#POWER WHEELS DUNE RACER FULL#

My favorite design element of the Bradley GT has to be the hidden headlights. Chances are it has been hot-rodded to some degree why build a sporty kit car and leave the 40 horsepower economy car engine in it? Air-cooled VW engines are so numerous and come in so many different flavors that it could be almost anything. Speaking of which, there’s no indication of what powers this car (it would have originally come with a 1600cc VW motor). It now has seized front brakes, and who knows what condition the rest of the mechanicals are in? My hope is that they enjoyed it for many years before it was parked. Shame, really that’s a lot of work to let waste away. This Bradley GT was built in 1975 by the seller’s family, but has apparently been left to rot. A tiny shelf of a back seat lets you share the ride with two small friends you don’t like very much. When the doors are off, it’s a vaguely dune-buggy-like sports car with a T-bar roof. The GT has a fiberglass body, like nearly all VW kit cars, and removable clear plastic gullwing doors. The body is sized to fit on a stock-wheelbase Beetle floor pan, rather than requiring that the floorpan be shortened like the Meyers Manx and other dune buggies did. The Bradley GT was first introduced in 1970, and was sold in kit form. Under the swoopy fiberglass body, this car is a garden-variety Bug, assembled in somebody’s garage. Bradley Automotive was one of many companies making VW Beetle-based kit cars in the 1970s. Rather than being hand-built just off to the side of a normal mass-production line like the Cosworth Vega, this car wasn’t produced in a factory at all. But I’m not holding my breath.Įngine/drivetrain: Flat 4 of unknown displacement, 4 speed manual, RWD But hope springs eternal, and I will be rooting for this little car to find a forever home that isn’t a junkyard. It’s kind of a shame to see this car sitting in this condition, knowing that it’s not really worth bringing back. One would be wise to be on the lookout for potentially bitey and venomous creatures while rummaging through this mess, however.

And because it has been sitting in dry and sunny Arizona, there isn’t much rust to contend with, especially for a Vega. The location of the passenger seat, and the rest of the interior for that matter, is a mystery.īut since there are two of those revvy little Cosworth engines included, there’s a good chance someone could assemble one good one from what’s here. It comes with a spare Cosworth engine, which is sitting where the passenger seat should be. This Vega is an absolute disaster, and looks like it has been sitting in this condition for quite a long time. It’s a vast improvement over the two million other Vegas churned out over the course of the 1970s, a legitimately quick (for 1975) and good-handling little sports coupe.Īt least, when all the parts are assembled in their correct places, it is. The Cosworth Vega was British lipstick on Chevy’s sharp-looking but fragile pig of a compact car. But… it’s also number 53 of only 3,508 of its kind. This may look like a dilapidated pile of cobweb-covered shit, and it is. 1975 Chevrolet Cosworth Vega – $1,200Įngine/drivetrain: 2.0 liter DOHC inline 4, 4 speed manual, RWD Grab your best hazmat suit, and let’s dig in. Today we have two rare but not especially valuable cars, cars that would be cool if they were shiny and running and driving and all that, but are anything but shiny.

Those of you who have complained about there being no good choices in the past, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. What’s that, Supra fans? Speak up I can’t hear you over my Mötley Crüe tape.Īll right, let’s get into the weeds, literally. So let’s finish up with our sports coupes from yesterday, and then dive in. But if you were able to get either one of them back into respectable condition, you’d be an absolute backyard-mechanic god. Today’s choices you’d have to be absolutely, utterly, and in all other ways batshit off-the-rails crazy to take on as a project.

#POWER WHEELS DUNE RACER FULL#

I’ve shown you plenty of things that need full restoration, many that didn’t run, but I’ve always tried to stick to cars with at least a modicum of hope left. In previous Shitbox Showdowns, we’ve featured some pretty rough cars.

Power wheels dune racer