A streetable clone of a classic race car might be cool.....

Got a lot of debate from the last post, which proves gearheads are passionate if nothing else. Didn't mean to offend anyone, but I wrote that post after talking to someone who restored one of the B.F. Goodrich "Tirebirds". In 1970-71 B.F. Goodrich campaigned 5 Pontiac Trans-Ams in the SCCA series. Afterward, they sold the cars to privateers.  A couple were used as race cars, one was sent to a museum, and this one the guy tried to make street-legal. He did it, but he said if he knew how much time and trouble and money it was going to end up costing, that he never would have done it. Chasing all the interior trim parts, light bulbs, etc was a pain enough, taking out the rollcage and bracing, and then going through many DMV safety inspections to get it registered-it was never registered originally-BFG bought the car and turned it into a racecar immediately-so even though he had a title,trying to register a 40 year old car that hadn't been registered in 40 years....Let's just say it was a nightmare.  The point I'm trying to make, is if you want the look and feel of a classic racer, it's just a hell of a lot easier to build a copy from a real car. Go buy a running,legally registered 1974 Charger, give it a Red and Blue # 43 STP paint job, put a Mopar performance crate Hemi in it, or a 360 stroked to 408, or whatever, and have a blast with your "Tribute" to Richard Petty's winningest race car. You can even put a roll cage in it if you want, but won't it be nice that all the dash lights and turn signals and headlights and windshield wipers, and heater already work, and the windows roll up and down, and you can register and insure it without an act of congress. I think a 1971-74 Javelin AMX painted red, white and blue, with Minilite style wheels, a side-exit exhaust and either a torquey 401 or a high-winding 304 with a 4 or 5-speed stick would be way cool. Mark Donohue would definitely approve. Edelbrock offers Aluminum "Cleveland"  style heads and compatible intake manifolds so you can build a mock "Boss" 302 or "Clevor" engine-i.e.-302 or 351 Windsor block, with the much freer-breathing 351 "Cleveland" heads. Turn a clunker '69-70 Mustang into a Boss 302 clone. I'm down with the race car styling and graphics and definitely down with a badass motor to back up the image, but you'll have a much easier time making a regular car that you can drive to the store safely and legally look and sound like a race car than you would trying to turn a race car into something street-legal and remotely drivable. So, if you want the vintage NASCAR or Trans-Am look and feel, go build one easily and cheaply from a running, registered car, don't spend untold thousands trying to convert a moneypit old race car. That's all I'm saying. Mastermind