A Lotus Elise and a ZR1 engine don't even cost $100k. Where the fvck is the other $500,000? The "Hennessey" sticker?
I wish I had the money to drop twin turbo ZR1 engines into Ariel Atoms and sell them for $250,000 just to 1-up Hennessey and watch him throw a fit.
All he does is rip off rich people who know nothing about cars to install parts. Hennessey's name is the biggest joke to real car enthusiasts, and that he's always trying to compensate for something proves that even HE knows it.
I was just discussing this with some friends. Went to the big Good Guys show/swap meet in Phoenix this past weekend, and we were looking at and appreciating the rat rods and budget DIY jobs, and the old ratty daily driven Mopars with the faded and cracked original factory paint job, more than anything else. Nobody really cared much for the Barret Jackson type guys who just wrote a blank check for the car, someone to restore it for them, and everything in the Foose/Shelby/whatever catalog, and have never even seen or touched the car until it was trailered to the show. I like seeing unique things people do in their garages, not 600 dozen identical $150,000+ cars with the same list of trendy name brand billet parts.
I miss when car shows were about the cars, ongoing projects that never ended, scouring junk yards for years, guys that drove the car as they worked on it on their spare time. Today's car shows are more about the owners showing off their bank accounts than the cars, at least at these huge megacorp events. I try to stick to the smaller local meets at the Taco Bell or <insert place> parking lot for the real deal.
I love nothing more than pouring over some kid's turbo Civic that he did himself, then walking right past some dude puffing on a cigar next to his numbers matching perfect whatever without even a glance.
