Mustang Trans Am Racers

Continuing the "Dream Big" theme tonight, the 3rd post is about Vintage Trans Am racers with a modern twist. The restomod/pro-touring/Trans Am'mer idea is the looks and sounds of a vintage racer with the modern tech underneath to make it reliable and fast. The benefits of doing a 60's Mustang or some other pony car or muscle car is that these cars were road cars turned racecar where as the GT40 and Daytona Coupe's are racecars turned street cars. The muscle cars have back seats, more head room/more interior room, a trunk for road trips and plenty of aftermarket and NOS replacement parts.

Let's start with the Mustang. For me the best looking Mustangs are the 64.5/65- 68 Coupes. Sure, everyone loves a 65-70 Fastback! Those are also way out of my price range. Coupe are much easier to find and are still reasonably priced.

First up is the "Red Car" from "64blackfalcon" found on Instagram. Dig the home fabbed front spoiler that he sells. One of the key features of a Trans Am racer is to add the metal fender flares so big wide meats can be fitted. Yes, wider tires work better on track, but man they just looked killer! 

Doing a different kind of wheelie! This 65-66 Coupe is grippin' and rippin'! Such a cool look and stance and the side pipes!

Holman & Moody, need I say more! This red '67 is from South America and has some cool info online about its racing history. I just loved the HUGE wheels and tires that look more like a 60's NASCAR! I absolutely love this look and it stopped me in my trac...scolling online one day recently. This is Mustang Perfect!!!

Non-Mustangs (LOL!)

So, I really love Mustangs. I come from a Mustang loving/owning family! But, I am the one in the family who likes the more unusual stuff. How about a 1964 Pontiac Tempest/LeMans/GTO in a Vintage Trans Am style? The "Grey Ghost" already exists, but how about a Hechtspeed version with similar look. I found the perfect starter kit for sale in Idaho!

$9000 for a straight, primered with most of the required parts 1964 Pontiac LeMans would be awesome!

Even has the Muncie 4 speed. The engine and trans alone are probably worth $9000. Has full interior kit! I mean, let's go get it tomorrow Corey!

Not done with Pontiacs. Here's a 1971 LeMans! Basically a Chevy Nova cousin, but different! Here's one for sale locally! 

$7500 is very doable!

This looks really tough! Love the big wide modern wheels and tires, Trans Am-esque front spoiler and low stance! So good!

Last but not least, Mercury Cougar! For those in the know, The Cougar was tearin' it up in Trans Am before Ford pushed Cougars out of the way for the Mustang to take the spot light! 

Just wow! That big front air dam, those meats! The front light bar replaced with a racer version! The silver top and red 2-tone livery! Love it!

Here's a Cougar for sale a couple hours away in Idaho for a reasonable $15k!

1964 Dodge Polara Pro-NASCAR-rod

 Kids and wife are all busy. I know nobody is blogging anymore. But, I don't have a project car and I'm tired of consuming everyone else's YouTube videos and Instagram photos. Honestly, those are the only real car related media I go to anymore. I will still drop in to Speedhunters.com once a day, but it's not the same as it used to be. Actually it's probably more about me not being the same as I used to be. I'm not sure what it is. The small displacement sport compact car is just not giving me the same dopamine hit it did for the last 20 years. LOL I've been craving the big V8 rumble! I really digressed there didn't I?

I decided to write. I sat down at my "new office" at my computer. I'm actually working from home the last month. This means I've only driven about 200 miles in the last 4 weeks. 100 of it was to drive out to UMC (Utah Motorsports Campus) to see my hero cars dodge cones. I'll do a separate blog about that. 

I have huge respect for 90's and 2000's sport compact cars. The Mitsubishi Evolution and Subaru WRX are the 2 I have followed and liked the most since 2001 or so, especially when the WRX came to the USA in 2002 and the Evo in 2003. Times change, people change. I'm no longer 23 years old. I'm actually 43 years old. Yes, I'm driving a 2002 WRX right now. LOL I love these cars. 

I'm just letting the thoughts flow down through my finger tips onto this keyboard. The other part of my car enthusiast brain is one that is sucked in by history, by nostalgia, by the past. The origin of hot rodding goes back to the V8. It goes back to the 40's, 50's, 60's and early 70's. The origin of hot rodding in the Hechtspeed family really began with my dad and his brother in the late 60's, early 70's. There is this really big part of me that is so drawn into the 60's hot rod era. I've shared a little about my dad and his brother and their cars. I've actually gone to look at 2 different 1964 Mercury Comets I found on sale on the KSL classifieds. I was never going to buy them. Sure, I believed if they were in good enough shape I could talk my wife into letting me buy one. Fact is I'm still not in a place where I can realistically have a project car. 

So, 2 weeks ago or so, I had this thought to go check out KSL, it had been awhile, maybe I'd find something cool for sale. This is what I found. A 1964 Dodge, labeled as a "400". The ad said it was a "real 383, 4 speed car".

Look at that roofline! I don't know if its my bias from being so hooked on my dad's 1964 Comet Cyclone or what, but I think 1964 was the single coolest year for hot rods and muscle cars. 

I'm sure the low starting price point was a factor in it catching my eye. $1900!? You kind of can't go wrong with that price! It looks pretty straight. The car guy rationalizations kick in strong with this one! There are no good interior pics, no pics of the floor boards. There are 2-3 pictures of the empty engine bay. There is no engine or transmission, hence the cheap price. But, the potential is endless!

So, what would I do with this thing? Here's some ideas I found by simply googling "1964 Dodge Polara" and "1964 Dodge NASCAR". 

I can't get over that 1964 Dodge roofline. It gets me everytime! The exterior design is very reminiscent of my dad's 1964 Mercury. Very similar tail light design with the 3 sections on each side. The front end design is also similar. The Plymouth version has the quad, equal size, head lights that look like those of the '64 Mercury. 

I have an Insta-friend, "tef_yensen", who is building a 1965 Ford Galaxie with a Vintage NASCAR build theme. Strip away the racing livery of these 2 Dodge's above and you have an aggressive looking hot rod man! Big wide tires, steelie wheels, lower ride height, side exhausts, stripped down interior and 4 speed transmission you shift with your right hand and left foot!

These next 3 photos were found when I began putting "restomod" and "pro-touring" in the search bar after "1964 Dodge Polara". Love the big hood scoop on this white "hot rod" variant. 

Isn't it crazy how many different ways you can build a 1964 Dodge? Obviously any car can be built in so many ways. I just happened to be looking at a 1964 Dodge Polara right now. ;)

I couldn't find a ton of detail, but this brown/gold and patina'd '64 Polara belongs to Jesse James. It has a full Roadster Shop chassis, 1500hp twin turbo Hemi. Watch this 2-min clip on YouTube of Jesse talking about it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT1R0x8u4xA

He comments in the video that Polara's have only really been built one way, the old man hot rod style with Torq Thrust wheels. He wanted a driver built with a pro-touring driver in mind. I dig it! 

I think the only twist I'd put on my version, would be a little NASCAR thrown into the mix. See the front wheel and tire package on the "Hill Country Hustler"? It's too small! I am all about the "square stance" look and handling. My favorite look is the aggressiveness of wide wheels and tires on all 4 corners. This car is a little too low. This restricts how wide you can go up front. 

Here's the quick and dirty build! Find a used 5.7 modern EFI Hemi with a 6 speed with NASCAR side exit exhaust, do some suspension work to get the car to take corners (Roadster shop chassis since I'm pretending I have the budget), some black Wilwood 6 and 4 piston brakes, an Alcantara wrapped Momo Prototipo steering wheel and black Corbeau seat with harness bar for track days, simple black racecar style interior panels and carpet and some 18x11 modern, clean and simple wheels with at least 30/30/18 tires. Christy can make a magnetic vinyl decals when I'm headed to the track and just want to turn up the NASCAR theme for a weekend.

There you have it! I built my own 1964 Dodge Polara PRO-NASCAR-ROD!

Hello Honda! (again)

I need to do this blogging thing more. It's fun! 

So, yes, I went about 3 years with the BMW and sold it. Shocker, not shocker! My wife says the only thing I can promise is that in 2-3 years I'll want to sell whatever it is I own at the time. LOL sniff sniff...mmm hmm. I can't say anything...that is exactly what has happened. This is my (bug, civic, mustang, civic, wrx, fit, bmw, civic) 8th car! This is the keeper!
Seriously though, this might just be the keeper.
So, what did I buy? I bought a 1999 Honda Civic DX Hatchback in Roma Red with, wait for it...34,498 original Utah miles! I know!!!!! It's like a brand new car!!! It's 20 years old!!! Like "What the Honda!!!!????"
So, here's the story. Utah winter is wrapping up. It's about February, March and I'm starting to itch. My bimmer is running the stock wheels/tires (looks pedestrian), has a ticky noise I can't track down and its been about 3 years. The car has 150k miles and I start to search ksl classifieds. As I mentioned in my bye bye bimmer post, I always start out by looking for a 90's Civic. It's the car I grew up on! I'm hooked to them. They're light, nimble, economical, easy to work on, cheap to mod and on and on. The problem is at this point they are 20-30 years old. They're classic err... Neo Classic cars. They're not a JDM Legend! Which means they're project cars! I don't have time, money, space or tools for a project car!!! The entry price is great! I mean, even I can afford $2000-4000. So, I usually start looking for newer cars. This time I spent much time in the Mustang realm. Especially about 3 weeks ago. My brother told me he was going to be selling his S550 V6 Mustang and would be looking for an S197 (2005-2009) Mustang GT. Those can be had for about $7-12k depending. I was all in to be a Mustang bro again! Utah is not a sports car mecca. With only about 2 million people from Utah County up to Ogden, its like searching for a car in say Irvine/Anaheim but no where else. Not much selection! So, I wasn't finding any good S197 candidates. I started searching for WRXs, Hondas, Acuras and whatever sounded interesting.
I was actually willing to spend more to get a nice B or even K swapped Civic. There's actually one on ksl the past month, a black EG hatch with a K20 swap for $5500. But, its kind of racecar'd out and is not smog legal (it's in Idaho, I don't think smog is required there). I'm just not in a position to buy a project that I can't smog check until I do a bunch of stuff (that I'm not knowledgeable about). That was kind of hard to pass up.
Then I came upon this ksl ad in my 88-2000 civic search.

1999 Honda Civic DX Roma Red-soooooo clean!

 It felt too good to be true!!!

There is photo evidence of the 34k original miles!

 I was just hoping someone who knew how worth $6k this thing was didn't beat me to it!

You can eat off this thing!

Luckily I don't have the money to swap out this thing. It only has 34k miles! What a shame that'd be!

Roll up windows! No Cruise Control! = Add lightness!

A 1999 Honda Civic DX Hatchback, 34k miles, 2 owner, freshly detailed, no mods except a sweet lookin' aluminum Acura 5 speed shift knob for $6000. Huh, that's in my price range! I hadn't even had the serious talk with my wife, which gives me clearance to go hunting for real. So, of course, I texted her a screenshot of the ad and said "can I go see it?". The car has been up for sale for like 1-2 days when I actually text him. I said "Hello, I'm interested in seeing your civic. Would today between 4-5 work for you? Work in Draper, live in Farmington. I could drop by on way home from work. Chris" and then I followed that up 3 hours later with "Hopefully its still for sale. In case you have an offer on the table and you're not fully happy with the offer, please let me know." LOL
I was serious and was willing to go higher if there was another serious buyer. These texts were Wednesday April 24th. He responded that night. He did have other interested people texting him. I was able to go see it Thursday after work.
When I saw it I couldn't believe how like brand new it was. The second owner gave me the whole story. He bought it 4 months prior from the original elderly couple who barely drove it. It sat in a garage for 20 years.
The car is immaculate! It's like a museum piece. There is a part of me that feels bad for driving it. But, its a base model Honda Civic. It's nothing special as it sits. Maybe someday but probably not. There are millions of them still driving around. I just happen to have the cleanest 1999 Honda in the State. haha
I paid $5500 for it. What do you think? The kbb and NADA guides said $3600 and $3800. So, ya, I paid more than the value is estimated at. But, this car is beyond "Excellent Condition". It's also 20 years old, so I probably should have tried to see if a "classic car" guide said something different. I think I got a great deal! 0 problems, basically a new car and the perfect color for a blank Honda canvas!

Holy Cow!!! 34k original miles!!! Insane!!! Yep, I'm a happy Honda car guy right there! 1999 Honda Civic Roma Red Hatchback

This thing shines!!! Kudos to owner #2 for detailing it so well! You sold this car because of your attention to detail1

Me at work taking a selfie with the '99 EK Hatch

Of course, the first thing I had to do when I got to work (nope, didn't do much work that day!) was grab my car guy friends to come take a look!

34,498 original miles at time of purchase on 29APR2019 at about 12:30pm

The 2nd owner was like "I don't think the first owners every looked in here!"

The EK Hatch in its new home!

Of course the first mod was my "JDM Legends" license plate cover. I've had it for like 6 years or more. Just waiting to get something worthy to put it on!

JDM Legends License Plate Cover finally made it on a car of mine! I went with the "red" (DMV lady said, you mean orange?) Utah Ski plate design to "match" the EK hatch

This aluminum Acura shift knob is smooth and light, I love it!!!

I think that's enough for now. It's past my bedtime! Today I was able to get it smogged and registered at the Davis County DMV.
So, this is the blank canvas I've been searching for. I'm excited to own it, to document my ownership as I think this is a unique opportunity to own such a desirable car in the Import/JDM/Tuner community. It's basically a barnfind for Japanese car nuts. It's like finding a 65 Mustang coupe (not a Fastback Shelby, that'd be like if I found a Civic Type-R ) in a garage in like new condition!
I'm currently in research mode. Stage 1 will be wheels/tires and coilovers! Gotta get the ride up to Hechtspeed specifications and some proper wheels and tires. Until then...

Volvo 1800e, yep a Volvo

This Volvo 1800e is part Jaguar, part Studebaker...It's got some great lines don't you think? Found this brownish/copper colored one for sale here in Utah. What a cool project this would be. This was Volvo's attempt at a sports car. Too bad it didn't catch on.

Datsun B-210

What, another old school jap car. So, while searching the ksl classifieds, I spotted this '76 B210 sedan for sale in Cedar City for $335. Looking past the wacky paint scheme, this thing has potential.

BMW 2002

So, found 2 nice BMW 2002's (early 70's) for sale on ksl.com. These are nice examples, perfect platforms for a fun car with character. Decent gas mileage too eh. From what I remember, the beige one was $1500 and the blue one $3900. I'd take the beige one. Cheaper and in better shape.