Jalopnik loves cars. Secret cars, concept cars, flying cars, vintage cars, tricked-out cars, red cars, black cars, blonde cars -- sometimes, cars just because of the curve of a hood. ...
Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! In our last matchup , the big-block '72 Ford Torino took advantage of Graverobber's Mad Max-themed PCH Tirade™ to unleash the Lord Humungus' dogs of war upon the '70 Mercury Cougar. Today, we return to a couple of familiar themes rolled into one: the perennial Britain-versus-France PCH Superpower battle and good ol' Fun With Engine Swaps! I admit it- after finding the '60 Peugeot 403 near my house, I've been searching for a French car project to call my own (this in spite of having been the owner of a sadistically unreliable Peugeot 504 in the past). Thing is, the old Peugeots have something of a power deficit, and it just seems wrong to take the easy way out by doing a Japanese drivetrain transplant. Then Vintage Racer found this genuine Offenhauser turbo engine . Now we're talking! The Offy is a torque monster of a four-banger, with pistons the size of gallon paint cans and a racing history nothing else can touch, and it would be just the powerplant for this '68 Peugeot 404 sedan ... which is priced at approximately 1/25th the price of the engine. This 404 gets PCH points for the classic statement "Ran when parked" and the inclusion of a parts car in the deal. You'll need to deal with the transmission and rear end issue, of course, and we suspect the Pug's frame might not really be up to Offy-style tw ...
Anytime
Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! In our last matchup , the big-block '72 Ford Torino took advantage of Graverobber's Mad Max-themed PCH Tirade™ to unleash the Lord Humungus' dogs of war upon the '70 Mercury Cougar. Today, we return to a couple of familiar themes rolled into one: the perennial Britain-versus-France PCH Superpower battle and good ol' Fun With Engine Swaps! I admit it- after finding the '60 Peugeot 403 near my house, I've been searching for a French car project to call my own (this in spite of having been the owner of a sadistically unreliable Peugeot 504 in the past). Thing is, the old Peugeots have something of a power deficit, and it just seems wrong to take the easy way out by doing a Japanese drivetrain transplant. Then Vintage Racer found this genuine Offenhauser turbo engine . Now we're talking! The Offy is a torque monster of a four-banger, with pistons the size of gallon paint cans and a racing history nothing else can touch, and it would be just the powerplant for this '68 Peugeot 404 sedan ... which is priced at approximately 1/25th the price of the engine. This 404 gets PCH points for the classic statement "Ran when parked" and the inclusion of a parts car in the deal. You'll need to deal with the transmission and rear end issue, of course, and we suspect the Pug's frame might not really be up to Offy-style tw ...