By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Nicely done.

Starsky and Hutch Festiva

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

We have to thank(?)BangShift.com forum member SpeedService for the tip on this one. Long story short, someone in Brazil, Indiana, took a Ford Festiva, which is one of the weeniest little cars ever to set go-kart sized wheels on American roads, and turned it into a dump truck with a hauling capacity of about 47 pounds. WTF indeed.

We’re nearly at a loss for words. Anything more than a wheelbarrow or two worth of stone, manure, body parts, GI Joe action figures, or granola would force this “truck” into a wheelstand and render it useless as the front wheels pull it along. We’re not sure of the load range on the radials spinning on 13-inch wheels, but we’d say it’s not E.

Fear not, it does have a roll cage.

Here’s another insane CarDomain Festiva for you, though it’s a completely different animal than the rear-engine V8 conversion Rob showed you awhile back. This one’s being built as a burly little turbocharged racecar for the Canadian ice-racing circuit, and on his ride page, owner Jed didn’t skimp on the details: he tells you exactly where to cut and weld to fit in the Mazda powertrain, he shows you how to add reinforced mounts to eliminate engine flex, and he demonstrates tuning the suspension specifically for ice racing using parts from Aspires and GM’s. He’s also good at figuring ways to get the better power for cheaper: witness the success of his complicated mashup of two different Mazda engines after getting an unfavorable rebuild quote for his B6T. The last thing Jed says on his page is "More photos after race day!"  Good luck to you man, and can’t wait to see some pics of this hot little hatch burning up the ice!

All of us pretty much lost our minds over this V8 Festiva, but we wondered about why Theon choose to keep it front wheel drive. The answer should have been clear immediately, but we had to look on his ride page to discover it: "wicked reverse donuts." Of course! Everyone here at headquarters was totally amped to see that stunt on video, and luckily, it was already posted. Check it out!

I’m still marveling about this crazy V8-powered Festiva I found on CarDomain earlier this week. But it turns out that Theon isn’t the first person to throw a powerful engine in the trunk of a Festiva. Back in the late 80s Rick Titus and Chuck Beck built seven crazy Festivas inspired by the Renault R5. Power came from a 220 hp 3.0 liter SHO V6, and these little cars were wicked fast. Jay Leno has Shogun #3, and he added a nitrous system for some extra fun. Go to jaylenosgarage.com for the full story and a cool video.

I’ve seen some crazy stuff on our site but this takes the cake. Theon dropped a Chevy V8 into this Festiva but opted to keep it FWD–"it can do wicked reverse donuts." There is some serious fabrication work here. And check out the exhaust–when he wants it quiet he runs it through mufflers out the back, and when he wants it loud he runs it out the stacks on top. Oh, and he’s looking for a good flamethrower kit, so if you know of one, leave a message in his guestbook.

Be sure to watch the video of this car doing its signature move!

In this demo, a Festiva floats into the sky on a firehose-powered platform. While a group of five or six drunken frat boys could probably accomplish the same feat, it’s still pretty cool to see it done on water pressure alone.  I wonder if they took the engine out of it first.

Water Hose Car Lift

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I blogged about Chris’s Festiva back in April. I just visited his ride page again and it looks like he made the August issue of Sport Compact Car. Nice work Tim!