Aftermarket Upfit

Hennessey Performance is celebrating Christmas by delivering Christmas trees as fast as possible. The company’s previous sleigh, a Jeep Trackhawk, managed to deliver it by touching speeds of up 181 mph. But, this time, they want to get it done even faster. So, they’ve upgraded their sleigh to an Audi RS6 Avant that’s been tuned to make 800 reindeer; err., I mean 800 horses. They tried the same with a tuned Porsche 911 Turbo S recently, but it failed. But, the Audi RS6 Avant managed to break the record and is now officially Hennessey’s fastest Christmas tree transporter!

Sleeper cars and trucks are probably the best vehicles you see on the road. As typical an underdog move this is, it sure increases the surprise factor multifold. The latest sleeper truck that we came across is this Ford F-150 that makes 1,200 horsepower! It even proves its prowess by humiliating a Corvette Z06. Oh, the fun the driver must have every single day!

While we are desperately waiting for the Bronco Raptor, aftermarket companies are offering us alternatives to keep us happy until then. Roush Performance announced an R Series kit for the Bronco that will turn this off-roader into, well, an even wilder off-roader! The kit brings around aesthetic as well as performance upgrades for the Bronco.

Shelby is celebrating its 60th anniversary next year. To commemorate the special occasion, the company has come up with another limited-production Mustang GT500 Edition called the GT500KR. The ‘KR’ moniker stands for ‘King of the Road’ and it isn’t a new badge and is one of the most famous Shelby Mustangs ever.

To make sure the KR badge isn’t diluted, Shelby has slapped it on a 900-horsepower Ford Mustang GT500! The production will be limited to 225 examples across three model years of the muscle car.

Hoonigan returns with another “Hoonigan vs the world” episode, where Lia Block – Ken Block’s, 14-year-old daughter races some pretty epic cars, in the Hoonicorn Mustang. This time, she’s racing a 2018 Wolf GB08 TSC-LT. One relies on power while the other on lightness. One thing both cars have in common is that both cars have conquered Pikes Peak.

Hoonigan’s YouTube channel returns with another “Hoonicorn versus the world” episode and this time it’s all on the line because the mighty Hoonicorn goes up against a Tesla Model S Plaid – the bane of many high-performance, combustion-powered vehicles. So far the Lia Block – Ken Block’s, 14-year old daughter - has been crushing it, losing only to a 2,000 horsepower Nissan GT-R. Will Tesla take another scalp or will the Hoonicorn finally put it in its place?

Because of the oil crisis and stringent emissions regulations, the mid to late-1970s did not spawn many great American cars. The once-powerful American V-8 engines were choked out of their power and became shadows of their former selves. And while American cars from that era are not particularly desired, nor a preferred platform for any form of restoration, this Jaguar XJ-C by Polish tuner Carlex Design is a vision of what can be considered an epic British muscle car/resto-mod from the mid-1970s.

TechArt got its hands on the Porsche 911 Targa and turned it into a police car. Don’t expect it to enter actual police duty, though. This tuned and dressed-up 911 Targa is a project between TechArt and TUNE IT! SAFE!, and it serves as a sort of symbolism for a worthwhile tuning initiative. That’s because this special Porsche 911 Targa is a showcase that, according to TechArt and TUNE IT! SAFE!, "shows that appealing creative tuning does not have to be in conflict with legal requirements."

When it comes to modified cars, the main goal seems to be high horsepower. However, having a well-sorted car means building it to send that power to the ground, as efficiently as possible. With this in mind, That Racing Channel (TRC) is giving us a YouTube video of one such car – a sinister-looking C7 Corvette, which may be one of the most well-sorted high-horsepower builds, you will ever see.

It’s obvious that EVs are becoming more and more mainstream and this even extends to project cars and various builds. Of course, an electric motor is not as exciting to look at as a powerful internal combustion engine, which is why Canadian company, Webb Motorworks has developed a way for the buzzing powerplants to look like a classic V-8 engine.

Without a doubt, the 2021 SEMA Show introduces some interesting ideas of what the future of modified cars could look like. It seems that, for better or worse, electrification will play a major role in future builds, as demand for crate electric motors is at its highest. Among the many SEMA entries, this year is a 1957 Chevrolet, dubbed Project X.

Cars from the 1980s are slowly rising in popularity, as cars like the Lancia Delta Integrale and Porsche 928 have become particularly sought-after collector cars. When it comes to American cars from that era, there really isn’t a whole lot of excitement, because of the oil crisis and severe restrictions, choking performance out of cars. That said, the YouTube channel AutoTopiaLA is giving us the tour of a 1986 Buick Regal resto-mod that has almost nothing in common with the original car.

If you follow everything revolving around BMW’s cars, you know that every time the Bavarian carmaker brings out a new model, it’s only a matter of time before Alpina makes its own version of it. The Bavarian-based tuning company is operating independently, since 1983 and now, it’s cooking up its own version of BMW’s 4-Series Gran Coupe in the form of the Alpina B4 Gran Coupe, which was recently spied testing.

Over the last decade, Dodge has been giving us all sorts of high-performance cars, based on the Challenger and Charger models. And while one of their most iconic models – the Dodge Viper – was retired a few years ago, Dodge wants to make up for it, by reviving an old performance program. It’s called Direct Connection and here’s what you can expect from it.

The cinema has made many cars famous – the Ford Mustang, Dodge Charger, Chevrolet Corvette, and even imports like the Toyota Supra have achieved iconic status, due to no small part, to the movies they’ve starred in. Among these is the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and it was “Smokey and the Bandit” that inspired this 1978 Pontiac Trans Am resto-mod, built by “Ryan’s Rod & Kustom”.

Few cars out there look as sinister as a black, 1970s Cadillac Hearse. Apparently, the people at Detroit Muscle thought it would be a good idea to bring a neglected, 1976 example back from the dead. The YouTube video from "POWERNATION" is full of subtle black humor, as it resonates with the type of project, presented here. In case you don’t want to watch the full video, here are the biggest highlights of what would eventually become known as “the Overtaker”.

Depending on who you ask, resto-mods can be a blessing or a curse. And while the purist way of keeping things in their original state is pretty self-explanatory, restoring a car with modern parts does have its advantages. The people at V8TV are no strangers to resto-mods, but today’s YouTube video is a step further from most resto-mods. It involves a beautiful, partially-restored, 1957 Ford Thunderbird, which is a family heirloom.

An engine tune is the easiest way to get more performance out of your engine, especially if it features forced induction. This goes particularly well with other modifications, such as an aftermarket exhaust and intake also referred to as “bolt-ons”. If you are wondering how much performance can be gained from such mods, the guys at “Awesome cars” give an answer in one of their YouTube videos. This time, the U.K.-based tuning specialists have brought out an Audi RS6 Avant to do some product testing and the results are impressive.

You wouldn’t think much of a Mustang, amongst the plethora of modified Vipers, GT-Rs, or Lamborghinis, but Javier from That Racing Channel (TRC) is giving us another YouTube video from the FL2K, where the Nth Moto “Kratos” Dodge Viper took the rolling race crown. This time, we are looking at the fastest domestic car with a stick shift – a 1,900 horsepower Ford Mustang.

In a bid to celebrate the return of SEMA for 2021, Ford has decided to create six specialBroncos in collaboration with several partner brands, that demonstrates the endless possibilities with the SUV, as far as personalising and enhancing its capabilities are concerned. They SUV’s bound for Vegas, will feature everything from lift kits, custom wheels, racks and more from the Genuine Ford Parts bin and several other accessories all in a bid to help make it your own and add even more performance to the Bronco.