SEMA starts tomorrow but the last-minute build reveals have been showing up online for the past week or so, which prompted a discussion in the office recently about how the approach modifying to classic cars might change in the future. It’s not an easy thing to predict; so many subcategories make up the generalized state of the modified car world, and the same is true when those cars aren’t new ones.
It appears that many of the same basic routes will continue to be taken in the future—restomods, backdates, race replica conversions, powertrain swaps, all things that have been happening for some time—but the approaches to each path seem to be changing and becoming more extreme over time—it’s hard to stay the same and harder to go backwards when a major part of point is to change things. Just look how many plug-and-play engine swap kits exist today versus a decade or two ago; re-bodied cars are nothing new, but very few people were putting modern chassis underneath classic bodies recreated in carbon fiber; and there was nothing like a Singer-modified Porsche twenty years ago. Like the very basic idea of what a car should do (move people around on the ground), there are only so many ways to go about getting it done. If it’s modifying classics, it’s less a question of “What will happen?” than it is “To what degree?”
What do you think about the current trends and the where they’re pointing us? What do you think is a trend? Is the attitude toward modifying older cars changing as they become rarer and more valuable in general? For some examples of what look to be the major routes taken in the course of customizing something deemed classic, here are a few that we’ve featured over the past year or so. Let us know your opinions, and in the meantime we’ll keep our eyes on the good stuff (not the bedazzled SUVs) to come at SEMA this week. To learn more about any of the cars featured below, links to full articles and galleries are included at the bottom.
Full-Service Restomods
Replica And Race Car Conversions
Engine Swaps
“Chassis Swaps”
Period-Correct Visual Changes
Continuations
if you want to read and see more of the cars pictured, here are the links with photography credits:
MZR Roadsport Datsun 240Z – Will Broadhead
911 with Singer DLS modifications – Singer Vehicle Design
911 ST Replica – Patrice Minol
Jag V12-Powered Ferrari 365GT 2+2 – Jamie Ferguson
SR20-Swapped Datsun 510 – Daniel Piker
Volvo Amazon-bodied BMW E30 – Daniel Piker
BMW E34 M5 – Alex Sobran
Acura Integra Type R – Ian Wood
Jaguar D-Type Continuation – Jaguar Land Rover
