<![CDATA[Jalopnik: Backyard Lambo Of The Day]]> http://tags.jalopnik.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jalopnik.com.png <![CDATA[Jalopnik: Backyard Lambo Of The Day]]> http://jalopnik.com/tag/backyardlambooftheday http://jalopnik.com/tag/backyardlambooftheday <![CDATA[Project Car Hell, End Of The World Edition: Fairlaneborghini or 1956 Lagonda 3 Litre Saloon?]]> Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! We took it easy on you last time, but we're getting into some serious Hell Projects today.

Taking on the Citroën CX Pallas that won the last Choose Your Eternity poll would be akin to dragging a washing machine through a 100-yard gauntlet of meth-crazed chimps armed with tire irons... in other words, a walk in the park compared to the projects we'll be contemplating today. Adopting either one of today's exquisite machines would feel much like donning a wetsuit stuffed with Asian Giant Hornets and climbing into a Drum Debarker filled with burning creosote-soaked railroad ties and radioactive dioxin bottles packed with selenium tetra-azide. But, dammit, they're totally worth the pain!

Much as we love the Fieroborghini, bolting some Italian-looking plastic body panels on a Fiero isn't all that heroic a project (though installing a Cadillac 500 engine and front-drive transaxle out of an Eldorado does get our respect). No, your Fauxborghini needs more sweat, more blood, and a Nile's worth of tears. We're talking about a quasi-scratch-built backyard Countach here, based on a Detroit family car from the 1960s. That means something along the lines of this 1967 Ford-based Lamborghini project (go here if the listing disappears), which could obliterate drop into your life with megaton force for $795 or "an interesting trade option." Why, that price is down in 24 Hours Of LeMons territory (and I can guarantee a great deal of judicial slack when examining the budget of any team with the guts to bring this vehicle to a LeMons race), but we think it would be even more fun on the street. Now, this Fauxborghini- which appears to be have some '67 Fairlane DNA- lacks a few of the features you'd find on the real deal. We're pretty sure that Ferrucio Lamborghini never installed front drum brakes on any of his cars, and the same goes for the leaf-spring rear suspension. As for the drivetrain, it appears to be a Ford Windsor V8 mounted backwards and driving... well, we're not sure. Maybe a V-drive of some kind? A shaft coming off the front of the crank and driving a flipped-over Porsche 944 transaxle? Or maybe this project is meant to be a mid-engined front-wheel-drive car, which would be so completely wrong that it's just perfect! Thanks to Josef for the tip!

You'd be a Project Car Hell God or Goddess for sure, were you to get that Fairlaneborghini into daily-driver condition, but we understand that sometimes you need a generous helping of classic British luxury in your project. No, we don't mean yet another Jaguar, or even a Bentley or Rolls. We're talking Lagonda here! That's right, an Aston Martin-built updated version of the W. O. Bentley-designed prewar Lagondas, a car you have no hope in hell of ever obtaining. But wait! A miracle has occurred, and it has become possible to buy this 1956 Lagonda 3 Litre Saloon in a no-reserve eBay auction. Even better, the current top bid is only $1,000. Really! We're forced to admit that a few flies have found their way into the ointment here; in fact, the ointment is pretty much entirely flies. First of all, the incredible Lagonda Straight Six engine that propelled Aston Martin to glory in the 1950s... well, it's as gone as D.B. Cooper, and probably just as difficult to find today. The seller himself states that this project is "Broken down, incomplete and a restoration project only for the relentlessly ambitious or deranged." But come on, how hard could it be? Just start by getting yourself an appropriately powerful inline-six engine- say, this 2JZGTE/6-speed combo deal, for example- and then start casting and/or machining all the missing trim pieces from scratch. As for the interior, you'd be amazed what $500 will buy you at a Tijuana upholstery shop. No problem!



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<![CDATA[PCH, Crypto-Italian Kit Cars Edition: Siata Spring or Belgian Backyard Lamborghini?]]> Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! You want a project car that's different, don't you?

Of course you do! Oh, sure, you'd have fun with a Lotus Esprit or Fiat 124 Sport Coupe (incidentally, the Lotus beat the Fiat rather handily in the Choose Your Eternity poll), but you wouldn't have the pride of driving a total oddball orphan genuinely unique machine. That's exactly what we've got for you today!

You may not have heard of Siata, but they were once legendary for their Fiat-based (and even Crosley-powered) sports cars. The Siata Spring was based on the rear-engined Fiat 850 chassis, and you'd have a helluva time finding one… until now. We've got this '69 Siata Spring (go here if the ad disappears), which seems to run and doesn't suffer from much rust. What could go wrong, then? Well, a weirdo conversion of a nervous Italian machine, done by a now-defunct company… do we need to draw a diagram? This thing is going to be a never-ending project, so you might as well start figuring out how to stuff a WRX engine in the back!

Normally we wouldn't consider a VW-engined Lamborghini copy to be a true Fauxborghini, but that rule wasn't made for the likes of this fine Belgian machine (go here if the ad disappears). I'm not so good at reading Dutch or French, but that doesn't matter much here. Just look at the photos and you won't care about the "chassi et moteur vw" part! It appears to be a particle-board and duct-tape interpretation of a Countach, no doubt built in a Belgian prison from smuggled-in components and based entirely on a verbal description of the original car. It's only 1,000 Euros, and you could make it your own! Thanks to Doede for the tip!



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<![CDATA[Backyard Lambo Of The Day: Cadillac Northstar-Powered Diablo]]> If you're going to put a Detroit V8 with FWD transaxle amidships in your Fauxborghini and for some reason the Olds Toronado 425 (or even the 500-cube powerplant from a 1970 Eldorado) doesn't do it for you, how about the readily available Cadillac Northstar? That's what we've got here, and it can be yours for just $22,000!

[Craigslist Knoxville]


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<![CDATA[Backyard Lambo Of The Day: Hawaiian Diablo With Big-Block Chevy Power]]> The Turbo Buick-powered Fauxborghini Diablo we saw yesterday looked pretty quick, but only 400 horsepower? The real thing came with more like 500 horses, so we had to find a Fauxborghini that could beat that figure. Sure enough, here's this tube-frame brute that gets 600 fuel-injected horsepower (or maybe that's bullpower) out of a good ol' reliable big-block Chevy 427. It seems to have been built pretty well, and the price is under 42 grand. Yeah, the huge carbon fiber shift knob is horrid, but you'll be able to buy a new one with all the money you save on engine parts.

[eBay Motors]


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<![CDATA[Backyard Lambo Of The Day: Canadian Turbo Buick-Powered Diablo]]> Just to show that not all Fauxborghinis are Fieroborghinis, we've got another tube-frame, turbo Buick V6-powered machine, from way up north in Alberta. The engine has a claimed 400 horses, feeding a modified Audi transaxle… but, sadly, it appears that only two of the wheels are being driven. We can't help but think that it would have been more fun to put some kind of Big Daddy Roth-style bubble-canopy body on a setup like this, but the world prefers Lambos!


[eBay Motors]

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<![CDATA[Backyard Lambo Of The Day: The Missouri Olds Toronado-fied Countach]]> Nobody seems sick of this series after one repetition, so we're back for more homebuilt Lamborghini glory today! What we've got here is not a Fieroborghini; much like the Indiana Turbo Buick Countach, this Fauxborghini is based on a tube-frame chassis. The best part? The powerplant: a torque-brute 425 engine and front-wheel-drive transaxle from a 1960s Oldsmobile Toronado, installed amidships just like a real Lambo! Unlike a real Lambo, it's a 3-speed automatic, but gear selection is pretty much irrelevant with an Olds big-block. Sure, maybe the handling and braking isn't up to Lamborghini standards, but acceleration and top speed should be outstanding, what with 360 (or more) Olds ponies behind you.


[Craigslist Kansas City, go here if the ad disappears]

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<![CDATA[Backyard Lambo Of The Day: The Redding Fieroborghini Murcielago!]]> I found so many backyard-built Fauxborghinis while trying to find a suitable opponent for the '72 Stutz Blackhawk in last Friday's PCH that it seems a shame not to share some of the better ones with our readers (no, I'm not going to do a whole week of Fauxborghini PCH challenges). Hence this new (and no doubt short-lived) series: Backyard Lambo Of The Day! Today's BLOTD hails from the woods of Northern California, where the availability of good cheap beer from the nearby Sierra Nevada brewery seems to make a keyboard's CAPS LOCK key incredibly alluring. I can't slog through the entire description without getting a terrible headache, but I've gleaned sufficient info to say that we've got a mean-looking Murcielago replica on a stretched frame, with a stroked V6 sitting next to it. The seller was going to finish the project and sell it for $85,000, but he or she lacks the time and garage space to finish the project and that means it's priced at a mere 20 grand. Hmmm... you can get running BMW 750iLs for next to nothing these days- why not buy a cheap engine-donor car and build yourself a V12 Fieroborghini with this car?

[Craigslist Chico, go here if ad disappears]

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