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Question of the Week: What’s The top Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER’S UPDATE

Byjustpastevehicles

WINNER’S ANNOUNCEMENT:

We’re back to announce the winner for our Question of the Week, where our victor will accept a $25 credit for a hat or T-shirt from the BaT Gear Store and the acclaim of their peers.

Our question this week was: What’s the best body-swapped vehicle you’ve seen?

Thanks to everyone who participated! We read through your suggestions, pondered the semantics of “rebodied” in a few cases, and determined our winner. The Golf/928 mashup dubbed the Super Rabbit was the most mentioned nomination this week, and BaT user @caymanandwent was the first to it:

Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

“The modest VW Golf that was a Porsche 928 in disguise. 240hp V8 lurking in the 1978 VW Golf.”


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caymanandwent commented on Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

Günter Artz was the madman behind the Golf 928, which featured a widened Rabbit body grafted over a complete 928 chassis. It was highlighted in the December 1979 issue of Road & Track, which we recently featured. Congratulations, caymanandwent! Be sure to check your email to claim the prize.

That wasn’t the only noteworthy body-swapped creation from this week’s discussion thread. Here are a few more notable nominations:

Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

“Myers Manx dune buggy body on a VW frame. Complete transformation from a mundane commuter to the most iconic funtime vehicle ever built.”


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bodhi1601 commented on Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

Image: Car and Driver

BaT member @bodhi1601‘s comment received a lot of love for mentioning the Meyers Manx, which was introduced in 1964 as a kit car using a VW Beetle pan. 

Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

“When I saw the new QotW I thought “Damn, @BaT done gave it away” – but they didn’t! And no one else has nominated the Hot Rod Garage ‘66(?) F-100 on a Crown Vic cop car chassis. Ever since I saw the utoob series years ago I’ve thought it’s freakin’ brilliant!
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Hot+rod+garage+ford+f-100+on+crown+vic+frame“


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PDXBryan commented on Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

Ford F-100/Crown Vic amalgamations were a popular mention, and HRG’s Crown Hick build was a fan favorite.

Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

“Back in ’84, my brother rolled his ’70 Bronco. the insurance co totaled it, but he kept the wreck. after a few weeks of searching for another body… he came home with a Pinto station wagon with a blown motor. I thought he had lost his mind, but 3 months later he had a V8 powered, 4×4 Pinto!”


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sharkie104 commented on Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

This swap has also surprisingly been done by others over the years. 

Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

“Elvis Presley’s 1962 Lockheed Jetstar was cut down and fused to the chassis of a freightliner sportscoach motorhome by the eccentric geniuses at JIMMY’S WORLD. This is my second favorite web sight after BAT. Why build a jet into a motorhome? As Dr. Frankenstein said ” because i can” .https://share.google/images/NL4koMdxKi5shBbal“


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bodhi1601 commented on Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

They fused the fuselage to a 1999 Coachmen Sportscoach, and the end result is certainly insane. 

Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

“The OG Ford Supervan. Freakin’ British Ford Transit van (which I think are cool on their own) on a GT40 chassis…get outta here with anything else:

https://silodrome.com/ford-supervan/“


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2caddiesandaMach1 commented on Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

Former Ford Engineer Andy Browne has owned the Supervan twice, and noted that it actually featured a widened Cooper Monaco racing chassis. 

Speaking of van-bodied racers, @Fleche_dOr writes:

Sometimes I like to keep things “practical” with a side of “spicy”. Thus, the Supervan was on my list, but a V-8 just isn’t “aspirational.” So what is my choice? Read on…

Seats 4.

What does 0-60 in less than 2.8 sec?

What has a top speed of 193 mph?

What revs to 13,800 rpm, you know, “spicy”!

And, can still be used for the school run by the parent who shares my fondness for “practical, yet spicy”?

Oh, yeah, one more thing. Some manufacturers proudly allude to their cars having an engine somehow related to an engine used in motorsports. This car takes that a step further. It actually has an engine used in racing. In Formula One. A winning engine at that. So there!

This:

The 1994 Renault Espace F1. Speaking as an E63 wagon owner, I’ll take “F1” over “M” or “AMG” any day if it could be like this. Driving starts at about 1:26. An article from TopGear.

Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

“Retropower in the uk have almost completed grafting a lowly Austin Allegro upper body onto an Integra type-R pan/chassis with the Integra engine and suspension. Spectacular build, and they are doing two of them! Particularly fascinating to me because I have an Integra.”


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Super7Driver commented on Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

The project was dubbed Lucky Strike and consists of twin-identical Allegro-bodied DC2 Integra Type Rs. The build page put together by the folks over at Retropower is certainly worth reading. 

Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

“Nash Rambler Airflyte 2 door wagon body onto a modern (BMW-era) Mini Cooper S. “Nash Cooper”. This has been completed a few times by Richard Biggs. Reason this hat swap works well is that the 1950-1953 2-door Nash Ramblers share the same 100-inch wheelbase as the modern Mini Cooper S, which somewhat simplifies the engineering and fabrication challenges. You get rounded 1950s Nash rounded classic 2-door wagon body with the engine, drivetrain, and interior of a modern Mini Cooper S.…”


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IsAlwaystheAnswer commented on Question of the Week: What’s The Best Body-Swapped Vehicle You’ve Seen?—WINNER'S UPDATE

That’s it for this week’s Question of the Week! Congratulations to our winner, caymanandwent. We’ll be back with a new question soon.  

ORIGINAL POST:

Welcome to the BaT Question of the Week! For those unfamiliar, here are the rules: we ask an automotive-themed question, and the author of our favorite answer from the comments is awarded a $25 credit to the BaT Gear Store.

This week’s question is: What’s the best body-swapped vehicle you’ve seen?

Some might see grafting a car (or truck) body onto an entirely different chassis as vehicular blasphemy. But we’ve got a soft spot for these “because-we-can” builds. Some are flat-out absurd, while others seem destined to be together.

Image: Facebook, Silversleeves Racing

In LeMons racing, these builds are also referred to as “hat-cars,” and one of the best examples is this Ford Cortina-bodied E30 built by the team at Silversleeves Racing out of Canada.

You’ve probably seen a number of these creations cross the auction block, and there are plenty more examples out there. So tell us:

What’s the best body-swapped vehicle you’ve seen?

Tell us all about it in the comments, and give a thumbs-up to any nominations that grab your attention. We’ll announce the winner on Monday.

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    angushopper commented on Question of the Week: What’s Your Favorite Piece of Automaker Lore?—WINNER’S UPDATE

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    overlandish commented on Question of the Week: What’s Your Favorite Piece of Automaker Lore?—WINNER’S UPDATE

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    angushopper commented on Question of the Week: What’s Your Favorite Piece of Automaker Lore?—WINNER’S UPDATE

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    overlandish commented on Question of the Week: What’s Your Favorite Piece of Automaker Lore?—WINNER’S UPDATE

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