Ford will build you a hot-rod shell

If you've seen American Graffiti, you'll know that Americans rather enjoy turning 1932 Ford Coupes into hot rods. Thing is, base cars are getting pretty thin on the ground, forcing customisers to sift through the desert to find original bodies that haven't been ravaged by rust. And if you're one of them, GOOD NEWS! Ford's announced that it'll be selling box-fresh five-window coupe shells.

But while the new cars are made from gin-u-wine stamped Ford steel and built to the same spec as they were 82 years ago, they don't come with, err, anything else. Not even engines. See, Ford reasons that any rodder worth their salt would put the coupe's original 82bhp V8 straight in the bin and replace it with something a bit more... burnouty.

Which opens up rather a lot of options. So we've delved deep into the manufacturer's engine room and come up with six suggestions for your 21st-century ‘deuce coupe'. They're all built by Ford, and they'll all fit straight in*

*with liberal use of angle grinders and welders and engineering talent.

We liked the current World Engine of the Year in 123bhp Focus flavor, but for a hot rod it'd probably need a supplementary turbocharger and, say, 210bhp. Just as you'd find in one of these nifty Formula Ford Racers.

If you didn't know already, Ford supplies the delicious V12 you'll find fitted to the Aston-Martin DB9 and Vanquish. 565bhp pre-war Ford, anyone?

Ordinarily found in enormous Super Duty half-lorry truck things, it's the biggest petrol engine Ford currently uses. And in the world of hot-rodding, more is more. This is the most. Mmm, 457lb ft. Burnouts, anyone?

NASCAR homologation rules dictated that 500 or more vehicles sold to Joe public were equipped as raced, so the 7.0-litre elephant engine Ford was using for the series found its way into the Mustang. They made well north of 500bhp as standard. Which would be interesting in a car that weighs a shade over 1000kg...

For the beards out there who just want to do a nice, careful-now restoration, the original 85bhp engine will do nicely thankyouverymuch. And if you get bored you can throw a catalogue of readily available aftermarket parts at it and build a fire-breathing 700bhp monster...

It's been done to a '32 Ford before, and we can see no good reason why 2,500bhp shouldn't find its way into one again...