Unusual project car ideas

I like muscle cars, unfortunately, so do a lot of other people and the price reflects that.  As a fun mental exercise, I have thought of some unusual project car ideas that would be fun, and at least the vehicle purchase would be less expensive.

I know you can still get a 5.0 Mustang GT for a reasonable price, but I was thinking of some vehicles that are didn’t start life as a muscle car.

The mid to late 70’s cars can often be had cheaply since most of them are not popular with collectors.  Plus they often had big block V8s in them.  Granted, they were smog motors with low power, but at least the engine will fit.  And with some parts swapping, you can get good performance for a low price.

Another option would be the 80’s GM intermediates, the G bodies.  Such as the Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Regal and Cutlass (which ever semi-random name meant the RWD one that year). These cars are starting to become more popular, so they aren’t really unusual, but still idfferent than the average 60’s/early 70’s muscle car.

Some other ideas I have had would be a first generation Dodge Dakota with a V8 swapped in.  I know a small block will fit, since there was a Shelby version with a 318 offered.  They are not as common as the Chevy S10 and Ford Ranger swaps, which makes them a little more off the beaten path, but still pretty easy to do.

To venture further off the beaten path, have a look at the humble mini-van.  Not a performance vehicle by any stretch, and most of them have little to no performance potential past what they already have.  But for a few years, Chrysler sold mini-vans with the 2.5 turbo engine, and a 5 speed manual.  With some fairly easy mods you can get these in the low 13s or high 12s in the quarter mile.  There is a lot of info out there on making turbo Mopars go faster, and most of it is fairly low tech.  More boost and fuel and hang on.

I also read somewhere that swapping in the K member and front suspension from a Dodge Diplomat into a mini-van is possible as well.  And since the Chrysler mini-vans have solid rear axles, it would just take some floor modifications to make it rear wheel drive with a V8.

Another RWD/V8 conversion I think would be fun would be a Dodge Intrepid, or any of the other LH cars.  They were initially designed to be able to be FWD, RWD or AWD even though only FWD versions were produced.  The engine is already mounted longitudinally, and the exhause runs down a tunnel that looks like it could be used for a drive shaft with little work.  A nice big comfy car with a V8 rumble.

The one drawback to most of these ideas, they just aren’t cool old cars.  They would be fun, but I wouldn’t be able to walk out into the driveway and look at the car and say, cool, that is mine.

But it could be a fun way to get my girls working on cars with me, and that would be even more fun.


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