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The Hellcrate


Draco-REX

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650hp LT4 crate costs $14k

 

$10k for 57 more horsepower

 

Lol

 

Let's be serious. None of us posting in here right now are the target market for something like this. I'd spend 21k on a car, not a motor.

 

With that said if I was tossing around 15-20 g's to drop in the engine bay of my project car I'd select the mopar crate. Reliable, stronger, sounds 10x better.

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Who in the hell actually buys such things? Or is it more of a point that says "Hey look you can put our powerplant in anything!"

 

Old rich guys. Same people who bought $20K crate 426 hemis, or $15K 572 ci GM performance crate big blocks. People who want to spend $100K+ on a "hot rod" and want something impressive that works. Now that "restomods" are starting to bring actual money over their 100% restored stock counterparts you'll see people buying these, putting them in 1968-70 chargers, Superbees, and other higher end muscle cars, and then see those cars rolling across barrett jackson or Mecum's auction block 2 years later.

 

Believe it or not, but if you are spending multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars having a high end G-machine car built to a high standard, a crate package like this saves you a lot of money over having an engine and trans specially built and then tuned to make the same power.

 

when Dad and I were restoring the '57 vette the first time, rebuilding the original 283 fuelie engine was a huge expense. Getting the correct date coded block, all the machining (including hot tanking and magnifluxing), finding all the correct fuel injector pieces, etc...it's like a third of the cost of the restoration and that was just to make 283 hp. If we could have dropped one of those $10K zz4 crate ramjet 350s that are dummied up to look like early fuel injected vette motors and still preserved the value of the car we would have done it in a heartbeat and saved tens of thousands of dollars.

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Gas Monkey garage or shops like them would be ones to buy this engine.

 

Uh.. you think GMG buys those engines they put in on TV?

 

Guess we'll see, personally I don't see near the "building" these days as there was in the 80s and 90s, just not enough people left in the pool wanting to drop $40k+ to build a car when there are already thousands of quality machines available on the market as is.

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Uh.. you think GMG buys those engines they put in on TV?

 

Yeah, I do. Or at least their customer does. Maybe they get some help from Dodge as a sponsor in terms of a discount and priority in terms of speeding up delivery, but Mopar isn't just making hellcrates rain like a bachelor party in a strip club.

 

Actually the financing of those TV shows are really fascinating. People think that just because it is on TV that some network is throwing buckets of money at those shops, but really those shows are made as cheaply as humanly possible. One of the ways they make up for being on a shoe string budget is by letting the shop keep the merchandising rights and revenues, or at least the lions share of them. But the network is rarely paying for the cars/bikes. Either the shop is paying out of pocket or they have a customer underwriting the bill.

 

This is really where you see how not stupid Richard Rawlings is: He merchandises everything. He went from a piddly shop to a pro facility with a gift shop you have to walk through to get in and out of the place. He opened a theme restaurant, he took on a partner (that blonde surfer dude) and got his money making machine up to speed as fast as possible so as not to lose any time in the lime light. His merch is at walmart, he's got deals with hot wheels for some of the show's cars. Most of the time the stars of these shows are pretty conservative but not Double R - dude is aggressively chasing every nickel because he knows it's on a timer an it's only a matter of time before he is the next OCC.

 

Guess we'll see, personally I don't see near the "building" these days as there was in the 80s and 90s, just not enough people left in the pool wanting to drop $40k+ to build a car when there are already thousands of quality machines available on the market as is.

 

not now, but the hobby is in a bit of a recession. It ebbs and flows and it will come back. Also you'd be surprised at how many people start these big money projects, get halfway in, and bail.

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Is it me or does fitment seem like it may be an issue in a lot of cars with that giant oil pan?

 

eh...ever see an original Dodge 440 Wedge oil pan? It's about the same size and the hump location is in the same place. It all depends on the car - if it is going into a 383 or 440 powered Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth car it's probably a bolt in. Putting one in a Hemi Mopar, chevy, or ford? probably gonna need to do some fab work.

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not now, but the hobby is in a bit of a recession. It ebbs and flows and it will come back. Also you'd be surprised at how many people start these big money projects, get halfway in, and bail.

 

I don't know man, this new generation doesn't seem to be into as much as past generations were

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I don't know man, this new generation doesn't seem to be into as much as past generations were

 

Maybe because none of us really have money for it lol

 

The economy has been in the shit for a good bulk of most millenials lives, our interests portray that.

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I don't know man, this new generation doesn't seem to be into as much as past generations were

 

I don't know if that's completely true. I think when it comes to old muscle cars a lot of the new generation just got priced out. Personally I am priced out - if I didn't have the the GTO and the collection of parts I have, I don't think I could justify spending the kind of cash one spends on a toy at this stage in my life, even project real GTO's are over $10K, and some of those need really expensive bodywork. This is part of the reason I am actually kind of pissed C3 corvettes are starting to go up in price - they are the last really good chassis muscle/sports cars that were somewhat affordable - 2 years ago running C3's were like $3K and you could have all the same fun as a $40-50K c2 (because they are the same chassis) without the look of the c2.

 

Plus there is the fact that we are all spoiled by how good new cars have gotten. I used to carry a change of clothes with me (at least a shirt) in the GTO because with no A/C and having to run the heat sometimes in summer to keep from overheating I would get out of that car everywhere looking like I just swam the english channel and didn't dry off. I was willing to put up with it in my 20's but as a pirate looks at 40 I start pricing out vintage air setups and looking at how to put junkyard AC in that bucket (or in this case, keep it in deep storage until I get to a place where I can just use it as a weekend toy).

 

As much as a little part of me dies inside when I have to agree with grant on anything - he's right about one thing: he doesn't need a hellkitten crate when he can get everything he needs out of a supra that costs a 1/10th of what a project that uses the hellcrate would cost. I still think he's delusional that he thinks he can build anything as good as the hellcat with his supra - but honestly he doesn't have to for him to get all the enjoyment he needs out of it.

 

People are always going to be into cars, but how they are into cars is constantly evolving. The B18 powered honda civics have been the '27 model T's of the "new generation" for almost 20 years now. Supras, MR2s, WRXs, Fox and SN95 mustangs, EVOs, LS powered anything from the early 2000s - these are the new hot rods. This thing about "millennials" not being into cars is pure bullshit - they just aren't into cars like us middle aged guys were when we were their age because they got priced out and never got the chance to spend time around carbs and v8s.

 

 

Maybe because none of us really have money for it lol

 

The economy has been in the shit for a good bulk of most millenials lives, our interests portray that.

 

Through out the history of hot rodding nobody started out with any money. Those old 1920's and 30's bomb rods were built because you could buy model T's and A's for $15-$30 in the 1950's and 60's. And even when they were finished they weren't worth all that much. The future of hot rodding used to be entirely driven by those of meager means, that's changed some, but there will always be guys with more innovation than cash willing to make old junk go fast - it's just different junk.

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