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.
Category: Build Threads
Performance Imports Best Blogs 2011
The latest issue of Aussie mag Performance Imports features a list of their choice of the 30 best automotive blogs and websites (which pretty much resembles my bookmarks folder). I was very excited to see my own humble site sitting proudly at No 17…
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.
Saab 96/9-3
It’s time for another chassis-swap build, and this time the donor car and recipient are both Saabs. The builders are combining the classic shell of a Saab 96 with the modern underpinnings of a Saab 9-3, with the goal of creating a little unassuming Swedish track tearer.
Thanks to James from Car Throttle for submitting.
Update: This build is now complete, I have added new images and links at the bottom of the post.
FMU BMW X5
Confession: I’ve had a long-running man-crush on Fluid Motor Union ever since I first stumbled across their posts on the StanceWorks forums. Their famous flame-spitting Gallardo image is my Ps3 wallpaper, every day I look forward to their in-depth posts about the latest goings-on at the shop, and I constantly day-dream of sending my Datto over to the land of 1-gallon soda cups for a bespoke one-off FMU exhaust system. Not only do they do some of the cleanest and most impressive fabrication work I’ve seen, but they take the time to document their daily activities on their own blog and various forums, so people like you and me can enjoy gawking at glorious TIG beads from our computer screens all over the world.
Recently the team embarked on giving a damaged BMW X5 a new lease on life, but kept a lot of the progress shrouded in secrecy, until now…
Aqua S13 restomod
It feels slightly strange using the word “restomod” to describe the build of a car that originally rolled off the production line in the 90’s, but that’s exactly what this is. Levan carefully chose a clean ’92 240sx as his project base, then set about to restore what Nissan got right while updating and modifying the areas deemed in need of improvement. The restoration portion includes such factory fresh parts as a brand new OEM sunroof and fuel tank, along with countless trims, clips and rubbers. The modifications? Just check out that gorgeous paint and the flawless 18″ Work Meisters, not to mention the fully built and turbo assisted KA24. From top to bottom (literally), this is one very clean and well thought-out car.
More S13 builds can be found here.
Eleanor
Is there any other car that can be so easily and instantly identified by it’s nickname? We’ve all seen the movie and felt the urge to step into the screen and drive that fastback right out of the cinema parking lot, but for most of us the dream ended when the credits rolled. Most of us. For one Eleanor fan over in NY, simply dreaming wasn’t enough, so he sold his ’03 Cobra to fund the purchase of a ’67 Mustang and set about creating the most accurate representation of the famous fastback that he possibly could. What stands out about this particular replica is the attention to even the smallest details that are usually left out by most who attempt it.
Thanks to Christian for submitting.
Porsche 935 K3
You have a unique Porsche 935 that you’ve already built up to RSR wide-body spec and it’s twin-turbo motor is needing a re-tune. What do you do? Do you a) simply re-tune the motor as planned, or b) simply re-tune the motor as planned and install an even wider race-spec K3 bodykit, individual throttle bodies, lexan windows, carbon doors, full cage, and new suspension? If you chose a), please turn off your computer now.
Thanks to Dennis for submitting.
Kaiser Drag’n Build – COMPLETE
Back in March 2010 I participated in my first run of guest-posts for Build Month on Speedhunters. One of the cars I chose to highlight was a 1951 Kaiser Manhattan dropped over an aired-out ’95 Caprice chassis. You can read the original post here. Earlier this year I did a follow-up post, showcasing some updates on the now blue sled, click here to read. Well, the final chapter of the build is finally here, the Kaiser is complete and it looks fantastic. Check out a few new images below and re-aquaint yourself with the build thread, it’s 54 pages long and full of quality. Thanks to Geoff for the heads up.
Jeep Buggy Racer
On Friday, a reader by the name of Brad made a request on the Build-Threads Facebook page for a Jeep build. Not wanting to disappoint, I headed to my submissions list and fished out some Jeep links from long-time submitter, Cereal. This particular Jeep starts out with little more than a cab and a grille, which the owner then custom fabricates everything around until a completely custom race-spec buggy is born. What I love about this build is the pure strength and size of the parts used and fabrication techniques that go with them, everything is built to take extreme punishment, including the beefiest skid-plate I’ve ever seen!