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Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Yesterday, we found a way for a Citroën SM to lose a PCH challenge: set up a pretty nice example as a clay pigeon to be blasted to dust by a heap of vaguely Ferrari-ish parts. No, it wasn't fair, but it proves the point that the SM still reigns as the King Of Project Car Hell. Now that we're in an upset sort of mood, let's see if it's possible for a German project to take on one of the Big Three PCH Superpowers and win! What the hell is a Glas ? Glas was the company that built the beloved Goggomobil , but it got gobbled up by mean ol' BMW and the marque disappeared after 1968. Before BMW axed Glas, however, you could buy the sporty 1700 GT from BMW dealers as a sort of Glas/BMW branding mashup, and that appears to be what this 1967 Glas is. The top bid of $260.55 failed to meet the reserve price, so we're pretty sure the seller will...
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Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! 1973 was quite a memorable year; engine compression ratios were down as US emissions laws sprouted some sharp claws, the Arabs got so pissed about their ass-whooping in the Yom Kippur war that they cut off the oil , and Richard Nixon was forced to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox in the Saturday Night Massacre , in order to save the country from those pinko traitors who would see a Viet Cong flag flying over the White House and celebrate their victory by dumping a megaton of pure LSD in the nation's water supply! Yes, that was a simpler time, a happier bygone era captured in little square Instamatic photographs; think about that next time you're hearing those oldies wheezing out of the speakers at a car show and some grumpy old guy sitting on an ice chest next to his numbers-matching '74 Charger gripes about how much better things were...
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Was it fair to pit a stock Mercury Lynx against a Chevette diesel-powered RX-7 in yesterday's Diesel Dilemma Edition Choose Your Eternity poll? Probably not, as the diesel Mazda pounded the daylights out of the badge-engineered Escort. Today we're going to move away from cars that you might consider using as everyday transportation and head into the realm of cars that stick their voracious snouts into your wallet every time they detect the proximity of a race track. That's right, it's Vintage Racing Hell today! Naturally, we'll need to go with PCH Superpowers Britain and Italy for this one, and the decade of the 1960s seems about right to sucker you into believing that these cars aren't so old that parts obtainment will be impossible. Hey, what's 40 or 50 years, right? You want to get into some serious GT Touring action at the next vintage racing event in your area? Good thinking! Of course, you'll need to roll up in some Italian steel, and said steel needs...
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While the 8-door '57 Chrysler limo almost beat out the stretched Ferrari 400i limo in our last Choose Your Eternity poll (and what an upset of reigning PCH Superpower, Italy, that would have been!), V12 power and Italian build quality seem to have triumphed over fins and rust. Today we need to see how Italy fares against its fellow PCH Superpower, Great Britain (with the winner moving on to take on France, of course). And, just to make things more fun, we're going with some serious Malaise machinery today, because Euro-Malaise is inherently cool-yet-hellish. Can you get a Ferrari project for just $5,500? As anyone who has gone car shopping on any Craigslist site from Florida to Texas for the last year can tell you: Yes, you sure can! I've been running across the infamous Eddy, Texas Ferrari (go here if the ad disappears) for as long as I've been doing Project Car Hell, because the seller just won't give up! Many readers have sent in tips on this one, and now- finally...
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With the '67 Scout 800 just barely ahead of the '78 Scout II in yesterday's International Harvester Choose Your Eternity poll , I figured today would be a good time to return to Sports Car Hell. Now, it's child's play to find innumerable cool/nightmarish British machines beckoning to you from the smoldering gates to Hell, but after seeing the Honda S800 earlier I knew what I needed to find to pair up with today's Blightymobile. The only thing that would make a Lotus better as a PCH entrant would be if you could somehow add some French engineering to it... wait, hold on a second- the early-70s Europa had a Renault-built 5-speed transmission! Now it's just a matter of finding one cheap enough to make you think dreams of legendary Lotus handling are agonizingly within reach. Perhaps this '72 Lotus Europa (go here if the ad disappears) for an asking price of $6,000 is just the ticket! In one of those Hell Project understatements we love so much, all you get about...
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Sometimes you need to ask yourself: How bad do I need a Ferrari? Actually, in Project Car Hell, the question goes: How bad can a Ferrari project be? Either way, the problem with Ferraris is that most of them are so expensive that you're spared the torment of actually owning one... that is, until now. We've managed to round up a couple of Ferrari deals that cost less than most Fiero-based Ferrari-influenced kit cars, and one of them even comes with a bonus Lotus Esprit! See the car in the video above? That could be you behind the wheel, and all you need to get started is $2,500! Whoa, that must be a typo, right? Two-and-a-half grand for a Ferrari 365? I'm crapping you negative here, folks; just take a squint at this here genuine 1969 Ferrari 365 (go here if the ad disappears) and tell me you can't afford a vintage Ferrari! Now, don't think you can hop right in this car and roar off in a cloud of V12 noise and glory, because there's no V12. Matter of fact, there's...
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It was pretty close, but the Mazda 323 GTX squeaks out a 55/45 victory over the Turbo Geo Metro in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll. I've been happy to find some Japanese PCH candidates, of course, but it's become apparent that we've been neglecting one of the primary Project Car Hell superpowers; yes, it's been over two months since we last saw a French PCH candidate , and that's just plain wrong! Maybe the first thing you should consider for a potential Project Car Hell candidate is its HJIYC score . Weighing in with a respectable 120 points is this '81 Citröen CX Pallas diesel (go here if the ad disappears), suggested by none other than the Loverman himself and available for just 6,000 frogskins. It would have had more points, only the latitudinally mounted "Euro-trash diesel" cost it 30 points. But don't worry about that; since you'll likely be the owner of the only Citröen diesel in your time zone, the Hell-O-Meter is going to be registering...
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After a pair of close ones, we finally had a decisive victory in our last Choose Your Eternity poll , with the Taurus SHO using its Yamaha power to roar to victory over the SRT- Faux by a 70/30 margin. We're not surprised by that, but we don't have the foggiest idea who should be considered the favorite in today's matchup. Either choice would be serious fun with all the bugs worked out... but such big, crawly bugs! Today we're going old school with the source for a PCH ad; I dropped by Alameda's Lee Auto Supply (the last independent auto-parts store in the area and sponsors of the Park Street Car Show ) and taped to the counter was this flyer for a '77 Lotus Eclat . The Eclat was essentially a fastback Elite, with all the pluses and minuses of the breed. You know it'll stick to the road... if it can reach the road, that is! This one is only $6500, and the seller claims it runs. Formerly owned by a "retired head mechanic for Lotus Racing," this car has...
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So yesterday we pitted a couple of classic Motown wagons against each other in the Choose Your Eternity poll, and the result was so close to a tie as to make no difference (with the Dodge photo-finishing past the Ford). Today we're going to look at a...
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