Tag Archives: Hoonigan

It’s Got a Crate V8, Mate

Chevrolet’s third-generation Camaro was not just a huge visual departure from its ’70s predecessor, it had fuel injection, a hatchback, and was over 200kgs lighter than the second generation. All of which added up to a car that was faster, more agile, and more economical.

Except that first bit. Because even the 5.0 V8-engined Camaros made…. 145bhp. Chevrolet upped that with a new V8 engine a few years after the third-generation Camaro launched, but it still didn’t trouble 200bhp.

Which is rather different from what Chevrolet offers today, as in 2025 you can buy, brand new, a 1,000bhp crate engine. And put it in anything.

The guys at Hoonigan have done just that, dropping said 1,000bhp Chevrolet crate engine straight into a third-generation Camaro. And the resultant car is rather more lively than it was back in the early-’80s.

Cue previous bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber, who has recreated Hoonigan’s wild third-generation Camaro in brick form, complete with that outrageous engine, working steering, opening doors and rear hatch, a detailed interior, and authentically replicated decals.

There’s much more of the model to see at Firas’ ‘Hoonigan Camaro’ album on Flickr, you can find instructions for Firas’ builds at his excellent ‘Bricks Garage’ website, and you can read his interview here at The Lego Car Blog via the first link in this post.

Take a look via the links above, whilst we try to figure out if a 1,000bhp Chevrolet crate motor will fit in the engine bay of the office Rover 200…

Fresh Donuts

2023 sadly saw the loss of one of the motoring world’s greats, when Ken Block was killed at the start of the year, when his snowmobile landed atop him.

One of the founders of DC Shoes, Ken raced in motocross, rallycross, rallying, and the X-Games. The top step of each of those championships eluded him, despite some moderate successes, but where Block became a household name to millions was via his utterly brilliant ‘Gymkhana’ videos.

Perfectly designed for the viral-video age, Ken’s ‘Gymkhana’ series took increasingly outrageous one-off vehicles, astonishing car control, and a whole load of sponsorship money, to create some of the most tyre-shredding back-to-back stunt scenes ever recorded, racking up hundreds of millions of views in the process.

Following his death there is only one more of Ken’s ‘Gymkhana’ films to be (posthumously) released, after which we may never see his like again. However Flickr’s Clemens Schneider has created his own ‘Gymkhana’ of sorts, with his unique motorised donuting Mustang vignette, in which Block’s ‘Hoonicorn’ drifts around a donut shop car park.

There’s more to see of Clemens’ tribute – including a video of the motorised Mustang circulating the donut car park in a cloud of brick-built tyre smoke – by clicking here, plus you can see the trailer for Ken Block’s last ever movie via the link in the text above.

Super Sub

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It’s the UEFA European Championship, when Europe’s best football teams (plus sometimes Israel for some reason) battle it out to win all the Coca Cola they can drink.

Cue the Subaru Impreza STI, a car that’s not even from the same continent, and the most tenuous title vaguely linked to a current event that we’ve managed yet. Well, it was either that or a pun linking ‘STI’ and your Mom, but we’re trying to phase out the ‘Your Mom’ jokes.

Anyway, not at all to do with the delayed European championship, nor your Mom’s list of venereal diseases, is this; Lachlan Cameron (aka loxlego)‘s magnificent fully remote controlled Subaru Impreza STI.

Powered by a third party BuWizz bluetooth battery, Lachlan’s Subaru features all-wheel-drive, working steering (that’s also linked to the steering wheel), all-wheel-suspension with electronic ride height adjustment, LED lights, and some properly realistic bodywork .

Lachlan has even created a wrapped version, like every talentless car YouTuber, turning his super Subaru into a Ken Block ‘[Hoonicorn]’ homage that looks, well… utterly brilliant (talentless YouTubers take note).

Top notch photography adds to the impression and there’s loads more to see at Lachlan’s ‘Subaru’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look, whilst we get ready to watch TLCB’s home nation in action against the Czech Republic tonight. We may even have a few super subs on the bench to help us top the group…