What is a RestoMod?

The soft hue of stoplight red glistens off the paint job of your classic car, while the motor lopes menacingly, waiting to be unleashed when you see green. A family, packed tight in a minivan in the next lane over, stares and gawks at your freshly restored ride. "Why not show them what a real hot rod can do?"" You say with a smile. The shifter clicks into first gear as your grip tightens on the thin steering wheel. As an offering to the Gods of Speed, you bring the RPMs up to the 5,500 RPM redline on the big block.

As the light turns green, you dump the clutch and hammer the throttle. The sound of a screaming big block fills the air like an unhinged beast while radial tires beg for traction as they burn and bounce on the road. HELL YES! You prepare to grab second gear only to look out the window and see the minivan effortlessly cruising by. Children's hands appear from the window, waving and thanking you for the show as their taillights disappear into the night.

Now, before you get your pitchforks and fire up those torches, hear me out. We love and appreciate all classic cars, especially those resurrected through untold hours of hard work, research, and pure love. Even so, there’s no denying that modern performance, safety, and reliability wrapped in a gorgeous vintage aesthetic is the best answer to our minivan dilemma. And the answer is the restomod.

A restomod is not a fad, a small niche, or a random genre in the car world. Nay, it’s the direct result of automotive evolution! The strongest build survives and thrives, and thus, they are mandated. Mandated by whom, you ask? By the same type of folks who’ve been building cars for the last century. The hotrodder. And if history has proven anything it’s that they all share the same need - more speed.

So, buckle up and let's talk shop on the difference between a beautifully restored classic car and the heart-pounding, reliable restomod.

RESTORED:

Webster's book of many words defines "restored" quite simply: "To bring back into a former or original state." In the world of classic cars, it's easily said, not so easily done. These restorations are, in themselves, works of art and acts of love, with more time spent under the car than ever behind the wheel.

Drivetrain: The 426 Hemi, 454 LS6, and 429 Cobra Jet are icons in the performance world. But they will leak, they will overheat sitting in traffic, you’ll need a wizard to tune the carb perfectly, then you'll pass everything but a gas station. If geared too low, your 3 and 4-speed transmission will hate anything beyond 60 mph on the freeway. Gear it too high and you'll miss out on being pinned in your seat by a nasty big block. Vintage drivetrains, if anything, are downright demanding.

Suspension: Stock suspension setups on a restored vehicle tend to sit rather high. Heavy-duty coil and leaf springs make you feel less connected to the road. This is a major performance issue. If she can’t hook up, she isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Yes, your classic will cruise, but she may feel like a cruise ship.

Brakes: Anyone who’s driven a hotrod with drum brakes inevitably has two things in common: First, a horror story of blowing stop lights at 80 miles per hour. Second, the street isn’t the only place you left skidmarks rolling through those lights. A set of discs up front helps, but they are still notoriously slow by modern standards. Ultimately, braking is critical to the survival of your muscle car, as well as your own.

Tires: Restored cars often rock beautiful 14" or 15" wheels and look damn good doing it! But bias-ply rubber was popular with manufacturers 60 years ago. Hotrooders witnessed the rise of the badass Radial tire, and many still sport them today. Radials are cool, with meaty sidewalls and an aggressive stance, but they don't match modern tires in terms of speed ratings or grip. Sure, you can run a marathon in flip-flops, but why not upgrade to a proper pair of running shoes?

Drivability: A restored car tends to be a "fair-weather friend". They like sunny days and short trips. While the rest of the world zips by on the freeway at nearly twice their speed, the restored car prefers you take things slow. Let's be real, that’s not what we’re after. Restored cars can be fussy, and that’s why many are preserved in museums and car collections rather than doing what they're built for: driving.

Comfort: Saggy seat springs, vinyl and plastic typically make up the interior. Not to mention the lack of reliable tunes from the old AM/FM radio. And cruising on a hot summer day? By god, that AC is more like a boat anchor than a commodity, if you’re lucky to have AC at all.

Safety: Let’s be real, the words "safety features" weren't thrown around much at the Big Three half a century ago. In fact, seatbelts weren't even mandatory until 1968! Even then, it was a lap belt more likely to cut you in half than save your life.

Style: The nostalgia and iconic styling of a restored car is what made us all fall in love with them in the first place! Like all beautiful things in this world, restored cars are guaranteed to turn heads wherever they go with an undeniable presence that demands attention.

But the inevitable lust for speed is too great to resist. Therefore, bringing classics into the next century is not only a privilege, it’s an inevitable and sacred calling.

RESTOMOD:

Restored + modified! Need I say more? Yep. We’re bench racing after all so let's continue. How does a restomod differ from a classic restoration? A restomod is essentially a reliable classic car with serial killer intentions! Here’s how:

Drivertrain: We're not saving the best for last today. No, sir, we're getting into the goods now. The LS motor changed the game when it was introduced in 1997. A lightweight motor with a heavyweight punch, these motors can easily handle 4-digit horsepower numbers and clock multiple six figures on the odometer with no problem.

 Modern motors are not only bulletproof and bountiful, but they also won't leave an oil stain on your driveway that looks like the Valentine's Day massacre. In the quest for speed and reliability, a modern motor is going to let you have your cake and eat it too. Backing up these well-mannered monsters are drivetrains that provide a few extra gears. You have the option of a 5 or 6-speed manual transmission, or over 8 speeds with an automatic, allowing you to drop into another gear and hum along at speeds that would have had your old iron block screaming for mercy.

Suspension: "Shackled up", "raked," or "stink bug" style is cool. But it's wildly inefficient for a driver. Carroll Shelby once said, "There’s no such thing as too much horsepower, just not enough traction." Leaf springs and shackles rob you of the most important factor for speed, getting power to the pavement. Modern upgrades allow car enthusiasts to grip the road, corner like it's on rails, and go like hell! All while having the perfect stance.

Brakes: Perhaps the only thing nearly as (but not quite) as important as power is the ability to bring all that mass to a stop as quickly as possible. Massive rotors and calipers with incredible stopping force have replaced the feeble and often terrifying attempts that drum brakes offered drivers. Modern disc brakes are lighter, cooler (aesthetically and functionally as well), and just downright safer.

Tires: Larger wheels and low-profile tires offer a very aggressive aesthetic, giving your car a modern stance with killer style. Bigger wheels also leave room for bigger, better brakes, and provide far better steering response and handling with that magic word, grip! The better the grip, the more you can rip, because, my friend, traction is king.

Drivability: Most of us know that feeling of doubt, like a punch to the gut, deciding if our car can make it to a cruise, or even to the grocery store. Yet we've all dreamed of cruising across the country, our nights spent under the desert stars, Grand Canyon views, and the echoes of our V8 while carving through canyons. In a restomod, that cross-country dream easily becomes reality. She’s going to start, and she’s going to bring you the confidence that EFI can offer and the joy only an overdrive transmission can share. The road is calling, and now, you can answer.

Comfort: There’s nothing better than a seat that fits just right. Gone are saggy springs and sticky vinyl. Seats now form around you, holding you tight. Is your leather getting a bit hot? No need to fear the AC, even while sitting in traffic with a summer sun blazing down on you. Crank that AC, blast those tunes and enjoy your cruise, you’ve earned it!

Safety: You, your classic, and everyone around you deserve to go home at night. And that's why the safety revolution is so important in the restomod sphere. How does that line go...? With great speed comes great responsibility! Three or four-point harnesses lock you in tight while braking, steering, and suspension upgrades help keep your car where it belongs, on the road.

Style: They are sleek and powerful, looking like they’re ripping through the very fabric of existence while sitting still. Van Gogh has “Starry Night”, Michelangelo carved David, and restomods have stance. All are a work of art, and, in the case of a classic car, a restomod with the right combination of vintage aesthetic and modern performance is nothing less than a masterpiece.

Cool, but what does a restomod build look like?

Look no further than the murderous 1970 Dodge Charger that RestoMods built to lurk the streets of San Diego. When building a Restomod, you ask yourself, how does one make a Dodge Charger cooler than it already is? Let’s see what the team in the shop put together.

• Drivetrain: For the pinnacle of performance, how about dropping in a 426 Gen-3 Hemi pushing 650 HP courtesy of BluePrint engines? This killer Mopar has the first Gen III Blueprint Hemi to be fired up between the fenders of any muscle car, ever. Hell yeah! Behind that motor is a Tremec TKX 5-speed transmission that gives you an extra gear to push this car easily into six-digit territory on the speedo.
• Suspension: Install a complete QA1 coil-over suspension to build this street menace with the handling of a sports car and the ride of a luxury vehicle.
• Brakes: Massive Wilwood Brakes bring this beast to a stop in a hurry and look damn good doing it.
• Wheels and Tires: Stunning 18" American Racing adds aggressive styling as the finishing touch on this beast.
• Safety: This car not only rocks massive brakes, rack-and-pinion steering, and QA1 suspension to handle anything the road throws at it, she also comes with modern seat belt upgrades.
• Style: You get any color you want, as long as it’s black. Perfect paint, a matte-black stripe, a black interior, and black wheels make this a seductive pavement demon.

Capturing modern performance and pairing timeless aesthetics elevates the restomod into something more than just another car on the road. They are critical to the automotive culture and its continuation. Its existence was inevitable, its performance mandated, and the result is simply heart pounding, art in motion.