What do you think of this build?
I don’t remember much from back when I saw The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. One of the few details that still jump out at me was the 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback the main character dropped an RB26 into. That hero car featured at the end of the movie I’ve mostly forgotten sparked a lot of controversy as people raged about a classic American pony car getting a modern Japanese engine swap. Definitely if you’re a purist such a thing doesn’t make you the least bit happy.
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Well, YouTuber TJ Hunt decided to make the Japanese-American movie car a reality. That’s right, he found a donor RB26 some unlucky GT-R was no longer using, pairing it with a 1965 Ford Mustang Fastback. So it’s not exactly like the movie car, but it’s close enough we’ll just call it good.
You’ll note the car has a Shelby GT350 body kit. Of course, the little pony isn’t painted Wimbledon White, so it’s not model-year correct as a clone. But it also has a Nissan engine in it, so we’re not gunning for historical accuracy, obviously.
If you’ve been following TJ Hunt’s channel, you know this engine swap has been anything but an overnight process. That’s where the unrealistic nature of that part of Tokyo Drift becomes obvious. These kinds of weird swaps come with plenty of headaches as you have to innovate beyond all kinds of difficulties. Personally, I would want to watch something like that portrayed in a movie, but Hollywood producers always know what the public wants better than the public knows, so we get all the other garbage shoved into that and other films.
Speaking of garbage, Hunt has admitted he doesn’t like old cars and he’s not a fan of American cars. I certainly respect Japanese performance cars, but this whole looking down on the classics and anything American to me is just tiresome, ignorant trash thinking. He even admits to knowing “nothing” about classic cars – shocker. But whatever, the guy can like or dislike whatever he wants, including my opinion. Yay for America and personal freedom.
Anyway, check out the videos of this build to see what it’s like.
