Well, it’s the silly season, aka SEMA season, so a bunch of huge builds have been wrapped up just in time to make it through the doors of the Las Vegas Convention Centre. One of those builds is this evil looking, black on black, twin turbo, 1970 Pontiac Firebird built by the team at All Speed Performance. I was lucky enough to catch the build thread a couple of weeks ago when the car was in the body shop, so I was excited to check up on it’s progress now that some SEMA coverage is starting to flow, and thankfully it was completed in time. Build thread link after the jump.

CLICK HERE to head over to the full build thread.

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted a feel-good story, so here’s one that Ty emailed me about his very own pride and joy.

Ty is in his early 40′s and has been a serving member of the US Air Force for over 25 years. He sent off his first ever car, a 1971 Firebird, for quick paint job but things didn’t go exactly as planned. The ‘Bird ended up in “paint jail” at a panel shop for over 14 weeks, so he enlisted the great guys at Fletcher’s Customs to rescue the car and carry out the remaining work. Like most of us, Ty had a set budget to work within, but Chad Fletcher and his crew knew the car needed to be finished to a much higher standard than the money would allow, especially considering it was going to be returned to someone who has been serving their country. So with that in mind, Chad set about to drum up support from a number of companies and individuals who donated various parts and services, and the car went on to become a full-fledged Pro-Touring masterpiece, concluding with a spot at SEMA and an appearance on the television show PowerBlock .

Build thread: http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=17027

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Each year, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine holds the “$200X Challenge”, a competition for budget-built custom cars to compete in a series of challenges, where the build cost must not exceed the monetary value of the year it is held in (hence the $2009 limit for 2009).

This particular entry is a Pontiac Fiero, a car known for being used as a base for Ferrari 355 replicas. This one has a different destiny though, and receives an electric motor slotted between the front wheels to accompany the factory standard mid-mounted V6, essentially converting it into a twin engine hybrid.

Thanks to Mike for submitting this build, and a big congratulations goes out to him and his fiance Vica on their engagement.

For all the build details, head to http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/west-coast-2009-challenger-awd-fiero-hybrid/10519/page1/

To take a break from the wild custom fabricated builds, here’s a loving restoration of a 1972 Trans Am, submitted by the owner of the car and Build Threads reader, Steve. The car is being restored to better-than-new condition after being on the receiving end of a small engine fire in the previous owner’s garage. Luckily for us, Steve is taking the time to document the process of his impressive detail work.

For the full build thread click here. I found the easiest way to view it is to click on “show all” to the right of the page numbers, so the whole build appears on one page, just give it some time to load up.

A short time ago, Ralf emailed me all the way from Hamburg to show me his car. I love finding out about the distant places this blog reaches.

Ralf is the Editor-In-Chief of Chromjuwelen.com and he drives a tasty concoction of automotive parts. How’s this for unique, a 1972 Pontiac LeMans with a Toyota 7MGTE engine swap humbly known as the LeSupra.

Click here for documentation of the LeSupra build

Click here for construction image gallery

Click here for video

Click here for press-links