I really liked the look of the Pronto Cruiser, from the first time I saw it. The PT is the closest thing to it most of us will ever own ...  Suppose this is what you were determined to have / build!!? How would you begin? If you were going to stay with all standard running gear, you could get very close to the Pronto look, but be WARNED, you would have to strip  your car to the bare bones, then cut it into at least 10 pieces. Then weld it back together and undergo massive body work to get it to look right. Not a job for the novice! On the other hand, if you wanted to build the Pronto from scratch,  there is another option. All of the PT body parts and skins are in the repair network now. To purchase all these body skins and only the quarters necessary to make an "outer skin", costs about $4,000.00. You'd  pay that or more for a 27 Ford fiberglass body. Now you have to build a chassis or adapt a chassis with a wheelbase close to the 94 +-  inches you'd be working with. This is now a full blown, hot rod, hard core, from the ground up project. Most people are not capable of doing all this design and construction work by themselves. The after- market for street rod building has come a very long way in the last few years and it is supprising how much complete componet parts and materials are out there. Most of the steering geometry is done, you just bolt or weld the units in place, and keep building. Even with all the factory sheetmetal in hand, someone still has to cut and modify the pannels to fit your concept car. Plus all those modified pannels have to match up to the frame and mount locations!?? Do they even exist yet? Well this is where the entire car has to be carefully invisioned and planned out to accomodate the many systems and requirements of a full functioning car. To do this would require multiple "fittings" with engines, axles, seats, doors, people, all measured and noted. Then you can begin to finalise the construction of the car. The teams that build these concept cars have everything they need including a sizable budget to work with. I can't say that! But with time and some clever shopping,  this car could be built for under 30K, and this would be a hot little number!

^    How about a front grill close to that.   Looks like Prowler front wheels all round The big dia wheels really add to the attitude this car kicks out!

10" cut out of the center, behind drivers door. 5" cut out of the window supports all around.

I would almost have to mount the doors suicide style, (not as pictured). The back hatch area would have to be cut and tilted towards the front to get the right slant to the back.

OK, so if you are committed to building the coolest retro car on the planet, then why not make it one of the quickest cars as well?!! Now lets suppose you still want to DRIVE this car and enjoy it. How fast is fast enough? Viper...low 12's, Porsche..12 flat, $300,000.00 Supercars...mid 11's. If we had an all wheel drive, 600 hp, 2800lb roadster, the car should do low 11's no problem. If the power came from a well proven, light weight,  Buick GN turbo V6, you would still get 20 mpg and be very tame on the street. The AWD unit is from a Chevy Astrovan. It is a 700R4, used in the corvette. This one has an AWD splitter, bolted to the back of the transmition. This sends power to the front wheels at 40% torque. Actually the rear wheels have to spin faster than the front, before the sprag locks in for the front to operate. The front still only gets 40% of the torque through a fluid coupeling device. If the front wheels were built, still using PT / Neon / Stratus ... components, they would see 40% of the available power. If total power was 600hp, the front would see approx 240hp, ...not a streach at all. To motivate the rear I would choose the IR setup from a late model T-bird, cause they are very plentiful and strong (8.8). If you wanted to cut weight even more, the Lincoln MK VIII rear is all alum, as are the controll arms. The whole sub frame can be adapted to the chassis, thus keeping all the factory geometry. The front diff should be the same as the rear, only adapting the axles to the cv joints / output shafts. By using the Neon front assembly, you have only to provide a support for the top of the strut assembly and connect the "K" member to your frame. Now your steering geometry is still set from the factory. A mount must be fabricated for the fromt diff. Here, the engine / oil pan will be very close to the diff. and oil pan mods may come into play for the right side drive axle. The Buick eng lends itself to a front sump very well. The front sump would most likely be needed to miss the steering rack. Please understand,  most of this is uncharted water at this time. But I have a lift at home and have spent a lot of time "LOOKING" at the space available vs the ba--s  available to do some of these things I'm talking about. That's why I advocate building from parts, rather than butchering a PT, to build this dream car.

This would be like a GMC Cycolne,  dressed in a really sharp "RETRO SUIT"!! Nobody says it can't be a 3.9 Chrystler V6 or 360 crate motor, 3.0L from an Intrepid, or even a  Hemi!! Well, that would be a streach, litterally in the front end! But nothing is really out of the question. I just know and respect the Buick stuff and it's available, at the right price, makes gobs of power for the weight and is very durable.

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