You people all need to see this on You Tube, like, immediately   :

Get a load of this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO_kjaxIDzc

...See, it CAN be done! I exchanged a few P/Ms with the owner/builder a couple months ago, and he said that the engine ('99 24-valve Cummins 5.9 litre)/A-518 tranny combo practically dropped right in, very little or no cutting/fabb'ing involved.

FYI, he's also using stock BBC (Big Block Chevy petrol V8) springs, and it seems fine, though I'd think that's a little light for a 500kg Cummins 6BT/ISB (approx. half again the BBC's weight).

Begs the question: why hasn't anybody else done this, if it's really that (relatively) staright-forward?

This is the "main" video on this car, but there are a couple of others, including one showing buddy doing a 600+ lb-ft smoke-down.

Also, there are a couple of really cool videos of a 39 Chevy rat-rod with a Cummins 4BT: (just type in "Cummins rat rod" into YouTube's search engine to get those...)

* ATT'N Diesel Power braintrust: Full features on these cars, please! Soonest! *

I think alot more of us can relate to these than some rich poseur's $200+ K D-Maxe'd Chevelle, or that equally irrelevant Buick GN clone!  

nice choice of cars, the nose is so long, the original fan shrouds are about a foot wide to reach the fan....

my first car was a 71 454ss, It took a good high speed dip to drag the crossmember on the ground.  

Keep an eye on tech editor Jason Sands' blogs for some diesel musclecar buildups!    

Sounds good, mate; But PLEASE:

Keep them <em>REALISTIC and AFFORDABLE</em>. In other words as far AWAY from the few musclecars you've featured recently as possible!  

If I wanted to read thinly-disguised, condescending advert-copy by/for rich arseholes who just happened to have a full race tube-chassis building facility in their garages along with $40K worth of top-shelf race engine parts "just lying around," then I'd read Hot Rod or Popular Hot Rodding, not DieselPower      

(I trust I'm not the only one that feels this way, nor yet hasn't also felt that way for many years now...I gave up completely on those former two publications a loooooooooooooooooong time ago for just that reason, btw   )