Take the look and feel of a WWII fighter aircraft, add a Lincoln Zephyr V-12 engine from the same era, mix with the image of a 50′s hot rod and what do you get? The P-32 Street Fighter. Creator of this unusual amalgam is Chip Foose, world famous for his artistry with rods, mods, and original customs. It was Foose’ desire to honor those pilots and their planes that led to his unusual one-off. It features a P-40-style exhaust, riveted windscreen trim, machined nosecone, and stripped-out interior for a look Autoblog lauds as “very, very cool.” Hmmm… I’m not sure. The nose cone looks out of place, although it reminds me of something similar that was on a 1920′s race car (sorry, can’t recall the name… anybody?). And much as I love the Zephyr its engine is hardly one I would choose for a hot rod. That particular V-12 was never known for performance or reliability. On the other hand many of the greatest WWII fighters were V-12 powered so perhaps the link is historically reasonable, even if the best of those engines came from Rolls-Royce. For more photos of the P-32 Street Fighter check out this Autoblog link.
November 1st, 2006
High Flying Hot Rod Inspired by WWII Fighters
by admin | Posted in Hot Rods | 1 Comment » |
1 Comment »
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I am not that sure if I would like to have a drive of this car, with all the modifications that they have made to this hot rod style car I just look at those skinny tyres and just fell that they have bad news written all over them.
– Couldn’t agree more but I suspect the designer felt that modern wide tyres (or “tires” as we say in North America) would look out of place in a car meant to honour those pilots of long ago. Anyway, it’s a car for show, not for go.
– Philip
November 6, 2006 @ 8:36 am