The 24 Hours of LeMons is many things to many crazed garage experimenters, and one idea that never gets old is the engine swap. We’ve seen an Alfa Romeo V-6 in a Fiat X1/9, a Polaris snowmobile engine in a Mazda Miata, a Mazda rotary in an Opel GT, a Chrysler slant-six in a BMW 325i, a Moto Guzzi engine in a Fiat 600, a Honda CBR1000 engine in a Honda 600, all manner of big-engine/tiny-car swaps, and two engines in a Toyota MR2. In that context, the idea of tearing out the factory front-wheel-drive powertrain of a perfectly good Nissan Maxima and replacing it with a mid-mounted Cadillac Northstar V-8 makes total sense.
Pabst Blue Racing, a team named after the famous brew that hails from the team’s hometown of Milwaukee, ran their ’94 Maxima with the stock front-drive V-6 for a race, but they just weren’t satisfied with the lack of madness in their steed. So, they dragged it into the garage and began months of cutting and pasting. They picked up a well-thrashed Cadillac STS, extracted its 4.6-liter, dual-overhead-cam, 320-hp V-8 plus transaxle and all the computers, and got to work making it all fit in the Maxima while still enabling the car to pass the LeMons tech inspection.
Miraculously, the engine fit just fine in the area where the back seat once lived, and much trial-and-error futzing convinced the GM computers that they should carry on their normal business.
A fuel cell went into the former engine compartment, and the radiator stayed in the stock location.
Genuine Pabst cans were used to make a sort of mosaic on the car’s roof.
No doubt after consuming several suitcases of their favorite beer, the team added some hauntingly beautiful patriotic artwork on the car’s flanks. A macrocephalic screamin’ eagle carrying a can of Pabst graces the driver’s door.
Sad dinosaur is sad, because he can’t drink MKE products.
Best of all, a Jack London-ian wolf drinks a magical gravity-defying rainbow from a Pabst Blue Ribbon can.
Really, Nissan needs to create a Rainbow Beer Wolf Edition option package in honor of Pabst Blue Racing.
A plywood rear wing and dual exhaust exiting just below the trunklid add a high-tech touch. Note the furniture-grade brass trunk latch.
The Cadillac’s engine-control computers demanded that the STS’s “Magnetic Ride Control” adjustable suspension be kept semi-intact, so Pabst Blue Racing’s drivers have the ability to adjust the car’s ride with this knob.
The PBR Maxima made its Northstar-powered debut at the 2012 Chubba Cheddar Enduro at Road America, and it looked and sounded very strong.
Unfortunately, overheating problems led to a cascade of broken parts, and the Maxima managed to turn just 53 laps with the V-8. Still, the car was respectably quick when it ran, and we awarded the team the much-sought-after Organizer’s Choice trophy for general greatness.
While the power-to-weight ratio of a 320-hp, rear-wheel-drive Maxima sounds great on paper, this sort of project requires a few races to work out the major bugs. We expect to see the PBR Nissan climbing a bit higher in the standings at its next race. In the meantime . . . did we mention that it has license plates and parks on the street in Milwaukee?
Source: CarAndDriver
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