(motor revving)
- This is a 1000 horsepower, full tube frame chassis,
completely custom Pontiac Trans Am.
And it was built by one dude.
Today, I'm gonna show you what exactly about this car
makes it (kisses fingers) oh, so right.
What it takes to build a car of this caliber
and why this car might inspire you to go build your own.
We're going Bumper 2 Bumper on the Protomachine Trans Am.
This thing, is (beeps) sick!
(bright guitar music)
I want to say thanks to Omaze for partnering with us
on this episode of Bumper 2 Bumper.
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This M8 Competition Coupe has everything.
It's got eight speed M step Tronic transmission,
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with a little push of your hand.
It's got X drive (electronic crashing) all wheel drive
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(stopwatch ticking) 60 miles an hour.
It comes in a limited edition Dravit gray metallic paint job
and it's got merino leather seats this thing is luxurious,
it's fast and it can all be yours.
And you're donating for a really good cause
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So that's really dear to our hearts here at Donut Media.
It's a great cause, so go over there and support them
omaze.com/donut to enter.
(dramatic guitar strumming)
So beside me is a 1970 Pontiac Trans Am.
Well, what's left of one, it's barely a Trans Am
at this point but we're gonna get into that.
First off, the man behind this build is Riley Stair.
He treated this car as a test, now after a career ending
BMX injury, Riley looked up starting at up his own company
fabricating custom cars like this one.
But instead of jumping into forming his own LLC
he needed to put his skills to the test.
So he decided he would go off
and build his own business card.
(upbeat electronic guitar)
Now there's a lot going on with this build.
Riley has put his touches on pretty much every single piece
of this car and we're gonna get into some of those things.
But the first thing we're gonna look at is the chassis,
and it is oh, so sweet.
Max, morph me.
(bright drum music)
Okay, this is a full tube frame chassis but initially
it wasn't supposed to be that way.
Now Riley was gonna go to the route of putting a modernized
suspension on it, front frame rails, front subframe,
basically a back half car right?
But then he thought about,
"Hm, what if I do a little road racing route?"
"What if I put on independent rear suspension?
"Then I have to cut the whole back half out
"and then at the end of the day,
"I've got the front out I've got the back out.
"I might as well just do the whole
"damn thing full tube chassis."
And, that's what he did.
(bright electronic music)
Now before this, he had built a handful of roll cages
but nothing to this extent.
Now this was a test from Riley for Riley.
Could he go off and do this himself, well he did.
And not only did he do it, he TIG welded
the entire tube frame himself.
Actually everything on this car if it needed a weld,
it was TIG welded.
Dude, TIG welders are the #Nickelboyz,
they're laying dimes down (imitating welding).
It's freakin' (laughs) it's a lot harder (laughs)
I don't wanna call 'em #Nickelboyz.
Part of the difficulty is figuring out
all the alignment and suspension geometries.
So, working for a suspension company, he began
to teach himself the basics, without a computer.
Riley designed the chassis and suspension setup.
Let me just explain that right now.
He didn't use a computer
to design the chassis of a custom built car.
Now, that might seem like,
"Oh people have been doing that all along."
But it's amazing that that was done in today's age.
It just goes to show the amount of workmanship
that went in to this car.
Now, speaking of workmanship, the chassis
is only one piece of this puzzle.
Take these fenders for example,
they were made only using three tools.
A shrinker stretcher, a hammer and dolly and a bead roller.
A very unconventional way to make fenders
but Riley did it nonetheless.
And they're all TIG welded
(whistling) (welder sparking)
right down that seam.
They look, (kisses fingers) beautiful.
(upbeat electronic music)
The lines of this car, it just looks like
it should've rolled off the factory floor like this.
That's another part of this car,
the proportions of it are so well done,
they're so tastefully done.
It's wider where it needs to be wider
it looks longer where it needs to look longer.
And Riley still says,
"Hey, hey, man I still think it's a Trans Am, it's got
"that essence, it's got the character, that a Trans Am has."
And if you're wondering, this car is street legal,
because it still maintains its original VIN number.
A 1000 horsepower street legal Trans Am, ooh!
While we're down here at these wheels
these are new Old Stock Panasport racing wheels.
The gold,it just screams Trans Am, they're so cool.
And they're 12 and a half inches wide, that's that wide.
You're gonna need all that width,
when you're trying to take off!
(upbeat electronic music)
All right, fine, I have teased you guys long enough.
We're gonna get to the belly of the beast,
the heart of this Trans Am.
We're going to the methanol injected motor,
Max take me to the front!
(electronic whooshing) (upbeat electronic music)
Now to get to the engine, we have to release 10 quarter turn
fasteners, to lift up this six pound hood.
(upbeat electronic music)
So this, is pretty wild.
There is a lot of stuff going on in this engine bay,
but it was all done with purpose.
So one of the goals that Riley wanted
when he was building this car,
was he wanted a 1000 horsepower,
he wanted it to be naturally aspirated,
and he wanted it to hit 10,000 RPM.
So he went to Don at Motor Machine and when he got back
it was a 400 cubic inch Chevy LSX base,
basically a pro stock motor
that put out 10,008 RPM.
(clicks tongue) Check, check, check, check.
(upbeat electronic music)
And because this engine is methanol it has to burn
three times the amount of fuel that it would
if it was a standard gasoline engine.
That means it's got way bigger injectors,
that means it's got two fuel pumps
that are pumping about
seven gallons per minute.
That is freakin' wild!
(upbeat electronic music)
Normally, in a 70s Trans Am
you would see the engine right about here, right?
Riley shifted this motor back 22 inches
for weight distribution purposes.
It's 47%, 53% front rear weight distribution.
(upbeat electronic music)
You might have originally saw this car
with the very beautiful Medusa looking like headers on it.
It was something that everyone talked about,
"Hey, did you see the white Trans Am
"with those freaking crazy headers?"
Well, those have been changed and the reason
they've been changed is 'cause Riley,
he was hunting for more horsepower.
See, he wanted a 1000 horsepower at the crank motor
and he was only getting about 900.
So, Riley learned as much as he could about header design
and built two four to one headers
that got him a 100 more horsepower.
Because when you have 900, why not have a 1000?
That's what he wanted and he freaking did it!
(upbeat electronic music)
Now, if you look at all the plumbing in this car
it's controlled chaos and that's done by design,
there's no panels for you to tuck away lines in this car
so they're all kind of routed
in a very practical and functional way.
You got coolant lines coming here
there's two radiators, four fans, this is a dry sump motor,
so there's a oil tank right there
that holds four gallons of oil.
You have breather lines over here,
you have steam lines right here, you have the custom
inboard suspension that you can see.
And this car even has power steering
and you need power steering
because you have 24 inches of rubber that you have to turn.
And that's kind of tough.
(upbeat electronic music)
And by the way, if you're a spec freak,
we're gonna have all the specs of this engine
and this entire car in the description
of this video, so check that out.
So, now we're gonna go inside, okay?
I'm gonna try to fit in that little racing seat
and then we're gonna crank this bad boy up.
Get ready (hands rubbing).
(grunting)
(laughing)
Jesus Christ!
(heavy rock guitar)
So the first thing when you get in this car is,
wow, it's tight (laughs)!
Outside of it being a tight fit
there is so many trick pieces.
We have our reservoirs for our clutch and our brake,
two for the brake 'cause there's two master cylinders,
one for the front of the car,
front brakes, one for the rear.
We have our computer mounted up on top here
with these custom bulkhead pieces, which is really sweet.
Fuel on and off, fire suppressant systems.
Two fire suppressant and because this car runs on methanol
it has to have a special type of fire extinguisher,
which is pretty cool.
Taillights, headlights, they're all flush mounted
on this bulkhead which is really cool.
All the fuses are on this side, all eight coil packs
are mounted where the passenger dash would be,
it also has a four speed Dale Earnhardt edition shifter.
The whole transmission is actually out of a NASCAR car
but it says Dale Earnhardt on it and that's freaking sweet.
(upbeat electronic music)
Now behind me is clear lexan, which I can't turn around
because I can't move (laughs) but you can see
all the beautiful suspension pieces back there.
And the first thing you think of is,
"That looks a little different,
"that's not a typical suspension."
And there's a reason for that.
It's an engineering challenge, it's tough,
it's not easy to do and if a customer comes into your shop
and says, "Hey, I want inboard perpendicular
"mounted shocks in my car."
He's gotta be able to say, "Yeah I can do it."
Because he did do it and it looks (kisses fingers) tasty.
(upbeat electronic music)
So this car is about 90% complete which is weird
because it looks about a 150% complete.
This thing is absolutely gorgeous
Riley is still tinkering with it.
For instance, he has to figure out
how to put a air cleaner on it.
There are little problems that he is tackling
so it's not a 100% done.
And it lives in the Protomachine shop right now,
but the majority of this work was done
outside of his parents two car garage.
They didn't even give him a space inside, they were like,
"Yo, go outside, build this thing outside."
And he did. (upbeat electronic music)
This was a SEMA build,
that was built outside a garage, by one dude.
That's, that's insane and it should be inspiring,
it should inspire you to wanna go
and build your own car, right?
And if you can't do it that's okay
'cause you can always hit up Protomachine
and they'll build one for you.
Ready, okay, ignition on.
(ignition firing)
(motor revving)
(laughs)
(motor roaring)
All right, that's it, I'm done.
(bright guitar plucking)
Woo, so that was the craziest experience I've ever.
My hands are still literally shaking.
I only revved it up to 5,000 RPM
and everyone kind of cleared the building
'cause the methanol was so strong it was burning your eyes.
Thank you Riley for building this car,
thanks Mike for all your help.
Follow me on Instagram @jeremiahburton,
follow Donut @donutmedia,
also check out the full build sheet and spec sheet
of this car in the description, bye for now.
Woo, holy (beeps).