If you want an off-the-shelf, well-sorted sports coupe, you go to AMG, BMW M, or Audi. At least historically, that is. But if you aspire to drive a sporty two-door that's profoundly different than anything new in 2022, you desire something along the lines of what we have here before us.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're occasionally guilty of calling this, that, or the other custom car the ultimate restomod. But this time around, a 1951 Hudson Wasp coupe powered by an 8.3-liter, naturally aspirated V10 from a 2004 Dodge Viper might just take the cake for real.
For those unfamiliar with Hudson outside of its anthropomorphic appearance in a Disney-Pixar movie, the Wasp was one of the last flagships of the brand before its absorption into the larger American Motors Corporation.
At a time when full-sized American sedans didn't always come standard with a V8 under the hood, the biggest motor you'd find stock Hudson Wasp was a 262-cubic inch (4.3-liter) straight-six. To its credit, this engine was later stroked to 308 cubic inches and ran in the Hudson Hornet NASCAR cup car that served as the inspiration for the Doc Hudson character in the Pixar classic "Cars."
But there's a definite upper ceiling on the power output on an old Hudson six-pot. This is not the case with the 8,300cc, ten-cylinder leviathan that Kenny's Rod Shop in Boise, Idaho, managed to cram under the hood of this custom 1951 Wasp. After stripping just about every nut and bolt out of this old classic down to the body shell and chassis, the shop painstakingly put it all back together with the Viper V10 serving as its foundation.
Photo: Kenny's Rod Shop
A Lokar-shifted six-speed manual is paired with the gargantuan engine, as the stock transmission would have blown to pieces within two feet of a Viper V10. With a bare minimum of 500 horsepower to play with, you're going to need some serious suspension hardware to make sure this restomod doesn't fall to pieces when it takes corners.
Thankfully, a custom quad-link suspension with RideTech Shockwave air shocks all around kicks the snot out of the rear leaf springs that pre-1955 Hudson Wasps had to work with. This Hudson's rear axle is the tried and true Ford nine-inch unit with 3.89:1 gearing.
Pair that with 13-inch Wilwood brakes all around riding on chunky performance summer tires, and this is the kind of custom restomod that can legitimately square up with modern sports cars and win. Lots of people claim it, but few restomods actually do it. In all aspects other than raw performance and hardware, the fit, finish, and presentation of this Hudson's interior and exterior is second to none.
With brown-leather stitched seats out of a late-model Chrysler 300, you get the impression the driver's seat in this Hudson is one special place to sit. The custom aluminum-accented gauges are enough to make most gearheads go gaga. It helps that the rest of the car is trimmed with supple leather, shiny metal, and tasteful black-on-copper contrasting trim pieces.
Photo: Kenny's Rod Shop
This black-on-copper theme is repeated on the outside as well. Safe to say, this combination would look striking, even parked next to a Bugatti Chiron. Speaking of the Chiron, we bet the color combination this Hudson is working with would look diabolically good on one of those. It's hard to say what a vehicle with this level of customization is worth.
In the end, we imagine tens of thousands of hours of labor adds up so six figures all day long. Whatever the number turns out to be, we'll find out one way or the other at next year's Barret-Jackson Collector Car Auction Scottsdale 2023.
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