Cars that ’should’ have been
In the hot rod/street rod world, there exists a thing called a 'phantom car'. This is an antique car that someone built when that model never existed in the first place. Here is my first shot at a list of phantom cars that I would like to see built.
Buick TrackMaster - Suppose that Buick had built a special model of its 1949 or 1950 Roadmaster for stock car racing. It would be a lightened 2-door fastback body with a bored-out straight-8 based on the 320 cubic inch block. The engine would have a special cross-flow head based on the ARDUN hemi head, domed pistons with 11-to-1 compression, stronger rods, a bottom-end girdle, 4 2-barrel carbs, headers, and a hot cam. A four-speed with a floor shifter, and an improved racing suspension with front and rear sway bars would round out the package.
Cadillac DeVilleX - In the late 60's, all GM divisions except Cadillac built a hot rod on the GM A-body platform - the Chevy Chevelle, the Pontiac GTO, the Olds Cutlass, and the Buick GS, with their best engines. Suppose that Cadillac had done the same thing. Imagine a 1970 Buick GS with long Caddy taillights and a Caddy grille, aluminum front sheet metal, a 4-speed manual, with a special Caddy 472 under the hood! Think about the Caddy 472 with special big port/big valve aluminum heads, a factory aluminum dual quad intake, fat headers and sidepipes, 11.5-1 compression forged pistons, and a hot cam - say 575 horsepower and 700 ft-lbs of torque! This would be a very cool cruiser with amazing power!
Chevy ZX11 - In 1963, Chevy made a few Z11 427s for drag racing. These were factory-modified 409s with special heads, intakes and cams, and the cars had aluminum parts to make them lighter. What if they had gone one better, and made a 1962 ZX11 based on the better-looking 1962 bubbletop body, with an all-aluminum Z11 427 but using a 4-inch stroke crank for 512 cubes? And using an aluminum engine and a totally aluminum or fiberglass body to get the weight down to, say, 2400 lbs! This would have been a screamer, capable of running in the 9s!
Does anyone else have any phantom dreams?