Just build your dream car the way you want it.....And save about $50,000...Or more!

I was talking to a friend the other day and he was looking through old, yellowed, dog-eared copies of Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Popular Hot Rodding from the '70's. Of course he was lamenting how the average guy could never afford some of the Ultra-cool stuff that was in these magazines. I told him we could, if we built it ourselves, and let go of the "Numbers Matching" and "Original" curse. Right off the top of my head I easily "built" four Ultra Cool hot rods for a 1/4 of what a "Real" one would cost. Here's the examples. # 1. 1964 Ford "Thunderbolt" Fairlane. Try to find one of these for under six figures. You can't. However, you could find a '63-65 289 Fairlane in decent shape for 10 grand or less pretty easily in any state in the union. Currie enterprises can hook you up with a 9 inch posi rear with the proper mounting points for under 3 grand. A Top-loader 4-speed is easy enough to find on the 'net, or through various Ford / Mustang parts suppliers. There are millions of 390 V8s in junkyards as they were used in virtually ever car and truck built from 1961-76. No it's not a 427. But all "FE" engines look alike, and Edelbrock claims 452 hp and 428 lbs of torque with their Perfomer RPM heads, cam and dual-quad intake on a 390. You'd have the look and the sound, and 450 honest hp in a 3,000 lb Fairlane would be a rocket. Harwood still sells the famous "Teardrop" hood scoop, and some Ford van buckets aren't that hard to find. Only a serious Ford collector would know it wasn't "Real" and who cares? You got the look, the performance, and you built the car for around 20K instead 100-plus and if you blow the motor-you don't give a shit-another 390 is easy to find. # 2. 1970-73 Motion Phase III Camaro. Base-model Camaros of this vintage are cheap enough. I have seen rough-but-running examples as low as $1,200 and anything over 3 grand is usually pretty decent. A 454 HO crate motor from GMPP has 440 hp and 500 lbs of torque and costs $5995. A TH350 with a shift kit, auxilary cooler and 2,500 rpm converter can stand up to a big-block of this power level, so you don't have to change trannys. 4.56:1 or 4.88:1 gears are easy enough to put in an 8.5 inch 10-bolt rear, and a Gear Vendors overdrive will reduce that to like 3.42:1 for highway cruising and give you six gears instead of three. Lakewood traction bars, Cragar Mags, Mickey Thompson tires, and the "L88" hood scoop are readily available from Summitt. The paint job is easy enough to copy, I really don't see how this one could go over 25K if you went top-notch on everything-and you got a badass, unique ride for about 1/4 of what you'd pay for a "Real" Baldwin-Motion car. # 3. 1969 Pontiac Trans-Am. Only 697 were built and you can't touch one for under 100K. I know that. But Pontiac built 115,000 V8 Firebirds in 1969, and 15 or 20 grand will buy you a damn nice one in any state in the union. Year One, Ames Performance and NPD all sell the hood, side scoops, rear spoiler and graphics. Rally II wheels are easy enough to find or you could go with Minilites or American Racing Torq-Thrusts if you wanted the period correct flavor. Edelbrock claims 387 hp and 439 lbs of torque from the basic Performer Package on a 400. That's more than the 335 and 345 hp the stock RAIII and RAIV were rated at and it still has 15 inches of vacuum at idle. That would be perfect with an automatic and very pleasant with a 4-speed, and should easily run low 13s on street tires. If you "gotta" have the RAIV sound and performance-the "Performer RPM" package has RAIV round-port heads, an exact replica of the RAIV cam and makes 440 hp and 460 lbs of torque according to Car Craft, has a badass lope, but stable idle, and makes 10 inches of vacuum at 900 rpm. Enough to operate your power brakes. I'd recommend a 4-speed or a 2,500 rpm converter and 3.73:1 gears. That would put you solidly in the 12s-and you'd have under 30K in the car. A 1/4 of what people ask for the real deal.  # 4. 1969-70 Boss 302 Mustang. Ford built over 70,000 fastback Mustangs in 1969 alone and a similar figure in 1970. Phoenix Graphics sells the graphics. Edelbrock and Trick Flow sell Cleveland style heads that will bolt-up to Windsor blocks, and Edelbrock has "E-Boss" manifolds that will work with these on a 302 or 351W block. And think of this-if you got a 347 or 392 or 427 short-block from Ford SVT-you'd have double the power of a "real" Boss 302 at a fraction of the 100k+ price tag. And you wouldn't worry about blowing it up, and would actually drive it the way it should be driven. Now that's a deal. I'm sure there's many others I missed, but you get the idea. Stop whining and go build your dream car. Mastermind