5.7 L Hemi, ZF 8HP70 Swap
And as much as I love pro-touring mopars, that one in particular is my least favorite. First off, it had a shady history and was possibly an original 440-6 pack car (someone may have swapped VINs in its lifetime). Even if it wasn't original, it already had a 440-6 in there and was restored to a very high caliber. I believe it was also sublime green before. Second off, they change the suspension and chassis completely and strayed far from the original chassis and suspension design. To me, that's a slap in the face to the Chrysler Engineers of the late 60's and early 70's. With their mentality back then, they'd probably still be able to school a bunch of engineers in today's day and age. Third, they stuck an LS engine into it because it was "cheaper" when the owner through 10's of thousands of dollars on the rest of the car. It was already a pretty pricey car to begin with. There is nothing "Mopar" about that "Challenger" except for parts of the body. It's just another case of a guy who has deeper pockets than brains. He could have probably built an identical looking Challenger, that would have performed just as well utilizing stock-like style suspension (or at least a tubular K), and a Hemi for cheaper or just as much.
Have you ever hung out with the import crowd? Have you ever talked to an RX7 enthusiast about throwing in an LS into it? They will chew you out to bits. The RX7 mentality believe the Rotary is the Holy Trinity of life. The only reason why they throw LS engines into 240sx's is because it's cost effective and less complicated vs throwing in a turbo 4. Now you might be thinking, "Thanks for supporting my argument." Here's where things turn around... The main difference between a 240sx and a Barracuda (or any mopar for that matter) is that Nissan made approximately 260,000 of them in the states. Look on CL and you can find plenty of them running in the $500-1000 range. They're throw away cars. Why do you think they use them in drifting all the time. Part of it is they were engineered well, but the other part is because they're dirt cheap and another one is waiting to be pulled out of the junkyard if you crash yours. The next time you crash a mopar, tell me how easy it will be to find a very close replacement. I'm talking about same body style, options, condition (physically and mechanically), and within a 2 year span of your car.These are "tuner cars and race cars" by definition of whats being done to them. what would you say give/take 5-10% of this forum build these cars as 100% oem for shows while the rest build street/strip cars, tuned cruisers, the rare roadrace setup, or pure strip cars Why do an LS in an RX7? Why do an LS into anything old? Afterall, there are plenty of second hand camaros, corvettes, etc that already have them and we've all seen those build to absurd scales. Why would anyone do such a thing?? Could it be that someone likes a particular look, but doesn't want all the downsides of what the factory offered? As for the dimwits who would tell me "I ruined the car". That's his simple minded opinion and means nothing. In 40 years presumably the LS car will still be driving around because it has something to offer to the next generation of car nuts. The purist car? Locked away in a family garage with no one to drive it or rotting away in a yard. I'm sure the owner of this car would laugh in the face of a purist if they said he "ruined" this car:
And as much as I love pro-touring mopars, that one in particular is my least favorite. First off, it had a shady history and was possibly an original 440-6 pack car (someone may have swapped VINs in its lifetime). Even if it wasn't original, it already had a 440-6 in there and was restored to a very high caliber. I believe it was also sublime green before. Second off, they change the suspension and chassis completely and strayed far from the original chassis and suspension design. To me, that's a slap in the face to the Chrysler Engineers of the late 60's and early 70's. With their mentality back then, they'd probably still be able to school a bunch of engineers in today's day and age. Third, they stuck an LS engine into it because it was "cheaper" when the owner through 10's of thousands of dollars on the rest of the car. It was already a pretty pricey car to begin with. There is nothing "Mopar" about that "Challenger" except for parts of the body. It's just another case of a guy who has deeper pockets than brains. He could have probably built an identical looking Challenger, that would have performed just as well utilizing stock-like style suspension (or at least a tubular K), and a Hemi for cheaper or just as much.