All of my car-owning buddies used to kid me because I never had a real hot rod. Well, a little over a year ago, a guy named Randy Grubb showed up at my garage. He was hauling a trailer with a car on it that he and a pal of his, Mike Leeds, had built. Unfortunately, the car had no rear brakes, headlights or turn signals and was far from road legal. However, it did have a 190-in. wheelbase and an engine from an M-47 Patton tank. Naturally, it got my attention.

So I handed over shopping bags full of $20 bills and the car was mine. And, it stopped all of that no-hot-rod nonsense I was hearing--in a hurry.
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This engine is an AV-1790-5B and it's 1792 cu. in. It has overhead cams and Hemi heads. Since it was designed to move a tank, it puts out 810 hp and makes 1560 ft.-lb. of torque. But you can't just hit the local neighborhood NAPA store for replacement parts on one of these. Fortunately, a fellow by the name of Roy Smith has a surplus company in Augusta, Ga., and he has piles of them sitting there.

To be Leno - a real car guy