images to make it easier to follow, I hope you enjoy.

Want to read more “A tale of …” posts featuring multiple cars? Click here.

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RAMPAGE – 2nd Gen Camaro

Have you heard of the Rampage Camaro? Of course you have, it was arguably the biggest hit of SEMA 2014; a second generation Camaro with a full slathering of motorsport technology and fabrication bestowed onto it by the wizards at Roadster Shop. And what’s better than seeing pictures of a glossy finished car shining under stadium lights? Pictures of that same car in bare metal with little to no panels bolted to it! I actually found this build through another featured build. I was browsing for updates on the red MKII Supra (whose owner works at Roadster Shop), when I saw him post a link to this build within his own thread. See, it always pays to look through the archives, you never know what you’ll find! I honestly had a lot of trouble figuring out which pictures to use for this post, as I found myself wanting to save pretty much every damn image from the thread, so I hope you enjoy the visual banquet that is this build as much as I did. It might not be achievable for most of us, but it’s nice to dream and peek into the upper echelon of car building once in a while. Who knows, you might find an idea or two for your own build?

Click here for more Roadster Shop builds (there are four so far including this one).

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Project Thunderbolt LS3 Miata [video build]

If you’ve been following my “What I’m Watching” series, you would have seen me post about Tom’s Turbo Garage on more than one occasion, including this very project I’m about to share with you again. What can I say? I love Tom’s work, his videos are enjoyable, informative, and funny, not to mention he’s great at wrenching on a plethora of projects in his amazing home garage. His latest project, Project Thunderbolt, sees him installing an LS3 V8 into an NB Mazda Miata/Mx5. Even though I’ve posted about this before, I wanted to do a proper on-going entry about this car, where I’ll edit and post new videos as they’re released, much like Project Binky (which I’m gagging for an update on!) Tom is releasing new videos every two weeks, so you don’t have to wait very long to get your fill.

Check out V8Mazda.com for more information about the project.

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Ferrari F40 LM Restoration Part 5

We’re pretty much at the business-end of the F40 LM restoration now. The body is buttoned up, fuel is flowing through the lines, and the turbos are spooling. Click below to see it take shape, including a couple of videos and a sneak peek at an EVO Magazine photoshoot. We are now up to date with the actual build thread on Ferrari Chat. At a guess I’d say updates from here on out will be evolution of the car in it’s final state, but I’ll be sure to make another post when the updates add up.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their clicks, comments and support during 2014 and hope you’ll stick around for yet another year of Build Threads 🙂

Previous F40 LM posts:

Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4

Or, click here for the build index.

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’95 Mustang OCD Machine

There’s a twisted tale that goes along with the feature of this car. Dan, the owner, bought a Build Threads sticker pack when I was offering sketches with every order (NLA!). Once I found his car online to use as a reference for the sketch, I really liked what I saw and thought everyone else would, too. It was only after clicking through a few pages that I realised I had actually shared pictures of his oval-exhaust build technique on the Build Threads Discussion Group earlier in the year. Funny how things work. The journey of this thread begins with a car that’s already been deemed magazine-worthy, but that doesn’t stop Dan from continuing development on the ‘stang. The big-on-detail thread begins with an IRS swap and fitment of a pro-charger, then continues along with airride, oval exhaust with cutouts, sound system, interior, and much more. It’s far from over, so be sure to add it to your bookmarks and check up on the sharply photographed progress in the future.

Click here for more Mustang builds. The red paint and modification style also reminds me of this build.

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J-ROD ’67 Chevy Nova

Every time I hear “Chevy Nova”, all I can think of is “I remember you used to drive that crappy blue Chevy Nova. What are you driving now?”…”Same crappy blue Chevy Nova”. Now, if you’re a bit younger than me, you might need to look that one up! The Nova in this feature is not blue, and DEFINITELY not crappy. What it is, is a high calibre pro-touring build that started out as a quick re-paint, but quickly snowballed into a full SEMA award winning build.

Thanks to Kelly for submitting. Click here for more Pro Touring builds.

P.S. Thank you to all those who replied to my question in the previous post, I was overwhelmed with the amount of response and pleased to know that the site-hosted builds are appreciated.

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Ferrari F40 LM Restoration Part 4

Part 4 of the drool-enducing F40 LM restoration is here, and we are so, so close to seeing it that sweet twin turbo V8 being brought to life. I’m trying to update this thread more regularly than I used to, so hopefully I can get part 5 done in the not too distant future.

Click here for the build index to access all of the posts in the series so far.

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1976 International Scout Traveler

Even though I’m not into off-roading myself, I really enjoy reading builds from this dirt-loving subculture. Reason being is that I get to see the same metal-working techniques being implemented for a different purpose, it’s just interesting to see the similarities and differences. High instead of low, mud instead of asphalt, dirt instead of shine, but at the end of the day we are all modifying our vehicles so we can enjoy them beyond the expectations the manufacturer had in mind for them. This particular build is a 1976 Scout Traveler, a vehicle made by International, and it’s being built to a very high standard for the purpose of long and remote hunting trips in the countryside.

Thanks to Jess for submitting. Click here for more off-road builds.

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