Restomods seems to be the latest craze, and it’s one that I personally can’t get enough of. The restomod you see before you might slightly resemble the world famous Hoonicorn driven by the great Ken Block, and maybe it is in the loosest definition of the word. It is a low and wide old school Mustang, but that’s about where the similarities end. What makes this particular car so appealing is what lies beneath, and that is essentially a 1999 C5 Corvette.
This Frankenstein Mustang is the brainchild of a talented metal worker based out of Canada by the name of Kyle Scaife. He came up with the idea to merge the Bowtie and Blue Oval when he stumbled upon a 1967 Mustang with no engine or transmission. THe body lines of that particular car leave nothing to be desired and he knew right then and there that he had found his project car. Speaking of the Hoonicorn, apparently, Scaife drew inspiration from the tire killing monster which is quite clear with only one glance at his creation.
When Scaife started researching powerplants he quickly realized that buying a crate motor like Ford’s Coyote V8 was going to cost him an arm and a leg. But then he came across a 1999 C5 Corvette that was in perfect working condition and he decided he was going to snag the nearly bulletproof 5.7L V8 under the hood. But then he realized he could buy the entire car for just $6,000 thanks to a salvaged title. This was a good thing because that would allow him to source the tranny, suspension and even the wheels from the Corvette. This was obviously a bonus because if there’s one thing that even Mustang fans won’t argue it’s that a Vette will drive and handle much better than almost any pony car.
As I mentioned above, Scaife is a metal worker so his specialty is with fabrication and the bodywork. He openly admits that the mechanical aspect of the build was not his forte and therefore a big challenge. So it was in his best interest to make things as easy as possible when it came to the car running and driving. So naturally what better choice than to use the underpinnings of the Corvette since there are countless aftermarket companies and parts available if needed. What he ended up doing was coming up with a way to take the body panels off the Mustang and put them onto the Corvette, and make it look as good as possible while doing so. And as far as I’m concerned he did just that. The car has one of the sexiest stances (aside from the Hoonicorn of course) and appears to be ten feet wide and two feet tall. A bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point.
The car is a work in progress and Scaife has big plans for it in the future. As far as power figures, none were released. Although Scaife did say the LS1 remains mostly stock, however, he has plans to make it even more Hoonicorn-ish with a potential twin turbo system on the horizon. Assuming that happens, maybe we all need to get him linked up with Ken Block and have a side by side Gymkhana 11 (assuming CLIMBKHANA was 10).
