How an AMATEUR built this 1000HP custom Trans Am

(engine revving) - This is a completely

custom

Pontiac Trans Am, 1000 horsepower, full tube frame chassis. And it was

built

by a guy. Today, I'm going to show you what exactly makes

this

car do it (kisses fingers) oh, very good. What it takes to build a car of

this

caliber and why this car might inspire you to build your own. Let's go bumper 2 bumper on the Protomachine Trans Am. This thing is (bleep) sick! (brilliant guitar music) I want to thank Omaze for collaborating with us on this episode of Bumper 2 Bumper. Would you like to win a new BMW M8 Competition Coupe including tax and shipping, plus $20,000 in cash?

Who wouldn't want that? This M8 Competition Coupe has it all. It has an eight-speed M Tronic

trans

mission, you can change it from automatic to manual with a little push of your hand. It has X drive all-wheel drive (electronic shock) and can go from 0 to 60 in three seconds. (stopwatch ticking) 60 miles per hour. (stopwatch ticking) 60 miles per hour. It comes in a limited edition Dravit Gray metallic paint and has merino leather seats. It's luxurious, fast and everything can be yours. And you're donating to a very good cause to help Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center purchase ECMO heart machines, which is part of the reason James is still alive today.

So that's very dear to us here at Donut Media. It's a great cause, so go there and support them at omaze.com/donut to participate. (dramatic guitar strum) So next to me is a 1970 Pontiac Trans Am. Well, what's left of one, it's barely a Trans Am at this point, but let's get into that. First of all, the man behind this build is Riley Stair. He treated this car as a test, now, after a career-ending BMX injury, Riley sought out and started his own company to build

custom

cars like this. But instead of launching into forming his own LLC, he needed to put his skills to the test.

So he decided to start creating his own business card. (upbeat electronic guitar) There's a lot going on with this build now. Riley has put his touches on almost every part of this car and we're going to get into some of those things. But the first thing we will see is the chassis, and it is very nice. Max,

trans

form me. (bright drum music) Well, this is a full tube frame chassis, but it wasn't initially supposed to be that way. Now Riley was going to go the route of putting a modernized suspension on it, front frame rails, front subframe, basically a rear half car, right?

But then he thought, "Hm, what if I do a little route running?" "What if I put on an independent rear suspension? "Then I have to cut the whole rear half off" and then at the end of the day, "I've got the front off, I've got the rear off." "I might as well do the whole thing." Damn full tube chassis.” And that's what he did. (bright electronic music) Now, before this, he had

built

a handful of roll cages, but nothing to this point. Now this was a test from Riley to Riley. Could he go out and do this himself?

Well, he did. And not only did he do it, he TIG-welded the entire tube frame himself, if he needed welding. TIG welded. Dude, TIG welders are the #Nickelboyz, they're putting in dimes (imitating welding). It's incredible (laughs), it's much more difficult (laughs). I don't want to call them #Nickelboyz. The difficulty is figuring out all the alignment and suspension geometries. So, working for a suspension company, he began teaching himself the basics, without a computer. Riley designed the chassis and suspension setup. He didn't use a computer to design a custom car chassis. Now, that might seem like, "Oh, people have been doing that all the time," but it's amazing that that's been done in today's era.

It just goes to show the amount of workmanship that was put into this car. Now, speaking of workmanship, the chassis is just one piece of this puzzle. Take these fenders as an example, they were made with only three tools. A retractable frame, a hammer, a dolly and a bead roller. A very unconventional way to make fenders, but Riley did it anyway. And they are all TIG (whistle) welded (sparks from the welder) right at that seam. They look (kisses fingers) beautiful. (upbeat electronic music) The lines of this car, it looks like it should have left the factory this way.

That's another part of this car, its proportions are very well done, they're done with great taste. It is wider where it needs to be wider and looks longer where it needs to look longer. And Riley still says, "Hey, hey, man, I still think it's a Trans Am, it's got that essence, it's got that character that a Trans Am has." And if you're wondering, this car is street legal, because it still maintains its original VIN number. A 1000 horsepower street legal Trans Am, oh while we're here with these wheels, these are Old Stock Panasport racing wheels, it just screams Trans Am, they are so.

Great, and they're 12 and a half inches wide, that's that wide! They'll need all that width when they try to take off (upbeat electronic music) Alright, I've teased them long enough. , the heart of this Trans Am. Let's go to the methanol-injected engine. Max, take me to the front! (electronic whistle) (upbeat electronic music) To get to the engine, we have to loosen 10 quarter-turn fasteners to lift this one up. six pound hood (upbeat electronic music). So this is pretty wild. There's a lot going on in this engine bay, but it was. all done with a purpose. So one of the goals that Riley wanted when he was building this car was 1000 horsepower, he wanted it to be naturally aspirated and he wanted it to do 10,000 RPM.

So he went to see Don at Motor Machine and when he came back it was a base 400 cubic inch Chevy LSX, basically a pro motor making 10,008 RPM. (clicks with tongue) Check, check, check, check. (upbeat electronic music) And because this engine is methanol, it has to burn three times as much fuel as if it were a standard gasoline engine. That means it has much larger injectors, that means it has two fuel pumps that pump out about seven gallons per minute. That's crazy! (upbeat electronic music) Normally on a '70s Trans Am you'd see the engine right over here, right?

Riley moved this engine rearward 22 inches for weight distribution purposes. It's a 47% weight distribution, 53% front and rear. (upbeat electronic music) You may have originally seen this car with the beautiful Medusa looking headboards. It was something that everyone was talking about: "Hey, did you see the white Trans Am with those crazy heads?" Well, they were changed and the reason they were changed is because Riley was looking for more. Look, he wanted 1000 horsepower on the crank motor and he was only getting about 900. So Riley learned everything he could about head design and built two four-to-one headers that gave him 100 more horsepower you got 900, why. what not to have a 1000?

That's what he wanted and he did it! (upbeat electronic music) Now if you look at all the pipes on this car, it's controlled chaos and it's done by design, there are no panels to save. the lines on this car so they're routed in a very practical and functional way. You've got coolant lines here, there's two radiators, four fans, this is a dry sump engine, so there's an oil tank in there that holds. four gallons of oil. It's got vent lines here, it's got vapor lines here, it's got the custom internal suspension that you can see. And this car even has power steering and you need power steering because you have 24 inches of rubber that you have to turn.

And that's a little difficult. (upbeat electronic music) And by the way, if you're a spec freak, we'll have all the specs for this engine and this entire car in the description of this video, so check it out. Now let's go in, okay? I'll try to fit into that little racing seat and then we'll cheer this bad boy on. Get ready (rubbing hands). (growling) (laughing) Jesus Christ! (heavy rock guitar) So the first thing that happens when you get in this car is, wow, it's tight (laughs)! Besides being a perfect fit, there are many tricky parts. We have our reservoirs for our clutch and our brake, two for the brake because there are two master cylinders, one for the front of the car, front brakes, one for the rear.

We have our computer mounted up here with these custom bulkhead pieces, which is really nice. Fuel on and off, fire extinguishing systems. Two fire extinguishers and since this car runs on methanol it has to have a special type of fire extinguisher, which is cool. Tail lights, headlights, they're all mounted flush on this bulkhead, which is really cool. All the fuses are on this side, the eight coil packs are mounted where the passenger dash would be, it also has a Dale Earnhardt edition four-speed shifter. Actually, the entire transmission comes from a NASCAR car, but it says Dale Earnhardt and that's incredibly sweet. (upbeat electronic music) Now behind me is clearly Lexan, which I can't turn because I can't move (laughs), but you can see all the beautiful suspension parts behind it.

And the first thing you think is, "That looks a little different, "that's not a typical suspension." And there's a reason for that. It's an engineering challenge, it's difficult, it's not easy to do and if a customer comes in in his shop and says, "Hey, I want shock absorbers mounted perpendicular to the inside on my car." You have to be able to say, "Yes, I can do that and it looks (kisses fingers) delicious." cheerful electronics) So this car is 90% complete, which is strange because it seems to be 150% complete. This thing is absolutely beautiful. Riley is still tinkering with it.

For example, he has to figure out how to put a filter on it. There are little issues he's addressing, so it's not 100% finished. And he lives in the Protomachine workshop now, but most of this work was done outside of his parents' two-car garage. They gave him a space inside, they told him, "Hey, go outside, build this outside." And he did. (upbeat electronic music) This was a SEMA build, that was built outside a garage, by some guy. That's crazy and it should be inspiring, it should inspire you to want to build your own car, right? And if you can't do it, that's okay because you can always turn to Protomachine and they will build one for you.

Ready, okay, on on. (ignition) (engine revving) (laughter) (engine roaring) Alright, that's it, I'm done. (bright guitar plucking) Woo, that was the craziest experience I've ever had. My hands are still literally shaking. I just revved it to 5000 RPM and everyone cleared the building because the methanol was so strong it burned your eyes. Thanks Riley for building this car, thanks Mike for all your help. Follow me on Instagram @jeremiahburton, follow Donut @donutmedia, also check out the full build sheet and spec sheet for this car in the description, bye for now. Woo, holy (bleeps).