Builds
If you’ve ever built a car from scratch, then you know that getting the basic body and chassis together is not the tough part. What’s tough are all the details that eat up hours, days and weeks, but without this attention to detail, the project would suffer.
As progress continues on the Smokin’ SS Monte Carlo, we see more and more function, as well as innovative details throughout the car, ensuring that this will not be your average street machine. Functional details such as a true cowl induction were not overlooked, but more than that, every part of this car has a function, and that reveals Davis’ racing background.
The Smokin’ SS chassis is about performance. So, rather than tweak on 20-year-old technology, we chose to design a versatile chassis with a multitude of combinations that will allow us to tune the Smokin’ SS for any challenge.
If you’ve ever built a car from scratch, then you know that getting the basic body and chassis together is not the tough part. What’s tough are all the details that eat up hours, days and weeks, but without this attention to detail, the project would suffer.
If you’ve ever built a car from scratch, then you know that getting the basic body and chassis together is not the tough part. What’s tough are all the details that eat up hours, days and weeks, but without this attention to detail, the project would suffer.
Mark Turner is an avid hot rodder—he eats, sleeps and breathes hot rods and muscle cars, and he jumps at any opportunity to add another car to his collection. On one of Turner’s many trips to check on the progress of a Camaro he had being built at G&S Custom Fabrication & Suspension in Athens, Alabama, owner Greg Blaydes told him about a ’67 Camaro RS/SS convertible being built whose owner had lost interest and was looking to get out from under the car.
To say that the Fox-body Mustangs have been among the favorites of Ford performance enthusiasts since they began production in 1979 is like saying Henry Ford did okay. Even those without an eye for the obvious know that, by sheer numbers alone, these highly effective, as well as affordable, machines rule the streets of America. And while ’79-’93 Mustangs may lack some of the technological advancements found in Ford showrooms today, there’s an abundance of components available through the aftermarket that will make up for that shortcoming, and lots more.
All Ford guys know the proper formula for building a Fox-body car: take a Mustang and cram it full of injected V-8. That’s the mantra, the 11th commandment of the Mustang community. Fortunately, someone forgot to show that particular stone tablet to Bill Powell, owner of Powell Performance (714/992-4909). He did something very different when he built his Fox body: he built a Thunderbird, and he built it with a turbo-four.
If you’re like many of us, vacillating between the car you’ve always dreamed of owning and what you really can afford, be sure you know what you need before you shell out more money than sense. Check around, ask your friends, read magazines on the subject, surf the Internet, get connected, and you’re likely to find your dream car, even if it is not everything you think it is.
Eyes wide open, with faces up against the glass, kids on a passing school bus wondered what it could be. Amazed by the size of this land yacht, some must have wondered what it was like to pilot such a gas-guzzler, while a few couldn’t help but smile at the resounding roar of the mighty L72 427 underneath it all.