What makes this car fascinating is not the fact that it has a different engine, but the type of engine as it is fitted with a rev-crazy, 170HP 1.0-liter inline-four sourced from a 2003 Yamaha YZF-R1 sports bike!
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Unless, of course, there's something odd lurking behind its plain Jane-looking snout, as was the case of this modified Festiva that was filmed by Carscoop reader Martin B. a few years back.
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Case in point this 1990 (1991MY) BMW 318i Touring that was transformed into an M3 Touring. Those of you familiar with the E30's history will know that BMW never built a station wagon version of the E30 M3, which was exclusively available in coupe and convertible body styles.
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What BMW did not create was a pickup-truck version of the Neue Klasse in the style of the Chevrolet El Camino or the Australian Ford and Holden Utes.
So how did this 1971 model pictured here come to be? This car is the brainchild of San Francisco, California-based tuning and service company Ottowerks and it has been listed for sale on eBay.
Ottowerks says it begun with a 1971 BMW "1600", which we assume from the body, is the 1602 coupe model. After cutting the roof from the driver's seat and back and removing the rear seat bench, Ottowerks crafted a truck bed.
Putting aside a handful of 1980s aero bits, the only other interesting bit about the exterior of this Granada are the Zzz-Zzz license plates.
Pop up the hood, however, and it's an entirely different story as this puppy has been fitted with 4.7-liter Ford V8 sourced from a Koenigsegg CCX supercar that is good for a whopping 1,700-horsepower!
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Found for sale on eBay, is this 1971 Plymouth ViperCuda, which as the name suggests, is powered by a V10 engine sourced from the modern day Dodge Viper. But there's more than meets the eye to this creation that started life as a four-seater 1971 Plymouth Barracuda Convertible with a 318 cu.in. (5.2-liter V8) engine.
The comprehensive conversion was performed by Time Machines from Hudson, Florida, which begun by acquiring the intact chassis and V10 engine from a wrecked 2001 Viper with 23,000-miles on the odo.
After stripping the Barracuda's body from the original chassis, they then fabricated a hybrid platform incorporating most parts of the Viper's chassis components including the fully independent suspension.
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To make matters worse, the German dealer who listed the converted Beetle STi on a Romanian car sales website called 'Webcar' doesn’t mention anything about suspension upgrades.
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The single solar panel is mounted on the Japanese crossover's roof feeding a Di-Lithium Crystal Transductor that serves as a capacitor and a very powerful electric motor that replaces the Tribeca's traditional boxer engine.
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However, one owner moved from the traditional type of tuning to a more extreme solution that involved an engine swap, but not of the sort you would expect, as he replaced the standard four-cylinder unit with a massive 396 cubic inch (6.5-liter) Chevrolet Big Block V8.
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If you live in the States and can justify spending a little under $50,000 on a car, the $47,010 BMW 1M Coupe (335hp) is a sound choice for those looking for a fast and fun to drive bimmer as it only costs $7,710 more the $39,300 135i Coupe (300hp) and $13,090 less than the $60,100 M3 Coupe (414hp).
However, in other parts of the world where governments apply ridiculously high taxes on cars, not even the 1M Coupe is a reasonable choice. Take Egypt for example.
According to 1addicts forum member “hatembmw”, the 1M Coupe costs some US$150,000 in Egypt because of the insane taxes! Who can blame him for not wanting to pay that much money for BMW's entry-level M model?
“Hatembmw” settled on a different solution: he took a 120d Coupe, stripped it down and swapped the four-cylinder diesel engine with a 414hp 4.0-liter V8 from the latest M3!
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But in the world of tuning and drag racing even the Torana can be transformed into a terrifying beast. Meet Jakes Edward's latest Torana sedan fitted with a massive 496ci (8.2-liter) turbocharged V8 Chevrolet engine that runs on methanol fuel.
At this month's Summernats festival in Canberra, Australia, Edward's yellow Holden took part and won the "Horsepower Heroes" competition as it yielded 1,584.5 wheel horsepower on the dyno! Watch the Aussie-made monster in the video after the break.
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The ride comes to us from Australia and according to the blokes over at FullBoost, it was created in just four weeks' time. The force-fed VQ30 is linked to a ZX five-speed manual gearbox while the car runs on 14-inch tires.
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But for the sake of conversation, let's say that you had the opportunity to buy a supercar's engine alone, like this 5.5-liter V12 from a 1999 Ferrari 550 Maranello coupe that we discovered on eBay with 9,000 miles and a 'Buy it Now' price of $16,999; what would you do with it?
If it the engine turned out to be in good condition, would you try to fitting it in another Ferrari or would you attempt a crazy engine swap in the likes of the F360-powered 1960 Nash Rambler Wagon or the Lamborghini-powered Ford Mustang, and if so, which donor car would you prefer?
Then again, maybe you'd like to create one of the world's most expensive coffee tables. Whatever your choice, we'd like to hear about it in our comments section after the break.
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This bad boy was found for sale on eBay with the seller claiming to have modified or replaced just about everything on the original 1969 Charger, from the upper and lower control arms and the independent rear suspension to the rack and pinion steering system, all of which are said to have been sourced from the Viper.
However, this time, the Japanese powerplant was mounted behind the front seats of the classic Beetle with power being directed to the rear wheels only through a modified version of the Mitsubishi coupe's gearbox.
The VW 1302 GTO was built in Norway and it appears to be an ongoing project. You can get a taste of what it looks and sounds like in the videos below.
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We'll assume that any logical person would try to find an answer by looking into another vehicle, but not these guys. Welcome to insane tuning world of Russia's Totalcar that decided to create a vehicle that promises to deliver the best of both worlds.
We're still short on the full details as this is an ongoing project, but here's the skinny: the Russian tuner took the Mitsubishi's 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 engine and all-wheel drivetrain and somehow managed to fit it all under the beautiful body of the Chris Bangle-designed (yes, the same person who styled the BMW E65 7-Series) 1990's Fiat Coupé.
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And while we never saw something of the sort officially from Ford, an independent custom shop actually realized the idea with the 2005 Ford Mustang 'Vanquishd' show car that was presented at the 2006 SEMA aftermarket gathering.
Built by Western Motorsports, this one-of-a-kind Mustang gets a 6.0-liter V12 engine with 600 ponies from a 2001 Aston Martin Vanquish. Power is sent to the chunky rear wheels through a 6 speed manual Tremec T-56 transmission.
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This BMW E46 3-Series coupe, or as its UK owner has appropriately named it, the 357Ci, started its life as a 2001 325Ci with an M Sport Package.
In the hands of its current owner, it received the same 5.7-liter LS1 V8 engine as the rather forlorn looking Porsche 911 we wrote about last week, making this the second American-powered German automobile we’ve featured in as many days.
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According to the seller, this was the fifth Bullet Roadster built and the first V8-engined one to roll out of the company’s then new Chinderah, NSW factory. It’s all hearsay, of course, but I’m willing to believe the words of a 62yo motoring enthusiast with arthritic knees. So here goes...
Bullet No. 5 was a special order from a man named George Covacic who supplied a 4.6-liter all-alloy, fuel injected V8 crate motor along with a Tremac 5-speed manual transmission and the differential from a Holden Commodore SS. Like all Bullet supercars, the brakes and suspension came from the Mazda RX-7.
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