Volvo Amazon with Lingenfelter LS1 will Melt Your Brain
Volvo Amazon with Lingenfelter LS1 will Melt Your Brain
Volvo Amazon 122S body was transplanted onto a Corvette C6 frame with suitably unique and stunning results.
Larry Chen is a busy and talented automotive photographer who shoots a lot of custom built showcars. His YouTube channel, Hoonigan Auto Focus, follows Chen as he finds and shoots a variety of cars. As someone who is around a lot of extreme builds, it probably takes a lot to shock him. But that’s exactly what happened when he came across what looks like a flared Volvo Amazon coupe at the 2019 LS Fest in Las Vegas. at a glance but is actually far more. Built by Jeff Allen, this is probably the most insanely modified Amazon on the planet. “I went a little crazy,” says Allen. “I had an 831 horsepower to the rear wheels ZO6 and I had this all original Amazon 122S which happened to have a whopping 85 horsepower.” According to Allen he parked them next to each other at the shop one day and noticed that the wheel bases of the two cars were pretty close. “I thought how cool would it be to morph the Amazon body, which I think is just really cool old school style, on top of that C6 chassis. Then I wanted to go even farther and said we gotta drop a Lingenfelter LS7 in it.”
The result is the insanity pictured here. “They’re is something about LS Fest that just brings out the crazies,” notes Chen in the video. “The actual width of the Amazon and the Corvette was actually within three quarters of an inch,” explains Allen. With some clever customizing of the Corvette frame and Volvo body he was able to mate everything together relatively seamlessly. “When you open the door I wanted the original door sill plates to fit right over the frame rail.”
The attention to detail continues on the interior treatment of the custom Volvo, we mean Corvette… Volvette? Corvolvo? Anyway, we digress. Inside is a Corvette steering wheel with a Volvo center cap. Basically the entire interior of the Corvette was installed into the Volvo, including the center console, dashboard and even the fully functional gauges. Allen also explains that there a lot of carbon fiber Gran Sport parts in the interior. The car uses lightweight fabric door pulls but the doors now use the Corvette door mechanisms. Everything from the C6 Corvette works too, from the AC to the cruise control. Even the keyless entry was swapped onto the Volvo body.
“My favorite part is what is under the hood,” says Allen. “So it’s a Lingenfelter race-prepped motor. They’re saying it’s 675 horsepower, conservatively.” During the build the Corvette’s carbon inner fender wells were even installed. “We tried to incorporate everything we could from the Corvette to make it kind of flawless. But we kind of got lucky, it kind of just all went together.” The dry sump engine’s oil tank is mounted under the passenger side front fender. In order to draw as much heat out of the engine bay, Allen installed heat extractor vents from a Mustang into the Amazon’s hood. And of course the finishing touch is a badge affixed to the rear of the car that reads V06. “These are the kinds of builds that I love so much, just so unique,” says Chen as the video wraps up. We couldn’t have said it any better.
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