I may be Blaspheming..... But Carroll Shelby did it first!

In 1962 Racer Carroll Shelby took an AC Ace-a cute, lightweight British sports car and stuffed a 260 inch Ford V8 in it, and called it the Cobra. 1963 and later models had 289s. They were super-fast and great handling, and won a ton of races, as well as being legends on the street. In 1965 Shelby and co. built a more muscular body and stuffed a 427 Ford in. The rest is history. You may or may not remember, but a lot of guys-( My own father included ) stuffed 327 Chevys into Austin-Healys. These were dubbed "The Poor Man's Cobra." by the buff magazines of the day. These kinds of swaps can make great low-budget, lightning fast hot rods even today. Here's a list of my favorites-some that I've even owned or helped build. # 1 1970-78 Datsun Z / Chevy V8 conversion. "Z motorsports" and other companies sell the motor mounts and crossmember to do the swap. This makes a dynamite hot rod. The small-block Chevy isn't much heavier than the big Nissan straight 6, so handling isn't adversely affected, but even with a bone stock 350 you've doubled the horsepower. The independent rear suspension gets surprisingly good traction, and the rear ends don't break even under the abuse of drag-racing. I know a guy that put a built 383 stroker in a 280Z and got banned from his local track after one run. The rules say anything that runs quicker than 11.50 in the 1/4 has to have a driveshaft safety loop and an 8-point roll cage. He had neither, and ran something like 11.38 on his first pass! My dad and I built a V8 240Z for a customer a few years ago, and the guy loved it. You can do the same to the 1979-83 280ZX models, but the cars are a larger and heavier, and thus not as blisteringly fast. # 2. Jaguar XKE / XJ6 / XJS with either small-block Chevy or small-block Ford. Chevy and Ford guys have been arguing for decades over which swap is easier and better performing, but like Al Pacino said in "Donnie Brasco" about whether a Lincoln or a Cadillac was better- "Forget about it."  Their both easy to do, and both of the American V8s are lighter and have about twice the power of the Jag engines their replacing. My dad has a Chevy-powered XJ6 to this day, and loves blowing the doors off arrogant and unsuspecting BMW and Mercedes owners. I think Painless wiring even makes a kit to hook up Tuned Port Injected Chevys and Mass-Airflow controlled Fords if you want to be modern and not have a carburator! # 3. 1970-76 Porsche 914 / Chevy V8 conversion. The ZF transaxles are amazingly tough and can stand up to V8s, and these cars are blisteringly fast even with mild engines. I know a guy that has a 914 with an old 283 with a 2bbl, that just hauls ass! If I remember correctly a V8 Monza radiator can fit under the front trunk without too much work and an electric fan setup is simple. The only hard work is running cooling lines from the radiator to the back of the car where the engine is.  Not "Mainstream Muscle" but might be a lot of fun for low bucks!  Mastermind