Still more "Replicars" that are way cool.....

I talked in the last post about building a copy of megabuck cars for a fraction of the price. Here's a few more that I thought of later. # 1. Baldwin-Motion Phase III Camaro. In the early '70's Joel Rosen opened Motion Performance and partnered with Baldwin Chevrolet to build some ultra badass Camaros. The Phase III models were guaranteed to run 10 second 1/4 mile times. Since they had LS6 or LS7 454s backed by a Muncie 4-speed or a TH400 with a high stall converter, 4.88:1 gears in the rear end ( a Hone overdrive behind the tranny reduced it to 3.42:1 for highway crusing ) traction bars and ultra sticky Mickey Thompson soft compound tires-it wasn't hard to back up that boast. They also had an L88 style hood scoop and two tone paint with wild stripes and graphics. Documented Motion cars are rare and bring a King's Ransom-100K on up. However to build a clone today you'd only need to find a '70-74 Camaro. ( Emissions laws caused Rosen to stop production in 1975 ). 10 grand will easily buy you a decent small-block Camaro of that vintage. GMPP's 454HO crate engine has 440 hp and 500 lbs of torque and sells for $5995. A TH350 will hold up behind a Rat with the proper cooler, torque converter or shift kit. If you "gotta have" a TH400-or a 4-speed-it's not that big a deal to change the rear trans mount and driveshaft yoke. A set of gears for the rear end is cheap-under $200-and the 8.5 inch GM 10 bolts are tough-I've had 400, 4-speed T/A's that I dropped the clutch on a lot and never had a problem. Harwood sells the hood scoop and the paint scheme is easy to copy. Depending on your mechanical ability you could do one up nice for under 25K easily. That's a lot better than 100+ for a "real" one. # 2.  Yenko Deuce. Don Yenko took a base-model 1970 Nova, stuffed an LT1 Corvette motor in it, added a Pontiac-style Hood Tach, and some cool graphics. I saw an original, documented Yenko Deuce for sale on the internet for $200k!!!  You can build a fun copy for 1/ 10th of that. Finding a six-cylinder or small-block '68-72 Nova isn't that hard. For less than five grand GMPP will sell you a complete from carb to oil pan, including a serpentine belt drive and the water pump, power steering pump, and starter and alternator included ZZ5 350 V8 with 400 Hp or a ZZ383 Stroker with 450 hp. These engines have 4-bolt mains, steel cranks, "pink" rods, Keith Black pistons, roller cams and "Fast Burn" Vortec heads. They rock, right out of the box. I had a ZZ4-that had L98 heads and was rated at 355 hp-and it kicked ass. A hood tach is easy to find from any Pontiac restoration vendor, and Phoenix Graphics has the stripe stencils. This one is so easy, it's almost criminal. ( Well only if you try to sell it as an original ). # 3. 1962-63 421 Super Duty Catalina. Again, rare, documented 421SD cars are priced in the stratosphere-100 grand on up. However-you find a generic Cat of this vintage. Get a 400 out of any '67-78 Pontiac and put a cut-down 421 / 428 crank kit in it. Kaufmann and Butler Performance sell these complete rotating assemblys ( crank, rods,pistons and bearings ) for about $1,699. Any aftermarket ( Crane, Comp Cams, Lunati ) RAIV cam has the same timing and lift as the McKellar # 10 cam used back then, and Edelbrock and Offenhauser both make dual-quad intakes for Pontiacs. The internet is full of 4-speed conversion kits for early '60's Pontiacs-( clutch linkage and pedals ) and a T10 or Muncie 4-speed is easy enough to find. Depending on the price of the base car, you could build an SD copy for under 20 or 25 grand easily. # 4. 1965-68 Shelby GT350. Try to touch an original Shelby of this vintage for under 100k. Like the kid in Christmas story-I triple-dog dare you. However-15 grand will buy you a decent 289 fastback in any state in the union,and Year One and Tony Branda have the scoops, spoilers, taillights, etc for the look. Branda also sells tri-y headers and the Shelby intakes and 715 Holley carbs if you want to go to the nth degree. Personally I'd buy a 345 hp Ford SVT 302 crate engine and World-Class T5 five-speed and use that-but to each his own. Anyhow-again you could have a badass looking and performing ride for less than 25 grand, which is 1/4 of what you'd pay for a "real" Shelby.  Anyhow, there's cool stuff that you can copy for a fraction of the price of an original-Yenko Camaros and Chevelles come to mind as do Factory Five Cobra replicas. Something to think about if you can't spare six-figures for a toy!!  Mastermind