The term “restomod” is far-reaching, capturing just about any older car that receives upgrades or modernizations. Some are unapologetic about the changes; others put in a lot of effort to hide the updates under stock sheetmetal and stance. Jay Leno is the latter, but don’t think that means his restomods are something other than stunning. Part of the fun—and skill—in building modern features and power into aging chassis is the ability to keep all the cool styling of yore without compromise. Case in point: These three cars.
Leno will happily admit he had a lot of help in creating these wild cars, and brought in the executive chief engineer for the Corvette, Tony Roma, to shed some light on how General Motors brought a little extra horsepower to his 1955 Buick, 1932 Chevrolet, and 1966 Oldsmobile.
The Buick is a most interesting car. Jay bought the gold-trimmed two-door years ago when he first moved to Los Angeles. After serving as a regular use car for some time, it was parked in a driveway and sat for a number of years. A few car guys caught wind of the car and spooled up a plan to build something fun. And of course when you are Jay Leno, your car-guy friends include some heavy hitters—like Bob Lutz. That’s how you end up with General Motors engineers adapting fifth-generation Corvette suspension to the car and the first-ever 572 big-block crate engine under the hood.
The second vehicle in the garage that got the restomod treatment is a 1934 Chevrolet chassis topped with a 1932 Ford body that was completed as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the small-block Chevrolet V-8 in 2005. Under the pearl white hood is an LS7 that Roma estimates at 600hp thanks to a new camshaft and a few other tweaks. The six-speed manual just seems like the right choice, and a cueball shifter fits perfectly between the bucket seats of the custom interior. While it does have a top, Jay makes it pretty clear that it’s rarely up. Hot rods don’t need roofs.
The last of the trio is the arguably the wildest. A gold, stock-appearing Oldsmobile Toronado (shown in the feature photo above) is a treat for Jay’s eyes, so making the performance as appealing as the visuals would be quite a challenge. Back in 2006 when the car was built, a horsepower number that required a comma was not all that common. The LS motor displaces 427 cubic inches (it’s not an LS7 from the Z06—that was still in development at the time) and is fed by a pair of decent-sized turbos. Thanks to heavy use of Corvette parts under the stock Oldsmobile skin the car is actually lighter than a factory Toronado, making the already absurd power figures just a bit wilder. Oh, and it’s all-wheel-drive now. Told you this car was hiding some serious secrets.
These three cars represent some different ways to go about a restomod build. Are any of them perfect? Well, that’s up for debate, but we know that we would love to take any and all of them for at least one good long drive. Would you say the same?
