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A Century of Kustom Cool: The GNRS Tribute to George Barris

February 18, 2025

Maximum’s design replaces the upper control arms with a torque arm and a Panhard rod, each of which has only one job rather than two. The Panhard rod centers the axle from side to side, and the torque arm controls pinion angle. Assigning each of these duties to separate components allows each piece to be better at its one job than the stock upper control arms are at either job. The torque arm is essentially a three-link design, and Maximum claims that it improves traction so much that after installation you may have to alter your sway bars to prevent understeer.

’63 FORD FASTBACK

“Total Performance” is what the Ford Motor Company called its corporate racing program back in the early ’60s, and it was a great way to show the buying public how strong and well engineered the automaker’s vehicles were. In a bold and blatant fashion, Ford was heavily involved in competition—in a big way.

GET IT HANDLED

Before the advent of the “smoothie look,” people were slicking down the lines of their cars and trucks in numerous ways, and shaving door handles was one of the more popular mods. Today the trend is to fit later-model door handles rather than no door handles at all. This still provides a simple way to clean up your vehicle with very little effort, yet retains the convenience of manually opening the door. If you have the patience, talent and imagination, you can borrow the parts from a donor car or truck and fit them to your own project, thereby achieving a cool, smooth look that will be unique to your vehicle.

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SUM OF THE PARTS

A Little Of This, A Little Of That And Pretty Soon They Created A Monster Wagon

Jason Whitfield never intended to hot rod a station wagon. It just sort of happened. You see, he had this Mitsubishi Diamante wagon that Rage Performance and NuFormz used as a parts-getter. After a few runs, the guys decided that the car needed some better tunes. As the parts pickup runs got longer, they decided to add TVs. When a few extra parts were lying around—like a Turbonetics T04/T03 turbo and an intercooler—they just sort of made their way onto the car. The parts were already paid for, so why not use them?

Author

Bob Carpenter

Words & Photography

From Stock to Serious Horsepower

Before long the engine was blown—as in scattered. The crew didn’t want to just do a stock rebuild, but thought it should build the engine for strength. For about five minutes, that is.
Since the shop could get good parts cheaply and do the work in-house, there was no reason to build anything under 500 hp. With the car so fast, the crew then had to get better brakes and then some wheels … and why not paint it so that it looks the part of a car of this caliber?
Before they knew it, the parts wagon was a serious car. No one ever expected it to go this far, but we’re sure glad that it did. Maybe the Rage/NuFormz crew is on the leading edge of a new tuner trend and we’ll start seeing more hopped-up wagons. Or maybe this is a one-and-only “use-what-you’ve-got” that can pull it off no matter the body style. Time will tell.

Exterior Styling and Paint Detail

Since the exterior is what everyone sees first, let’s take a look at the car from that perspective. Whitfield at Rage has relied on Jason Gamble at GAMPRO for most of his big projects and every time the results are spectacular. The car was painted Tuscany Silver Metallic on the bottom, contrasted with DuPont Midnight Black on the upper portion. A quarter-inch band of Ferrari Red separates the two body colors.
As a nod to the complete detail that GAMPRO gives to every car, a multitude of parts were painted to match the wagon’s color, including door handles, side mirrors, corner lights and front grille. It makes a big difference when all the details are done right. Case in point: the rear taillights are painted candy-apple red.
Hyper Industries supplied the purple HID kit. Flat black RH Evolution GT-5 wheels are huge 19x8s with a polished lip that really sets them off. The hood, of course, is a major attention-getter too, with the unusual scoop all cockeyed on one side. Everyone who sees the car wants to know what’s going on there and the answer is horsepower. The scoop feeds air into the intercooler that is mounted in the engine compartment.

Under the Hood: Serious Turbo Power

Under the hood, Whitfield installed a Turbonetics T04/T03 turbo with an Accel DFI Gen VII computer to control the 3.0-liter SOHC V-6 engine. MSD’s 6A SCI ignition provides the spark and with 550cc RC injectors fed by an in-tank Holley fuel pump, you know there’s a bunch of fuel flowing through this engine. Crower rods and JE pistons are up to the task of spinning the 520 hp and 380 lb-ft of torque. An ACT six-puck clutch ensures that all the power gets to the Mitsubishi 3000 GT five-speed transmission.

Interior Comfort and Entertainment

The interior is very comfortable for those long parts runs. Full gray leather makes the ride nice and it looks good with all the plastic parts painted to match the exterior. Transonic Car Audio took over the task of making the stereo/entertainment system special. A custom center console houses an Alpine TV and DVD player. A 10-inch flip-down TV entertains the backseat passengers and the four Rockford Fosgate 10-inch speakers and dual Rockford Fosgate 1,000-watt amplifiers flood the car with music.

More Than a Parts Wagon

Far from a disjointed collection of odd parts, this Mitsubishi wagon is a well-thought-out car that changes what a lot of us may think a wagon should look like—and drive like. And that’s the idea.