Join the Family

Sign up to receive the weekly newsletter featuring the very latest from Petrolicious. Don’t be left out—join the ranks of those who Drive Tastefully.

Already a member?

How was the drive?

We're glad you're back.

Not a member yet?

Forgot your password?

Reset Your Password

We'll get you back on track.

Journal: From Another Mother: What's Your No-Expense-Spared Dream Car & Engine-Swap Combo?

From Another Mother: What’s Your No-Expense-Spared Dream Car & Engine-Swap Combo?

By Alex Sobran
September 10, 2018
23 comments

2002 photography by Patrick Stevenson, Bavaria photography by Andrew Golseth, Range Rover photography by Daniel Piker, 912 photography by Ian Wood

“Hillclimb specials” have benefited from some weird and wonderful marriages of motor and chassis for some time now (look up a certain Fiat X1/9 and a Judd-powered M3 if YouTube isn’t blocked in your office), and the swaths of pushrod V8 GMWs and LSX-7s popping hoods at Cars & Coffees only seem to be expanding the population of cars powered by heart transplants in the last few years, but let’s get a little hypothetical and pretend we have access to the machinery and bank accounts that we see in dreams; imagine a Matra V12 stuffed into a BMW M1, for instance. Perhaps a 917/30’s turbo flat-twelve matched in unholy union with a carved-up 914.

Obviously some combinations won’t fly in any stretch of the practical world, but let’s just say you have a team of engineers who like helping you modify frame rails on their days off from their NASA contractor’s gig. What would you put into what? And better yet, if you have an inkling of it might feasibly be done, please don’t be shy in sharing some of your keyboard speculations.

 

Tags Engine Swap/ Questions Asked/ Restomod
Join the Conversation
View Comments

23
Related
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
23 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Agustín J. Ruatta
Agustín J. Ruatta
3 years ago

I would swap a Colombo V12 into a ’53 Corvette (C1).
The most beautifull engine in the most beautifull car ever made.

3
RMBarnett
RMBarnett
4 years ago

Take the Chevrolet 350 TPI that came in my 1977 Jaguar XJC out, and replace it with the supercharged 395 hp 4.2L V8 from an XJR X350 series. Grin factor for days; bragging rights into the next year.

0
Daryl Pickering
Daryl Pickering
4 years ago

An Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 with the 4.7L V8 from the 8c disco volante driven through a gated manual transmission

1
Fee
Fee
5 years ago

What is the bmw pictured in this article? Gorgeous

0
trippy1
trippy1
5 years ago

I want to take a 92 LSC SE and put in the current coyote 5.0 V8, and add proper electronics.

0
PDXBryan
PDXBryan
5 years ago

I can’t believe I missed this one, this is my favorite subject. I tend to look at engine swaps a little differently , however. Ultimate power and speed aren’t what I’m after. Rather, useable power and efficiency combined with some degree of style and utility. Some favorites I’ve seen are:
Volvo 240 wagon w/ 200hp VW TDI engine
Volvo 122 wagon w/ BMW E30 chassis and M20 engine
Cortina wagon w/Lotus engine and suspension
and of course
Porsche 912 w/Subaru engine (hell, I wouldn’t evenneed the Turbo!)

Some others I’d like to try
Vega wagon w/Ecotec
Mk1 Capri w/Ecoboost
Corvair w/Subaru

And on and on and on……..

1
daryl pickering
daryl pickering
5 years ago

An Alfa romeo GTA Junior with the 3.2 Busso V6 from my 2004 GT

0
Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
5 years ago

I want a first generation BMW 6 series body on a newer M6 chassis with an S70 from the F1 matted to a 6 spd manual.

1
Jason Tan
Jason Tan
5 years ago

Aston Martin Vanquish S (body) + Ferrari 812 Superfast (engine) = Perfection. best looking Aston Martin ever with the most powerful V12 N/A engine made by Ferrari.

0
Mina Ingraham
Mina Ingraham
5 years ago

My actual hillclimb car is an 86 bmw 325 with ford 302 (306) power. Maybe a less exotic dream, but still my dream and she’s real…and rad.

1
Isaac Marlowe
Isaac Marlowe
5 years ago

I have three considerations. First would be to find an amg hammer coupe or maybe an even older benz and swap a manual trans and a supercharged 55 motor and handling upgrades. The other idea is to take a hudson hornet and put either an s52 or a 55 in it. Lastly if I could I would buy back my corvair that was my first vintage car and swap a porsche flat six in

0
Tharanga Wijayaratna
Tharanga Wijayaratna
5 years ago

A Jaguar V12 with electronic ignition and electronic fuel injection, coupled with overdrive automatic transmission and lockup converter on Series I XJ 12.

0
Straight
Straight
5 years ago

Alfa Romeo 4c spyder/Maclaren 570/650 spiders mated to the newest Porsche 4.0L flat six MT for the driving ideal, and a prewar Rolls Royce with a Tesla P100D (maybe Taycan guts if they prove well) for the elegance ideal. Those two would pretty much do it for me.

0
nudua93
nudua93
5 years ago

I dream of one day building a Mercedes (c124) 300CE AMG Hammer coupe replica/tribute with the 6.2 l v8 from the 63 AMG-models (M156). I think the wide body AMG-styling looks stunning, and I really like that engine. If the budget is sufficiently large, I would even swap the entire floor with everything from a newer car, like Piper Motorsport has done with a 190E EVO replica/tribute.

3
Brieuc de Grangechamps
Brieuc de Grangechamps
5 years ago

In the late-1970s I owned an Austin-Healey 3000 Mark III (BJ8, the model’s final iteration). The engine was very tired, however. I was renting a London house from a director of the company that owned the BMW distribution franchise for the UK. We discussed the possibility of putting a modern BMW 3.0-litre six and gearbox into the Healey, and were close to getting agreement up the line for a free engine to demonstrate ‘what if’. Then my landlord jumped ship to take another job, and the project inevitably died without his ‘sponsorship’.

My lottery-win Q-car would be a Citroen 2CV van body welded onto a crashed/rolled Porsche 911. I would keep the original cement-mixer engine in the front, unconnected, to both provide ballast and go endearingly ‘pocketa-pocketa-pocketa’ at traffic lights before launching furiously at the horizon.

And what about the glorious Lancia Thema 8:32? That was a brilliantly bonkers initiative.

1
Chris Cushing
Chris Cushing
5 years ago

Aston Martin 5.3L V12, one of the later variants from the DB9. Slap that son of a gun in to a Series III Jaguar XKE 2+2.

It’d need a six speed too, but a conventional one mounted behind the engine, not a rear mounted transaxle.

It’d need the requisite big brakes and uprated suspension, but I’d want it to look as stock as humanly possible from the outside.

Alternate: Fox Body Mustang Pace Car Edition with a 2.3 Ecoboost, 6-Speed, and built suspension. An Uber-SVO if you will.

1
Rockdad
Rockdad
5 years ago

And at one time I was hell bent on installing a 2.4 liter Ferrari engine in a VW transporter but then two guys came and offered me more than I could refuse for both my old flat window buses.

0
Rockdad
Rockdad
5 years ago

My favorite has to be a small block Chevy V8 that was installed in a Porsche 911 by a friend of mine who was a machinist at Dan Gurney’s All American Racers in Santa Ana, California. It blew people’s minds when John opened the engine cover and they saw it in there.

1
Jonathan WC Mills
Jonathan WC Mills
5 years ago

I’ve been wanting a restomod Volvo 122 for years. Speedhunters covered one of these two: http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/07/the-awd-turbo-v8-volvo-super-amazon/ – I think think they are same car. Reportedly now 750HP

0
Alvaro Colombiano
Alvaro Colombiano
5 years ago

Recently I was thinking about a cool engine for the rather slow VW sp2 1.7 flat 4 and the 917/30’s turbo flat-twelve you mentioned would be pretty amazing but if you want to be more conservative a period correct flat six 911 2.7 engine would be perfect!
from my visit to Brazil, I fall in love with those cars in the future if I have the money I want to bring one of these to Colombia.

0
Alvaro Colombiano
Alvaro Colombiano
5 years ago
Reply to  Alvaro Colombiano

jajajajajajaj estuvo buena esa Franz Kafka sarcasmo al 100 %

-1
Alvaro Colombiano
Alvaro Colombiano
5 years ago
Reply to  Alvaro Colombiano

My mistake, sorry for my last comment, by reading your comment in a hurry I understood it incorrectly, I was assuming the “Polo” word in another context…. I just didn’t know about the Polo Porsche Flat fours website until now.
And yes you you’re right but I was exaggerating with these engines especially with the Flat twelve… these Polo engines look like a perfect fit without doing much extra work, I will keep an eye on the Polo website thanks for pointing this on me.

And by the way is “Bato” not “Vato” (atleast in the correct use of Spanish)

3
PDXBryan
PDXBryan
5 years ago
Reply to  Alvaro Colombiano

Alvaro
I feel bad that Franz over-reacted to your misunderstanding. That’s not the first time he’s done that. It’s embarrassing to the community but definitely not representative. Most enthusiasts here are good, decent people. Please don’t let him chase you away.

0

Petrolicious Newsletter