Death Race/Twisted Metal Project Car
 

So for a few years I've been rollin around this project in my head. My brother got a 1988 Firebird (just a plain Firebird, V6, Auto, no T-top) and finally it broke because he poured oil into the wrong spot (dont ask me why or how or where, it just happened, and it seems like ive sucked all the car knowledge from my siblings and somehow super-embued it into me because i seem to be the go-to car guy now and the only really huge muscle car enthusiest of the family) ANYWAYS, so it was out of commission, then me, my brother, and my dad worked on it some and got it in run-able condition but it sat in my dad's garage for the next 4 or so years.

Now I have a Camaro of my own as a daily driver and Im looking for a nice project and this car keeps coming up in my head. Seeing as how my brother has just bought a new 09' Scion (god forbid the accelerator sticking lmao) it seems like he's kind of forgotton about the Firebird and it wouldnt be hard to get it from him and start my project there. My original intention was just to toss the old V6 for a nice V8, maybe a 350 or 383, and do some work to take it from an auto to a manual, maybe 5-speed prefferably 6-speed if i can get a 4th gen Tremec to fit. Then as i thought more and more about it i wanted it to really be unique. Fast cars are cool and all and hauling ass is one thing but for me your car has to walk the walk but also be able to talk the talk (i really hate the current "sleeper" craze, the idea that my car looks like crap but is really fast, sooo why make your car look like crap? just make it look awsome AND be fast all in one package! you'll feel twice as good about yourself!) LOL

So tonight I was thumbing around looking for ideas and thats where this came to me. I suddenly remembered the old Twisted Metal video games me and my brother used to play for HOURS on end (any 80s or 90s kid knows exactly what i mean ;) haha) and started thinking how badass it would be to build a car to replicate something like that. Then I remembered the new movie Death Race had a lot of cars like that as well and so I began refferancing it and seeing how they built the cars and how far they went with it and stuff. So now I think im set on turning this old Firebird into a one-off custom car to replicate my own version of the Twisted Metal character RoadKill.

Does anyone have any comments on the idea or suggestions on cool things that could be done with it? Id be extremely thankful for some photo-shopped pics of a Death Race-style 3rd gen Firebird if anyone is up to the task! haha, any thoughts?




(PS: My friend is currently building his first motorcycle, its nothing big just a smaller Honda roadster, but ive mentioned to him he should do the same thing im thinking about doing with the Firebird and making it a Mr. Grimm replica bike kinda thing, haha)

I totally wanted to do this with a 3rd gen Camaro, I love crazy shit like this. Do it. Watch the death race movie even buy the toys that look like them. I would totally build fake gatling guns and drive around with it. DO EEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha, nice, yeah im really into the idea now, like for Death Race they just completely stripped the interior and rebuilt it out of sheet metal and industrial scraps (luckily my dad has worked in sheet metal his whole life) and for the outside they welded sheets of metal onto the body panels and even went as far as to put culking on the panels an painted it black to simulate heavy welds in spots, haha pretty awsome stuff

I wonder if it is legal to have non-functioning guns mounted on a car? :iono: LOL, or how i would get the full-armor look while still keeping all the necessary lights on it, which actually the Firebird aspect would help a lot for the hide-away headlights, idk about the tail lights though

I was thinking using these gauges when i got around to designing the custom interior stuff...
http://www.classicinstruments.com/se...?SeriesCode=MA

I think non-functioning guns are legal, especially if they are fake guns. Sounds like a fun project. You're probably going to want to still do an engine swap though. An old V6 plus a couple hundred pounds of steel won't play together very well.

haha yeah i thought about that, i was hoping stripping the interior down would not only help the look and overall theme of the car but would also help counter-act the extra weight from the added steel for the look, and id like to drop either a built 350 or a 383 in it, id like it to still be decently drive-able and not a 8mpg big block gas monster haha