Rule the Streets with the Vintage-Chevy Inspired ‘Retrolet’

Leather jacket and smokes not included.

Around the turn of the millennium, custom car builders vied for the title of “most extreme” with a series of crazy hand-built specials that blended elements from various eras, resting atop steam roll-wide wheels. This 1955 Chevrolet-inspired custom was dubbed “Retrolet” by builder Scott Winfield when he finished it in 2003, after 3,000 hours of work.

This is your chance to own this one-of-a-kind beauty, because Retrolet is hitting the auction block at Barrett-Jackson’s upcoming Las Vegas sale Oct. 13-15.

The car sits on a frame custom made from 2-inch x 4-inch steel tube frame, with independent front and rear suspension, Wilwood disc brakes and that staple of the era, Boyd Coddington wheels.

Power is from a monster 502-horsepower, 502 cubic-inch big block Chevy V8 matched to a four-speed automatic transmission.

The crazy bodywork is made mostly from heavily reworked 1955 Chevrolet sheetmetal, with a roof and windshield from a 1999 Chrysler Concorde and various other details borrowed from a ’56 Buick and a ’60 Chevy Impala.

Those are modernized ’55 Chevy instruments in the dashboard and the seats are improbably lifted from a 1995 Mazda MX-6. If there is a last detail cementing Retrolet in its pre-smartphone era, it is the audio system, which boasts a trunk-mounted CD changer with remote control. Hopefully it comes pre-loaded with that hot new White Stripes debut album!