Automakers are winding down their combustion engine development programs and transferring their budgets and brainpower to building the electrical powertrains that will replace them. But if ICE is going to be iced, we think car manufactures owe it to the technology to send it off in style with some outrageous specials.
Lamborghini’s Aventador Ultimae was a visually underwhelming farewell to the firm’s naturally aspirated V12, which will return in hybrid-assisted guise anyway, and we’ve already seen Bugatti’s send-off for its 8.0-liter quad-turbo engine, the W16 Mistral, which is aiming to be the world’s fastest production convertible. But wild as a 260+ mph (418 km/h) roadster is, we were thinking of something crazier.
Crazy like the Hellcat-powered Chrysler Pacifica people joked about on the internet, but which spanner-savvy YouTuber Tavarish is actually building. Or how about a Chevy Camaro with the 5.5-liter flat-plane crank V8 from the new Corvette Z06, or a Honda CR-V Type R with the 306 hp (310 PS) 2.0-liter turbo’d four and six-speed manual transmission from the hot Civic?
Maybe Mazda could build the fixed-roof MX-5 coupe it’s teased us with over the years, and stuff the bay with a turbocharged motor, or even a resurrected rotary, while it’s at it. Volkswagen could revisit the insane mid-engined Golf GTI W12-650 from 2007 and actually let people buy them this time, Toyota and Subaru could pull their fingers out and build a forced induction GR86/BRZ, and the BMW M5’s 627 hp (635 PS) V8 could be rather amusing in an M3, provided BMW made everything north of the B-pillars out of composite to help offset the extra weight over the front end.
Related: A YouTuber Is Building A Chrysler Pacifica Hellcat
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And it could afford to do that, because we’re imaging these cars would be built in tiny numbers and sold for huge prices to a select handful of hardcore fans of each brand who wanted a piece of ICE history and were prepared to pay for it. Some would probably have to be restricted to off-road use to prevent development costs spiraling and road-car regulations spoiling the fun, and maybe some would be so crazy that they could only exist as one-offs that are wheeled out at Goodwood once a year.
But we’d still love to see what the engineering minds at the world’s greatest carmakers can come up with to thank combustion power for 140 years of loyal service. What crazy gas- (or diesel-) powered specials would you like to see automakers build to send ICE technology off to the great gas station in the sky?