We make no bones about people wanting to do something different with their car, provided the car [1] is made better than what is was before, or the end result [2] simply speaks for itself. But there are just some things that are frowned upon when it comes to building project cars.
[3]It doesn’t get much nuttier than this, now does it? Photo: UltimateGTO.com [4]
One of them is that you try not to recreate your nightmares. However, if you must do so, use something other than a classic GTO.
Les Schwenk, of St. Louis, didn’t get that memo, for better or worse. His creation, called “Bergundy Baron,” is a drag racing vehicle that requires a bit of insanity to fully appreciate it.
Schwenk has owned the car since he was 22. He confessed in 2010 that the cause of its odd state dates back to when he was working on the car with the body removed.
Having started and stopped on the work he was doing to the chassis one day, Schwenk returned some time later to find the body had rotated 180°. He thought it would look cool to have the body reattached to the chassis in this fashion, and the rest was history: the car now has all-wheel steering, seats one (comfortably), and has probably led to a lot of finger-pointing and head-scratching.
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The man ultimately opted to have the car converted for use in drag racing, and therefore installed a roll cage for protection. The 400 engine is now midway down the car, and uses ported and polished ’62 Pontiac Super Duty heads, a Crower cam, two Quadra-Jet carbs, and TRW pistons to give the GTO a 12.5:1 compression ratio. We’ll let you guess what kind of horsepower and torque it makes.
[8]Whatever your tastes in projects, you have to respect Schwenk for taking the least-traveled road of any car builder. If you don’t, feel free to air your frustrations below.