A lot of people don’t know that the first-gen Chevy Colorado was sold with a five-cylinder engine. Nicknamed the Vortec 3500, it’s a member of the Atlas engine family that also includes inline four- and six-cylinder variants. Few have ever been modified to go fast, but as this Ford Fairmont wagon with one under the hood proves, they can post some crazy numbers. How about an eight-second quarter-mile at 153.64 miles per hour?
This speedy longroof belongs to Calvin Nelson, who goes by Nivlac57 on YouTube. He’s built several of these Atlas engines, including a 4.2-liter inline-six that made more than 1,000 horsepower at the wheels in a fifth-gen Chevy Camaro. Nelson’s channel is really starting to grow, and he’s helping others build their own Atlas-powered hot rods, too.
The Fairmont wagon you’re looking at here has been fast for a while. It previously ran 8s with the bigger six-cylinder under the hood, but as Nelson explains at the beginning of his latest video, he wanted to try with the oft-forgotten inline-five. The result is a combination that makes roughly 720 hp at the wheels, which is quite a bit more than the chassis and suspension are set up to handle. He plans to fix that by tweaking the four-link rear so that power makes it to the ground more smoothly.
Nelson left the engine’s stock aluminum block alone for this project, and he also kept the factory camshafts. Snyder Performance ported the head, while MW Steel made a custom intake plenum that looks great. The 75/88mm turbo is undoubtedly the biggest difference-maker in terms of power, as it’s paired up with a massive intercooler that Nelson estimates to be good for 2,000 ponies. In all, the engine only measures 211 cubic inches of displacement, so it’s making just over 4 hp per cubic inch at the flywheel. That’s pretty rowdy.
Hearing it rev past 7,500 rpm is such a treat, too. Close your eyes and you might think you’re listening to an Audi Quattro rally car, or maybe an Audi 90 IMSA GTO. It’s wild to think that this is an American engine, built and sold here (albeit in relatively small numbers) in a stinkin’ pickup truck! You could even get one with a five-speed manual, which is apparently tough enough to handle some serious power as well.
I can’t get enough of these Atlas builds. They truly are a 2JZ alternative, and they’re a heckuva lot cheaper than the 3.0-liter Hurricane from Stellantis, too.
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From running point on new car launch coverage to editing long-form features and reviews, Caleb does some of everything at The Drive. And he really, really loves trucks.
