Insane Hotrod Has the Heart of An S2000
Formula One-inspired 1930 Ford Coupe features S2000 engine, transmission and subframe to bring a crazy hotrod concept to life.
If you have ever spent time playing the game Need For Speed: Payback, this car may be familiar to you. Video game graphic designer Aaron Beck created the concept for the F132; a formula-one inspired 1932 Ford coupe hotrod. While the idea alone was a bit insane even for a video game, somebody went on to take it a step further and build one in real life. Though, the real-life example is a 1930 coupe, not 1932. We won’t get too wrapped up in semantics here. What is important, though, is that it uses the engine, transmission, differential, and entire rear subframe from an S2000.
In a recent Hoonigan Autofocus episode, iconic auto photographer Larry Chen and the car’s new owner Rick Boada take us on a quick tour of the insane machine.
“A couple of years ago, he had a chance to design this thing called the F132. It’s basically like an F1 car merged with a 32 Ford, but, what’s crazy is somebody thought it would be a good idea to build the F132 in real life,” says Chen
What came of that crazy idea is a real-life replica of that insane car. Under the hood is a Honda F20C and the stock manual transmission from an S2000. While it may seem like a strange call for a hotrod of sorts, there’s an excellent reason for it being there. There is not a lot of space to work with.
“This is tiny. If you look here, it’s got probably about a quarter inch from the pulley to the radiator,” says Boada
From the outside of the car, you would assume it’s got plenty of room to work with under the hood. However, that outlook quickly fades when you see the actual engine bay. It appears that it doesn’t even have any sort of intake system or even a filter on the throttle body. There is virtually no room for anything. Though, that doesn’t stop Boada. He says he plans to turbocharge it. Though, he does say they are planning on making a custom rear-mounted radiator setup, which will free up some room for an intercooler upfront. Additionally, he says the turbo is just going to stick out the side, which makes sense because there really isn’t anywhere else for it to go.
Being that this is a custom chassis, Boada said there are still some issues to hammer out in terms of how it drives. Though, these minor inconveniences don’t stop him from driving this thing everywhere.
“The front suspension, honestly, the engineering and the angles are a little off. It’s not the best functioning suspension ever, but it looks cool. Realistically, with this car function is not the biggest priority,” says Boada
He also says that it may look like it should be quite fast, but with the weight of the Mickey Thompson tires, it doesn’t exactly get up and run away. Though, if it were moving too fast, you wouldn’t get a chance to take a good look at it.
Overall, this thing is just insane to look at. Chen remarks that it looks like it isn’t a real car, and he is right. If you saw this thing parked at a car show, you might have a hard time believing it actually drives. We certainly look forward to seeing the progress made on this hotrod dream machine.