Everyone is talking about old-school-this and old-school-that, but we here at The Auto Builder don’t really care about old school, true school or new school. What we do care about is bringing our readers the best damn cars from around the world. Whether we are featuring drift, show, street or drag cars, one thing is certain: we will bring you the best cars that are out there. And sometimes the best is simple and to the point, as if you built the whole car in your garage.
No matter where you live or who you are, if you could get your hands on an authentic Nissan R34 GT-R Skyline, you would. The GT-R Skyline has been called the “Holy Grail” of imports and is the car that all tuners wish they owned. If you are fortunate enough to own one, you are the envy of enthusiasts on the streets and at all of the shows.
Have you ever seen a pictorial like this that tells where the location actually is? We didn’t think so, but don’t you just love a good mystery? Good, because that’s exactly how the owner wanted this incredible story left: unfinished. So we had to make part of it up. But which part? The interesting thing is this: Just when you think there are no old cars left to rebuild, think again!
One day, Ron Jones was walking around a consignment lot looking for his next rodding project. He had gone there with the intention of checking out a particular car, a ’29 Ford, but while there he noticed another vehicle that caught his eye. Tucked in the back of the lot was a ’49 Cadillac sedanette. It was mostly white and in rather poor shape, with dents, body filler and a little rust as evidence of a neglected existence. But Jones saw the car and knew he had to have it.
Roadsters have an appeal that’s hard to beat—especially ’32s. No matter where you go, they’re all the rage. It’s not just the hand-built one-offs we’re talking about either; it’s real street roadsters that scream at the heart of cool. For instance, take a close look at Chris Boutilier’s slick ’32. Chris has managed to blend the past with the present, while adding his own pizzazz. His roadster not only looks right, but it also drives like a dream and easily wins awards when he chooses to show it off.
Low in its architecture and functionally beautiful, the LS2 engine is an ideal replacement for a previous generation of Chevy powerplants. It offers good
performance, greatly improved economy and plenty of support from an industry leaders.
In this day and age, getting the most power out of your late-model truck or SUV is both difficult and easy. Now that we have covered ourselves technically, we will give you the reasoning behind this convoluted theory. New vehicles are hard to work on but easy to upgrade. See? That was easy.
In 1999, Stotts decided to replace the carbureted 350, which was installed in 1991, with a Corvette TPI motor. Stotts wanted to bring the car into the new millennium with style, adding the extra convenience of electronic fuel injection. A resident of Mena, Arkansas, Stotts visited nearby Street & Performance to get started on his project. The S&P guys are well-known for being wizards when it comes to figuring out how to stuff an EFI motor in an older car and actually making it work.
Bob Gruitch just thought his car was not performing up to his expectations. A ’55 Chevy equipped with a 502 big block, square port heads and a Crane H296-2 camshaft should be more than enough power. But it lacked power and didn’t idle all that well, especially in gear. This shouldn’t be happening with an engine built by John Gianoli at Reggie Jackson’s High Performance Engine Shop, so Gruitch figured he had something wrong and brought the car to John Bishop’s Hot Rod Tuning Service to have it checked. He’s lucky that he did.
When GM introduced the Gen III small block in the F-body, it rekindled a dying performance flame with its new-generation small block. While the Gen I small block actually kick-started the hobby and got it into gear, it’s the latest family of small-block engines that has grabbed the attention of enthusiasts everywhere—and for good reason.
