Video: LS-Swapped Subaru Impreza

First off, LS series engines are a new obsession of mine. Secondly, I just so happen to own a Subaru Impreza.  So, it seems fitting that I post up a video of an LS-engine swapped Subaru.  The video claims LS-2, but I think it’s actually a cast iron 6.0L LQ4.  Be sure to crank your volume way up for this one. It sounds delish.

Can’t see the video?  Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3P0fNRk82Q

Because Beautiful Welding Never Gets Old.

In the past, we have touched upon my borderline insane slight obsession with welding once or twice. I just can’t seem to get over the inherent beauty of taking two solid metals, liquifying them with massive amounts of electricity, and watching them flow into each other while hiding behind copious amounts of safety equipment. It’s unbelievably gratifying. The ultra violet light shines brilliantly from the tip of the torch as if it were full of magic, which it is. You are more or less in charge of a mini version of the sun, and you can do whatever you want with it. Liquify a little mild steel here, then maybe some aluminum over there, and if you feel wild, you challenge yourself on some copper.  Then, when that perfect weld happens, you feel as if you just invented the wheel.  High 5’s are handed out by the dozen, and much rejoicing takes place.  Unfortunately, to make consistently beautiful welds takes crazy amounts of skill.  The kind of rare skill that many people do not have, including myself.  The good news is that some of those rare people that are that good at welding take pictures of their work for people like us to sit back and dream about.  “Califonia Jay” from VWVortex is one of those people. Read More

The DKW-Vemag Munga Candango Carries Cows!

Yes, this is real life. A cow in a Candango.
Yes, this is real life. A cow in a Candango.

I always like to start off the first week after daylight savings time with a little bit o’ DKW-Vemag Munga Candango.  For just 850 bucks, you can grab your very own engineless rolling skeleton of one on eBay.  Oh wait, I forgot, nobody actually knows what the heck a DKW-Vemag Munga Candango is. Let me explain….

From what I understand, DKW was a part of the Auto Union over in Germany, and they came up with this universal vehicle called the “Munga”. For all intents and purposes, it was basically a 2 stroke, 3 cylinder, German Jeep.  It had 4 wheel drive, could carry cows, and wasn’t even afraid to jump into a river from time to time.  They were built in Germany between 1956-68, but that wasn’t the only place.  They were also built in Brazil under a different, but equally fun to say, model name.  The “Candango”.  Fun right?  So DKW hooked up with this Brazilian car company named Vemag, who actually produced these little things under their own name.  The Candango production began in 1958, but after just 5 short years, it fizzled out because nobody really wanted one.  After all, cows do look ridiculous driving around in cars. Read More

Jay Leno’s 66 Galaxy

I caught a pretty good episode the other night of My Classic Car; Dennis Gage did the show with Jay Leno and the 66 Ford Galaxy that he built.

Now this story begins when Jay Leno was 16, he went with his mother and father to the Ford dealership to pick out a new car for the family. Jay’s father looked around the lot and went into the showroom and the only thing that the dealer had were Ford Fairlanes and Falcons. His father wanted a bigger car than those, one that he could go for a ride with the family in. His father decided to custom order the Galaxy.

Jay started bothering his father saying “let me pick the engine,  I want to pick the engine”! His mother told his father to just let him have fun and pick the engine, because what could possibly go wrong? Jay pulled the salesman to the side and said “here’s what we want” we want the 428, and we also want the muffler delete option. (The muffler delete option in those days was a set of glass packs.) Read More

The 1955 Porsche 356 `Silver Bullett`

Back in 1992, Jeff Dutton of Australia was building a fantastically hotrodded Porsche 356 ……errr ……914? Whatever it was, it turned out to be one of the cooler looking Porsches that I have laid my eyes upon.  From what I understand, Jeff’s family was in the coach building business since the early 1900’s, and this is where Jeff honed his skills that were needed to build the “Silver Bullett”.

The Silver Bullett actually began its life as two cars that were only vaguely related, like 2nd cousins.  The first being a Porsche 914, and the second being a rough looking 1955 356 continental coupe.  Some purists weren’t too thrilled about the fact that Jeff cut up a rare ’55 356, but who knows, maybe the 356 was 1 step away from turning to dust?   Read More