I have no idea if it’s still around, but a decade or so ago I heard about an electric dragster someone built with an electric drive train in the body of an early 1970s Datsun. It was the ultimate sleeper, and would completely blow the doors off of traditional muscle cars at the drag strip.
LOL. My wife drives a Leaf. She once came to a red light next to a kid in a souped up Mustang, blipping his throttle. On the green light she mashed the go pedal and enjoyed the look on the kid’s face because he couldn’t leave her in his dust.
The “G-Wagen” is (was?) actually designed and built by Puch in Austria … so yes, the austrian army drives those:
and also (no longer) the :
Puch Haflinger:
and the Puch Pinzgauer:
- which existed in 4x4 and 6x6 configurations.
needless to say, all 3 are highly capable off-road vehicles… I distinctly recall the ability to lock out both the rear and front diff in the Puch-G during my time in the army … Things were fairly relaxed in the 1990ies and quite often they would off-road together with Jeeps ™ … and run circles around them 
Pinzgauer and Haflinger are alpine horse breeds … so the nomenclature is not unlike Laborghini
…
ohh … and don’t get me started on Unimogs …
Wow I’d love to have a Puch Pinzgauer. I can meet my friend who has two Unimogs!
But first I think I’d rather have a deuce-and-a-half. My first military driving experience was (illegally) borrowing one to drive all throughout the LA area picking up Toys for Tots barrels. I was a young and ballsy (and naive) Lance Corporal and my sergeant said let’s go for it! That was fun, but if I was caught, or worse yet got into a fender bender, I was going to be in REAL trouble.
Because I didn’t have a military driver’s license at the time. I’d finally get one some six years later, after many more illegal, sans-license driving expeditions.
Another obstacle is getting this plan past the boss (da wife!).
Just ran across this and it reminded me of the sleeper side conversation (starts around 50 seconds in, but it should be cued up)
There are a couple of cute Youtube compilations of sleeper cars at drag tracks.
Does anyone still make kit cars? Back in the “VW bugs are everywhere and cheap” days, there were beautiful kits like the Bradley GT, fun Dune Buggies, the Myers Manx, and the 1980 Tiger kit car that evoked a classic Morgan.
Here are some kits on barnfinds.com that were “assembled” back in the '70s, but I wish someone was making cool bodies TODAY.
Sporty cars that could get bolted onto an easily-purchased car…(a VW bug isn’t anymore). A Civic? A Corolla? A Ford Focus or Fiesta?
That’s very cool Bullitt. And good for you. Good use of Government. Seriously sometimes you do need to say “I’m going to do this”. I’m glad you did that. So are the kids.
You are bringing back memories though…
At my Wifes best friends wedding, a different friend drove up in a deuce-and-a-half. When the ceremony was over, the wedding party all jumped in back and drove around town. Horn blazing all or us in full wedding attire. We where quite the site.
We made an impromptu parade.
Surprisingly, there where no injuries that day.
Very cool! And very memorable!
I’m sure they do, but I feel like in the 90’s there was a shift to modding cars instead of getting body kits. You couldn’t get near a high school in the 90’s without hearing a Honda CRX farting it’s way down the road and a little over a decade later we have The Fast and the Furious. Now, instead of spending all that money on a body kit, you can use it to replace half your engine with brightly colored anodized aluminum parts.
Unrelated, but I thought of it while typing this, but if anyone hasn’t seen Baby Driver, it’s well worth a watch. Here’s the opening scene:
These guys make classic rod kits for modern chassis.
Here’s a company that makes baby Hummer kits for classic Beetles but the site hasn’t been updated since 2007 so they might not still be around. The world’s largest VW collection had one:
Take a look here:
Their Mk4 Roadster is a replica of the Shelby Cobra. You supply the running gear parts from a 1987-2004 Mustang GT donor car, buy their $15,000 kit, and put them together. Or you can get the kit plus new running gear from them for $21,000, and all you have to provide are an engine, transmission, wheels, and tires.
The also have a replica of a Shelby Daytona (also built on a Mustang), a “GTM supercar” you build on a C5 Corvette, a 911 knock-off (Subaru WRX), and a hot rod.
I’ve driven one of the Mk4s on track, and it was a lot of fun.
On that note, the Beetle was the first car I really noticed transition from “regular car” to “classic collectible”. Even though they stopped selling new ones in the US before I was born (I was born in 1980), but in the 1980s and into the 90s there were still plenty of Bugs on the road being used as regular cheap transportation. They never really went away, but at some point they all ended up in the hands of car enthusiasts and now they’re all either pristine restored examples, or customized. Or you’ll see the ones with the intentional “patina”.
They still are – in Mexico.
You will occasionally see a Mexican Beetle in California. The easy tell is that the front turn signals are on the bumper rather than the fender. I assume older ones can be brought in under the 25 year rule.
IIRC production of the original Beetle in Mexico ended in 2003. I believe it was production of the new Beetle (apparently built in the same factory) that ended four years ago.
Yeah, you’re right; I’ve retracted that part. That article is a little confusing.
I didn’t know other Chevrolets used the Corvette logo, but here’s an Impala.
Saw my first new Prius. Definitely slick, and a very dramatic improvement over the previous generations.
There have been other variants as well.
I think this is a Dodge Charger Ute conversion from Smyth Kit Cars
