There are those in the muscle car hobby who think that one should leave well enough alone. These people are content with drum brakes, terrible steering and inadequate safety features. For them, it’s all about nostalgia and reliving childhood memories. Others however, myself included, believe that what’s old, can in fact be made new again with the right combination of parts. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview Pete Filippatos, the owner of this beautiful 1969 pro-touring Dodge Charger. Pete started with a standard small-block car, stripped the car down to bare metal and then began to create his vision of the perfect old school muscle car. New suspension, wiring, late model HEMI and brakes are just some of the components that Pete used during his build process with the end result being the stunner you see here. Click through and get ready to enjoy one of the nicest pro-touring cars on the road today.

Taylor's very tasteful 2009 Rubicon Unlimited.

Remember my piece on “Rides For The Coming Zombie Apocalypse”? Taylor’s 2009 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited definitely fits the requirements, and I have to admit that I’d take this over my own FJ Cruiser as the ultimate end-of-the-world ride. His Rubicon will get you anywhere you need to go; more importantly, it will get you back home again and he’s only at Stage 1 of his build. So what does Stage 1 include? Read on to find out and to see more pics.

Under the AEV Heat Reduction hood, Taylor’s Rubicon gets a RippMods blower and a cat-back exhaust. The truck dyno’d at 245 horsepower and 246 ft lb of torque, a significant improvement over the stock motor, which is good for just 202 horsepower and 237 ft lb of torque. His Jeep got a 2” lift courtesy of an Old Man Emu kit, and now rides on ATX Mojave wheels shod with 33” mud tires. Up front, the Rubicon got an ARB steel bumper and an 8,000 pound Warn winch, which helps to ensure that Taylor is the guy pulling other off-roaders out of the mud. Out back, an Expedition One bumper with a swing away tire carrier ensures maximum ground clearance and durability.

With the exception of painting the AEV hood, Taylor’s done all the work on the truck himself. He estimates that the supercharger was the most involved project, but even that only took two days of wrenching. He’s in the process of building Stage II now, which will include a 4.5” lift from AEV, a Dynatrac Pro-Rock 60 rear and a Pro-Rock 44 front axle (with air lockers), an ARB on-board compressor and 37” tires. That should get the job done, no matter where that job ends up being.

Taylor, thanks for the pics and I can’t wait to see what Stage II looks like.

Sam's '70 Chevy pickup

In the early days of RideLust, we ran a feature called “Reader’s Rides”. About once per week, we’d do a short feature story on a car, bike or truck submitted by a reader from around the world. We got everything from beaters through jaw-dropping pro-touring cars submitted, but every single one was built with pride. Want to see your own personal ride on the (virtual) pages of RideLust? Hit the jump and I’ll give you all the details on what I need from you.

1. Three or four pictures of the outside and inside of your ride (unless it’s a bike, then outside only is fine). If it’s unique (i.e., “Kumquat Orange, one of three built”) give me the details. If you can re-size the pics before you send them, save ‘em at a width of 600 pixels. Since I don’t want my mailbox to implode, please keep the pictures under 1 MB each!

2. As much detail on your ride as you care to submit. If it’s a Buick GS Stage 1, don’t assume that everyone will know what the Stage 1 option was. If you’ve got performance data, such as zero to sixty, quarter mile, or lap times at a particular track – let me know. The more interesting the back story, the more people will want to read about it.

3. The name you want me to publish with the article. I won’t print your e-mail address, but I need to refer to you as something other than “dude” or “dudette”.

4. Bonus points for submissions from outside the US and Canada. It’s not that I don’t appreciate our domestic readers, it’s just that I like seeing rides I’ve never seen before. Got a tricked out Skoda? A badass Holden? The world’s fastest Geely? A Vauxhall with a Ferrari V12 stuffed under the bonnet? Let’s see it!

E-mail them to kurt@ridelust.com, and I’ll do my best to give you your 15 minutes of fame.

We’ve all been there before: as a kid, you get a new toy only to realize that it’s nowhere near as cool as it looked in the commercial, or maybe it doesn’t even survive from Christmas to New Years without breaking. Later in life, maybe you realize that the hot blonde exchange student you’ve been trying to close the deal with has personal hygiene issues, or breath that smells like rotting fish and ass. Maybe you work hard to join a country club, only to realize that every other member is a complete tool, and you’ve got nothing in common with any of them. No matter what the details, one thing is for sure: life will disappoint you.

Probably the most disappointing car I ever rented.

If you’re a car guy, sooner or later a car will disappoint you as well. Maybe it’s one you’ve always wanted, or maybe it’s one you bought because it was supposed to be reliable, fun to drive or economical. Whatever the logic behind your purchase, the sad truth is that the car let you down. It wasn’t fun to drive, it sucked down gas like Rosie O’Donnell sucks down bon-bons or it turned into a giant money pit the very second the warranty expired (or the very second you drove it off the dealer’s lot). I’ll kick it off with my own biggest disappointment, but I’d love to hear yours.

In 2004, I bought myself a 3 Series BMW. I really wanted an M3, but it was out of my budget since I was shopping for a new car, not a used one. Leasing wouldn’t work either, since I was driving about 25,000 miles per year. At my local dealership, I drove a 330Ci and 325Ci back to back, and actually preferred the feel of the 325’s motor. It was silky smooth, and pulled nearly all the way to redline. The 330 clearly had more torque, but didn’t like being wound out; it may have been a faster car, but it wasn’t as engaging to drive. I signed the deal on the 325, and loved owning it for about two weeks.

Another 2004 BMW 325Ci, not my own.

In the New York City area, BMW’s are theft magnets. A lot of the reason why is steeped in history, since dealerships used to leave valet keys in the glovebox at delivery. Most buyers left them there, and the legend grew among car thieves. Here’s another reason: even with the factory alarm (which doesn’t have a shock sensor), BMW’s are notoriously easy to break into. Punch the door lock with a slide hammer, insert a screw driver into the hole and twist: the door unlocks and the alarm is deactivated. How do I know this? Because two weeks after I bought the car, it was broken into in short term airport parking. I parked in a well lit, heavily trafficked area and was gone for no more than 10 minutes. It only took fifteen seconds to cause about $800 worth of damage to the car.

Over the next two years, I got to know everyone at my dealership’s service department on a first name basis, which was no minor feat since the staff changed weekly. Several times, I scheduled appointments for clutch take up, which they never diagnosed or fixed. It was horrendous, and felt like the car had a pitted clutch or oil on the pressure plate; try though you might, there was no way to smoothly accelerate from a standing start without clutch chatter. Even the 1967 VW Bug I learned to drive on had smoother clutch action.

Next it was the ignition coils, which began failing at 20,000 mile or so and failed completely by 30,000 miles. You could tell they were on the way out as the motor would break up and lose power at high speeds; my dealer replaced them at 30,000 miles, but they were failing again at 45,000 miles. There was a funky hiccup in the VANOS system by then as well, as the car would develop a random miss about the same engine speed the intake camshaft was supposed to change profile. You’ve probably already guessed this, but the dealership couldn’t find anything wrong with the car.

Since I only used my key and not the spare, the battery in the spare key died, which meant that you couldn’t open the doors with it. Since I’d replaced the theft prone driver’s door lock with a blank cover, this was a problem when my wife drove the car. I don’t recall the details, but a replacement battery either wasn’t available or wouldn’t solve the problem; instead, the dealer wanted to charge me for a new key and programming, since it wasn’t a warranty-covered issue. I opted to pass, since the cost of a replacement key was in the hundreds of dollars.

The ECU for my car had firmware that was written for just one model year, which precluded me from adding any performance software or even increasing top speed. I could look at the Dinan catalog with lust in my heart, but I couldn’t add any parts that would make a noticeable performance improvement. I found out about this single-model year firmware issue after I bought the car, which taught me a valuable lesson: learn all you can bout the details of a car BEFORE you buy it, not after.

In my second year of ownership, I got rear-ended at a stop sign. This took the car out of circulation for about two weeks and cost my insurance company $2,500 to fix. As the warranty counted down to the “expired” mark, I came to a sobering conclusion: there was no way I wanted to pay for the care and feeding of a BMW outside of warranty, especially one that had proven to be problematic in the past. I traded it in on an Acura TSX, which has been utterly flawless in the four years we’ve owned it. Sure, it lacks the soul of the BMW, but it’s also never seen the inside of a dealership for repairs, in or out of warranty. Sometimes, trading personality for reliability is worthwhile and necessary.

I’d like to say that I miss the Bimmer, but I really don’t. In fact, I don’t even have a single picture of the car, which kind of sums up our relationship better than anything else I can imagine. I’d like to think it went to a good home, but I suspect someone else learned the hard way that this particular BMW was cursed.

Now this is an interesting comparison. Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire is a pretty avid Corvette guy, in fact he is the owner of a beautifully modified 1998 C5 model. What’s interesting is that the modifications that Matt performed on his car were performed with the goal of making not only a great track day weapon, but a great weekend street car as well. Matt then took a look at the new 2011 Corvette Grand Sport as a comparison to his 12 year old modified C5. The Grand Sport comes stock with 436 hp and 428 lb-ft torque, as well as a whopping price tag of just under $70,000 which makes it out of the range of most people. So, the real question is, do you drop $70,000 on a new 2011 Grand Sport, or spend 18-20k on a used C5 with some mods. After watching you’ll know what Matt thinks, but what about you?

Source: TheSmokingTire.com

When the majority of the population thinks of a classic Dodge Charger they think of those that were built between 1968-1970. They’ve been popularized over the years by TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzard and movies like Bullitt and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. What about those Chargers though that were built after 1970, you know the third generation body styles that ran from 1971-1974. For the most part these cars were over shadowed by the previous generation Charger because of their media exposure, but let me introduce you to a certain 1972 Dodge Charger that seeks to change that.

Now in the world of custom cars there are two types – those that are driven and those that are trailer queens. Granted there is a place for both, but in all honesty who the hell wants to look at a car on a trailer? Me, I want to see these things smoking the hides and sliding through corners which is exactly what owner Bill Howell of Pigeon Forge, TN had in mind when he built this stellar pro-touring 1972 Dodge Charger. Sure it’s big and a bit heavy, but hey, so am I so I really can’t say a damn thing. The difference with this Charger though is that it packs a modern day 6.4-liter 540 hp crate HEMI, full suspension components from XV Motor Sports and massive pizza pie sized 14-inch brakes from Wilwood. What that means is that Bill is able to drive the piss out of this thing on racetracks all over the country.

Now some people are going to say that if you want a track car, then why not just go out and buy a Porsche or a Corvette. Of course that’s definitely an option, but keep in mind that cars like this ’72 Charger aren’t solely about track prowess. They’re about doing it with style and placing a new twist in the history books about how old cars are perceived. Just a quick FYI though – if for some reason you see this particular ’72 Charger at a stoplight and feel lucky, my advise would be to strongly reconsider your actions as this car has destroyed more egos than you can imagine.

Last week I posted an article on the relationships we have with our cars and how they sometimes become part of our families. I also threw out the option to you, the readers, to email me some pictures of your rides and why you name them what you do. We’ve only gotten a few submissions thus far but we’re looking for A LOT more. So, get your camera’s out, upload some pics and send them into me at: mike@ridelust.com.

Just make sure to include the Year, Make, Model and a brief description of your cars personality and we’ll post them up. So, without further adieu, here is the fitst batch of submissions!

• Owner: Bill Childers / Car: Pontiac G8 GXP / Name: “YETI”

My G8 GXP’s name is “Yeti”. A buddy called it that… cause it’s a big
white monster that growls.

• Owner: Jeff Ingolia / Car: 1968 Cadillac Coup de Ville / Name: “CAPONE”

We name all or ours and always refer to them that way. I also understand what you are saying about family and friends catching on as well – It always makes me smile when my parents call our cars by name now too. Having four kids adds to the fun and I’m happy to know that they will always remember by name the cars we had when they were growing up.

Attached is the pride of the family and the greatest car I have ever owned – our 1968 Cadillac Coup de Ville convertible affectionately named “CAPONE”.

• Owner: Brenda Carlson / Car: 1968 Karmann Ghia / Name: “VOODOO”

The attached image is of my 1968 Karmann Ghia, Voodoo. I’m not entirely sure when we started calling her Voodoo, but the name was not something I chose — rather, it seemed to stem from multiple people misreading an vanity plate that the previous owner had given to the car. (He had attempted to stretch “VW,” phonetically, into seven letters — it hurt to look at.) I’d just as soon have tossed the ridiculous thing, but enough people in my neighborhood knew it by plate alone, so I kept it. Ten years later, it’s still there, making people slightly more illiterate with each passing day.

After multiple horrendous mechanical failures, as well as three major accidents (all rear-endings, all high-speed), I guess her name is as much an explanation as a moniker. There were times where I swore that the only thing keeping the car running was magic.

Growing up the question amongst our group of friends was always, “If you could have any two cars in the world, what would they be?” My answer was pretty simple, I wanted a 1968 Dodge Charger and a 1971 Lamborghini Miura SV. The Charger was attainable, but the Miura, trading hands in the half-million dollar range, was and still is, a bit out of reach. The car was simply stunning from every angle and has a presence that has yet to be matched. Now we come to the Pontiac Fiero, a car that started production in 1984 and ran until 1988. It was small, mid-engine and rather sporty for the time but like all great sports cars it never got really good until it’s final version in 1988, with the introduction of the Fiero GT.

Ok fine, the Fiero was never really a performer of any great caliber, but what it did do was lend itself to the millions of dreamers out there who needed a halfway decent donor car on which to build their dream car. That brings us to the following thread that was found on the largest Fiero forum on the net, Fiero.nl. Replica builder and Fiero enthusiast Archie fancied himself a Lamborghini Miura, but like the rest of us was a bit short on coin. So, instead of selling off the family and all his personal effects to get one, he simply started building one out of, you guessed it… a Pontiac Fiero.

The thread on Fiero.nl is 16 pages long, houses more than 46,000 views and has over 600 responses. The quality of the work, the design as well as the engineering that is being done is simply staggering. For anyone who has ever lusted after a Miura or any kit car for that matter, this thread shows how to do it right.

A reader that goes by the name of Roadrunner sent in pics of her 1967 Mustang Lone Star Limited edition. Painted in Bluebonnet Blue, inspired by the popular and omnipresent Texas wildflower, the cars quickly became known as Bluebonnet Mustangs. All Lone Star Limited editions featured Bluebonnet Blue paint, special fender badging and the Sports Sprint option package. All were coupes, and all featured a blue interior, but customers could choose between the 200 cubic inch inline 6 and the 289 V8. A total of just 175 Lone Star Limited editions were built, and only a handful are still on the road today.

Roadrunner found her car parked in a field, where it had been sitting since 1980. A hardcore Mustang enthusiast, she knew right away what she’d found and couldn’t let the car rust into oblivion. Excluding the exterior paint (in the original paint code), Roadrunner did much of the restoration work herself.

Nice ride, and serious props for saving a classic (and very rare) Mustang.

Reference: 1967 Ford Mustang Hardtop – Bluebonnet Special

The HDR effect adds a nice post-apocalyptic look

Reader ppwsixspd (Pike’s Peak white, six speed) sent in pics of his 2006 Nissan 350z, a daily driver he’s building for time attacks. Working with a limited budget (just like the rest of us), his mods are well thought out to give the best gain for the money. Starting with the motor, this Z breathes through a Nismo R-Tune CAI and an AAM plenum spacer. Downstream, it exhales through an HKS Hi-Power exhaust with test pipes replacing the cats (for off-road use only, of course).

Black wheels look sharp on a white car

On the suspension side, the car rides on a Hotchkis TVS Stage I setup (sways set on full stiff), with SPL Pro adjustable end links and an Ichiba rear camber kit. The stock wheels were custom painted a metallic black, and really stand out against the white paint.

Suspension drop gives it the right stance

Rounding out the look is a Nismo rear wing, eyelids and 15% tint. Nice ride, ppwsixspd, and thanks for sending us pics.