See that car up there? That’s a Cobra kit car that currently is being offered for sale on the Craigslists from Burbank, California. The asking price is well under twenty grand, and as you might expect at that price, it does come with some work yet to be completed. There’s the paint that needs to be spiffed up, the weirdly low windshield that needs to be replaced, and then there’s the issue of the engine. You see, this “Cobra” has a Chevy 383 under its be-scooped fiberglass hood.
Yeah, that’s weird and totally inappropriate, but is it the most weird and inappropriate engine ever to appear in a car? What do you think is the most blasphemous engine/car mashup there’s ever been?
Image: Craigslist
Hooniverse Asks: What's the Most Blasphemous Engine/Car Mix?
By Robert Emslie
Jan 13, 2016
Jeff Glucker 
Kamil Kaluski
Late Sunbeam Tigers, when Sunbeam was owned by Chrysler, but the small block Chrysler engine wouldn’t fit, so they continued production with the Ford V8 instead.
While working at a British motorcycle shop, a guy came in driving a Tiger. I told him the greasemonkeys next door had a Jaguar with a 350 Chev in it, and maybe they’d be interested in a little wager?
He just deadpanned at me.
When Caterhams started to be built (in Canada I think) the Honda 1100 and Fireblade motor. I like the idea, but with Lotus working with a Yamaha/Toyota derived engine in the production cars, and the Seven typically having been small Ford motors, it just seemed weird.
In reality a Charger with a Chevy Small Block would probably make me the most upset. I can somewhat understand the hot rod scene with CSBs in ’32 Fords, but I can’t do it. It also makes me angry to see CSBs in !950s F-series trucks.
I have always wondered about the ubiquity of SBC/TH350 in restomods and hot rods that are explicitly Ford, which is most egregious in Deuce coupes and early F-series as you pointed out.
It’s like Ford didn’t make a small block V8 for decades that’s just as easy to acquire cheaply, tune to make good power, and attach a well-known bullet-proof automatic to. The 351W/C6 should be the go-to combination for old Ford restorations that aren’t concerned with originality. Or even the 302W if it’s a smaller car, or more a cruiser than stormer. That’s one thing Ford has over GM. It’s smaller-displacement small block isn’t a boat anchor, and has great aftermarket support. You don’t often see people tuning up 305 SBCs, but there are plenty of hot 302Ws out there — probably more than 351W, even.
That’s my thought, too. I get not wanting to put a Y-block back in your 50s Ford, but the Windsor blocks are pretty swap friendly and parts are available at your local 7-11 should you have any issues.
http://13252-presscdn-0-94.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/1975_Chevrolet_Cosworth_Vega_For_Sale_Engine_1.jpg
Huh? It is still a Chevy engine, with some engineering assistance from Cosworth.
Horrifically detuned.
Well, we are talking about 1975 technology, the first catalytic converters, and EPA emissions system equipment durability regs. They worked with what they had.
I think the one photographed lost its EGR with the addition of its header.
Yes it is.. you could tell because it worked so well… the gm engineers couldn’t handle anything that revved over 5500 and gave up after they barely had it running.
Toyota powered 1967 Camaro.
http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/hrdp-0904-1967-toyota-powered-chevrolet-camaro/
Two words: Electric. S2000.
Seriously…the S2000 is supposed to have a motor that doesn’t make any torque until 6,000 rpm. Not one that makes 100% of its torque at 0 rpm.
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1084116_700-hp-electric-honda-s2000-built-by-high-schooler-video
(I’m taking liberty with the question requiring an engine since Ford Motor Company produces engines and not motors but is still called a motor company so they must be synonyms, right?)
“since Ford Motor Company produces engines and not motors”
What do you think powers the windows, door locks, seats, HVAC fan, parking brake……..
Yes, but those are all out-sourced to other places…maybe.
Yup.
At least an electric motor’s ability to rev makes the regular S2k look like a diesel.
i guess i’m not super hip to the applied use of the lingo, but it seems to me that while a motor isn’t necessarily an engine, an automobile engine is a motor, is it not?
This swap makes me want to weep for humanity. Seriously the engine that comes in that car is largely the point.
Why, the BlaspHemi of course:
http://www.roadkill.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/blasphemi.jpg
But, I think putting a Chrysler Hemi in it is way cooler than anything else, so it’s not really blasphemous in my opinion.
Oh, but it is blasphemous — but I’m a blasphemer who revels in blasphemy, so that car is my jam.
But is it a real Hemi (an original Chrysler block and heads), or an aftermarket copy? I don’t have a problem with using an aftermarket Hemi, and even back in the day, installing a Hemi in drag racers like gassers was common.
Well, it’s a Mopar-manufactured crate engine, so I don’t know if that really counts or not since Mopar still makes Hemis and Mopar is owned by Chrysler.
That’s just getting even.
I don’t normally like ‘cross breeding’ like this especially since it’s not like it’s hard apparently, to get a Chevy v8.
But I like this one because I’m sick of seeing damn Chevys/LS swaps in everything and this is like the anti-LS swap.
(And I like Chrysler hemis, Roadkill & 55 Chevys too).
The Honda 3.5l V6 forced at gunpoint into the engine bay of a few lucky 2004-2007 Saturn VUE CUVs.
http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/jss21382/2011-03-06_212713_29225270009_large.jpg
The induction system on that bothers me. Could they not have rotated the intake manifold?
The 2.2L wasn’t that much better for execution either.
http://images.gtcarlot.com/pictures/53006851.jpg
The one on my Frontier makes two 90 degree turns in opposite directions. It’s the silliest design.
Could they have moved the battery to the passenger side and made room for an airbox near the intake?
A few? It was every V6 model, Redline or not. Had to be tens of thousands.
And lucky it indeed was. The J35 made that plastic fantastic CUV scoot, as it was in more/less the same tune as the larger/heavier Pilot, Odyssey, and MDX.
Honda got the uglier end of the deal there, acquiring Isuzu’s 1.7L diesel for use in EDM cars, as the demand was there, but legend has it that Honda’s powertrain engineers had no desire to design a loud, smelly, vibratey diesel (Garrison Keillor told me so).
And don’t forget the JDM Isuzu Aska back when Isuzu was owned by GM. And Isuzu sold cars as well.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/ISUZU_ASKA3-1.jpg/800px-ISUZU_ASKA3-1.jpg
Okay, but that’s not just a borrowed engine. That’s a whole borrowed Accord.
Yes it is. But it’s part of the swap that saw Honda engines in GM vehicles
Those can be a nightmare to fix. I did service management/service writing for years. We had one with what should be a routine repair, needed an alternator. The usual parts houses ones didn’t fit or didn’t charge. Saturn dealer one didn’t charge. Honda dealer one didn’t charge. We had to put the customer in a rental, my manager ended up finding one online that worked. I don’t know where from though.
Any non-Chevy car, especially a Ford or a Pontiac, with small block Chevy in it. Recently, there was a ’67 Pontiac Tempest for sale in the Hemmings. It still had the 326 emblems on the front fenders, but a SBC 350 under the hood. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I imagine you give a pass to Pontiacs with factory installed SBCs, like 3rd and 4th gen Trans Ams?
And the ’04-’06 GTO, I hope.
No, I consider that blasphemy, too.
I suppose you’re entitled to feel that way, but the LS was never marque specific. Actually, the gen II “Chevy” small block wasn’t, either. It’s more accurate to call it the GM small block by that point.
At least that’s under the same overall corporation. Eventually, GM did the same thing anyway, disallowing individual brands to produce their own engines (with a few exceptions).
I know a guy who put an Olds Rocket engine in a ’41 Ford Cabriolet. But he did it in 1959, so no one I know is old enough to nay-say him.
My dad had a rather silly 307ci SBC in his ’55 IH R-line pickup in the early ’70’s. It breathed through a tunnel ram, wouldn’t idle below 2000, and redlined at 8000 (which required triple valve springs); the one time it was on a dragstrip it ran something in the 13’s.
If your Grand National has a 350 in it, it’s no longer a Grand National. If your Cosworth Vega (pictured above, thanks OA5599) has a 350 in it, it’s not a Cosworth anymore.
A 350 in a Regal is fine. A 350 in a Vega is fine. Just keep them out of the special versions, when what makes them special is the engine.
Likewise, any LeMans or Tempest Sprint that has had the OHC Six swapped for a V8.
http://only-carz.com/data_images/gallery/02/pontiac-tempest-le-mans-sprint-conv/pontiac-tempest-le-mans-sprint-conv-04.jpg
A ’67 Tempest Sprint is a dream of mine.
Same here, specifically a 4-speed 4-door hardtop (Yes, you could get one; I believe I read somewhere they made like two or three of them.).
On the flip side, I would have no problem retrofitting a Sprint OHC Six into just about anything.
I’ll take my sprint in a coupe please. My uncle had a firebird with sprint six that he v8 swapped in the late 70’s. Car gods where unhappy and pushed him off the road and all he had left was what he didn’t want the sprint six.
A German BMW-designed V12 in the quintessential English car – the Rolls Royce Phantom.
Do you also oppose the use of a German Audi-designed V10 used in an Italian car – the Gallardo?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/2010_Australian_International_Motor_Show_-_20101016_SX1IS_025_-_Flickr_-_smjb.jpg/1920px-2010_Australian_International_Motor_Show_-_20101016_SX1IS_025_-_Flickr_-_smjb.jpg
Or what about an Italian-ish V10 used in a German car?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Audi_R8_5.2_FSI.JPG/1280px-Audi_R8_5.2_FSI.JPG
Not as much, perhaps because the thought of flying in a Rolls Royce powered aircraft doesn’t make my sphincter pucker as it does when contemplating Lambo powered flight.
I object more to the Cruella-DeVille’s-car styling. Instead of a stylish classy design, it is a collage of style elements blown up to cartoonish proportions.
Another, related BMW V12 was in the last of the Crewe built models as well. The Rolls Royce Silver Seraph.
It’s twin the Bentley Arnage had a twin turbo BMW V8 in it until the VW boys arrived and Piech told the Bentley and VW engineering staff that they weren’t going to use a rival’s engines and that if they couldn’t make the old L series Rolls Royce V8 meet emissions controls they would have to find themselves new jobs. Within a few months the BMW V8 was no longer being used and the L series V8 was in.
Still wholly produced in England, it’s the longest produced production auto engine and at the same time the most torquey/powerful car engine made to date. And it still meets all emissions standards worldwide.
Rolls Royce in Goodwood is probably described more accurately as an assembly operation rather than a manufacturing one. It’s not just the engines that are imported from Europe. All the aluminium body panels are imported as is the transmission and suspension parts. In much the same way as NZ, Australian or South Africa assembled Rovers, Jaguars, Peugeots and Ramblers were, the leather and wood trim are locally sourced. In many many ways the current Rolls Royces are very German cars, rather than British.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Rolls-Royce_Silver_Seraph_1999.jpg
The Tuesday answer is a Yamaha transverse four with downdraft carbs in a 1938 DKW. My blood, it boils.
http://pipeburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/DSC_0173_hero.jpg
Bastards!
On the other hand this would be an excellent candidate for the new BMW 4 out of an S1000RR
I struggle to forget this axis-power Wartburg 311 with a Subaru engine and Porsche brakes:
http://13252-presscdn-0-94.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/plugins/PostviaEmail/images/1958_Wartburg_311_Modified_Porsche_Race_Car_For_Sale_resize.jpg
Equal parts blasphemy and genius.
I’m surprised no American has posted this factory offense yet:
http://s26.postimg.org/kcy658ay1/Caddy_Diesel.jpg
This has an aluminum Buick 215 V8 in it, making it the worst combination of everything.
I’d say that Buick mill is the least of the problems here
Yeah, there are some Bugs to work out.
Yeah, at least 7 stemming from the Lotus stuff alone.
Flaming phallus?
Ace and Gary’s rainy day car.
I would list it on Craigslist as a Lotus 7 replica and let the hate wash over me.
I would list it simply as a Super Beetle.
Super(b) Beetle.
Scrotus
You could do both and see which gets the most hate mail.
And offers.
Looks like a Craigslist Crapshoot find.
It reminds me of the “Prangler”, the early Plymouth Prowler mule with a Prowler front and a Wrangler body from the A-post rearward…
“…the weirdly low windshield that needs to be replaced….”
My guess is MG Midget. The kit may very well have been designed around its use.
This wild 1936 Dodge pickup with a 5-cylinder Deutz air-cooled diesel engine.
source : http://blog.hemmings.com/?p=512752
That isn’t blasphemy. Mad genius, perhaps.
I wouldn’t want to be seen in it, but I’d drive it.
That what full face helmets are for.
I would drive that thing everywhere. Cept in the winter old old water cooled diesels are cranky enough I can only imagine that duetze is ice cold.
http://www.automotiveaddicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/front-cover-1.jpg http://www.automotiveaddicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/back-cover-2.jpg
I mostly don’t care for LS1-swapped RX7’s and 8’s. I know, it burns oil and blows up frequently, but the rotary is the whole point of the thing. A 350Z is already kind of ruined (and cheap enough as well), I’m much more okay with the idea of a 350(Cu In)Z.
To me the appeal of the 3rd generation RX-7 lies in the beauty of its styling, its compact size, and its light weight. Yes, adding an LS makes it a Japanese Corvette, but I can’t see a negative in that.
So build a V8 Miata and save the Angry Triangles?
Or just build a Rotary Miata and have the best of both…
Rotary is a large point of the RX cars. I’m with you. It’s not like there isn’t other RWD platforms that can handle that come w LS power already or can be swapped. It’s lazy and unimaginative. Especially given that RX7s, especially the last gen twin turbo ones are pretty rare just to have someone hack it up.
Currently contemplating repowering my Alfa instead of another Nord rebuild. The (for its time) innovative factory engine is one of the very few redeeming qualities of a largely miserable vehicle. Replacing it with someone else’s newer and more reliable four banger makes sense from a practical perspective but just seems wrong. The only befitting upgrade I can think of is an Alfa V6 out of a Milano or 164.
How about a twinspark out of a 75 as well? Look up Alfaholics if you want some financially crippling ideas 🙂
Alfa Parts Exchange (APE) makes a kit for that, you know….I want one…. Now: would you put one in a Duetto or would that be blasphemy?
No Cummins diesel?
/Runs ‘n hides…
I have a feeling idle alone would fold up the car like a cast off Wrigley’s wrapper
Ms. Martin had a 20R powered Sprite I believe. That thing wasn’t really blasphemous though.
This Ford flathead powered Camaro (that was featured here on the ‘Verse of Hoon a few years back) is a pretty unholy alliance but, as I said at the time, it’s sort of karmic (carmic?) justice for the umpteen million pre-’49 Fords that have received Chevy Small Blocks over the decades.
http://i1.wp.com/hooniverse.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Fullscreen-capture-8112012-100337-AM.jpg?resize=663%2C677
Agreed. It’s like hearing that a mobster got iced: foul, but equitable.
Actually, it’s more like hearing that ice got mobstered…
I would enjoy taking that to a bowtie show and listening to the comments from a discreet location.
Any British sports car with an American engine installed just to go racing. I’ll double down and say any British sports car horrifically modified to fit a crap American engine that completely destroys the characteristics of the original car.
http://sanfranciscosportscars.com/1965-shelby-cobra-427-sc/1965-shelby-cobra-427-sc-007.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Sunbeam_Tiger_in_Yountville_2013.jpg/1280px-Sunbeam_Tiger_in_Yountville_2013.jpg
“Sunbeam Tiger in Yountville 2013” by Cullen328 – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunbeam_Tiger_in_Yountville_2013.jpg#/media/File:Sunbeam_Tiger_in_Yountville_2013.jpg
By “destroys the characteristics of the original car”, I assume you mean “Doesn’t leak oil or blow head gaskets, starts when it’s cold, and makes better power density (hp/lb)”.
I feel strangely ok with that, especially in a motorsports context.
If you don’t care about handling, or looks, go buy a Mustang.
Any BMW Motorrader, with damn rotax. The BMW guys even hate them and usually opt for the KLR650.
I was at a rally in Alabama, one of these was on the sidestand with no key in the ignition. it started up, went 10 feet, fell over, and turned off !! Have witnesses. The dealers used to charge 4 – 500 up front to do any work in the engine bay area.
I have less of an issue with interbreeding between countries. But Ford and GM are like kissing cousins. Just ‘ew. No. Bad. Wrong. Ain’t natural.
It’s not like you can’t get/build a badass Ford v8.
Exactly, but if you want a V8 in your Mazda, what you supposed to do? Stick a Yota V8 in? Disgusting.
I wouldn’t because, personally a v8 in a Miata doesn’t appeal to me.
Id rather have a boosted Mazda 4 banger, or rotary. Or hayabusa (yes it’s been done!)
Donedeal, Irelands answer to craiglist spews out this..
https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/toyota-mr2/11184239
SW20 MR2 with an Avensis* D4D diesel. Now I know some of you in the US who still find Diesel exotic and interesting rather than the motive force of drudgemobiles might think this is sort of awesome, but you’d be wrong. Tractor engine + nimble sports car = all sorts of wrong. Still, got to respect the quality/finish of the build.
*imagine a Camry, only a bit smaller smaller, more rubbish and even more boring, as mind boggling as that concept might be.
I assume it was done to get extra high mpg?
it’s a pretty safe assumption, word is that it was built with a European road trip in mind, even still, seems like a lot of hassle to save a bit of fuel for one road trip.
To the first guy who ever put a gm small block into that t-bucket or 32 ford, you ruined it thanks.
It’s on the number plate.
What motor would you put in this?
Perhaps a rotary? Might as well sell it as a Mazda.
http://www.amcarguide.com/wp-content/gallery/folden/folden-mustang-holden-hq-new-zealand-02.jpg
https://static.squarespace.com/static/51e3eef7e4b046d0d009ca7c/533290ebe4b0ef05f98d29ce/533290ece4b0ef05f98d31b2/1272975296059/1000w/Folden-Holden-HQ-Ford-Mustang-8.jpg
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–EdfXiLjj–/c_fill,fl_progressive,g_north,h_358,q_80,w_636/18e8hs8tvavjojpg.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1291/4668712028_b701253335_z.jpg