Mystery Car: Quick, What the Hell Is It?

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

I usually limit my cars-in-the-wild photography to street-parked machinery, but I had to make an exception for this fine motor vehicle that I spotted in a Denver parking lot. I’m pretty sure I’m seeing Chrysler K-platform ancestry here, but… words fail me.

Quite a bit of labor-intensive customization has gone into this machine, and I can’t tell whether it’s a K-based kit car with further modifications or a 200-proof, one-of-a-kind dream project.

If I had to guess, I’d say there’s a late-80s/early-90s LeBaron in there somewhere, with custom grill, custom hatch, custom taillights, and custom everything. Your thoughts?


Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Modestholdings Modestholdings on Sep 14, 2011

    Difficult to tell without being able to use my nose. But I'm pretty sure it's a piece of shit.

  • Facelvega Facelvega on Sep 14, 2011

    I don't know what everyone is complaining about, it's not as ugly as a stock cougar. Really just take off the spoiler and hood ornament, change out the lights and a few other surface details, perhaps repaint and get some new bumpers, and it would look fine. Well fine-ish.

  • 28-Cars-Later Nissan will be very fortunate to not be in the Japanese equivalent of Chapter 11 reorganization over the next 36 months, "getting rolling" is a luxury (also, I see what you did there).
  • MaintenanceCosts RAM! RAM! RAM! ...... the child in the crosswalk that you can't see over the hood of this factory-lifted beast.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Yes all the Older Land Cruiser’s and samurai’s have gone up here as well. I’ve taken both vehicle ps on some pretty rough roads exploring old mine shafts etc. I bought mine right before I deployed back in 08 and got it for $4000 and also bought another that is non running for parts, got a complete engine, drive train. The mice love it unfortunately.
  • Statikboy I see only old Preludes in red. And a concept in white.Pretty sure this is going to end up being simply a Civic coupe. Maybe a slightly shorter wheelbase or wider track than the sedan, but mechanically identical to the Civic in Touring and/or Si trims.
  • SCE to AUX With these items under the pros:[list][*]It's quick, though it seems to take the powertrain a second to get sorted when you go from cruising to tromping on it.[/*][*]The powertrain transitions are mostly smooth, though occasionally harsh.[/*][/list]I'd much rather go electric or pure ICE I hate herky-jerky hybrid drivetrains.The list of cons is pretty damning for a new vehicle. Who is buying these things?
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