At one point or another, most of us have had some form of fascination with dinosaurs, at least in some capacity. What’s not to love? Big, powerful lizards that used to roam the earth hunting for prey. But, if you’re anything like Nathan Haas, your pre-pubescent love of dinosaurs spilled over into a budding passion for cars. Enter Indominus— the 2006 GTO that was named after the Velociraptor-T-Rex hybrid from Jurassic World. And while some may not see the correlation, the combination of hybrid custom parts, attention to detail and prey-stalking capabilities make a pretty strong case for its nameplate— plus, it runs on fossil fuels, so there.

Nathan’s passion for Cretaceous-Period themed rides started with his 2005 GTO, which was named Rex– after the T-Rex. He purchased the GTO during his first couple of years of college and mainly did bolt-ons and subtle customizations to it. But eventually, Nathan wanted to do more to the car, and wanted to start with a lower-milage, six-speed car. The ’05 was sold and replaced with an ’06 with only 30,000 miles on it. However, the new car needed a bit of body work. This acted as a catalyst for the build that would become Indominus.

“When I built this GTO, which I say is a bigger, badder version of my first GTO, and it changed colors, I thought it was a lot like Indominus from Jurassic World,” Nathan said. “It’s the meaner version of the T-Rex, which is what this build is— a badder version of my first GTO.”

Since the new GTO already needed body work, Nathan decided that he wanted a completely different hue on the car and selected Cyber Grey Metallic— which you may recognize from the C6 Corvette ZR1. Not only was the exterior of the car painted, but so were all of the jams and even the engine bay— which required the removal of the entire drivetrain to accomplish.

“Wherever the factory painted it, we did too with the new color,” Nathan explained.

To compliment the new shade, Nathan also installed a turbo kit that he sourced locally. And while the turbo kit provided a considerable bump in performance, eventually the anxiety over having to rebuild the motor or breaking something got the better of him, so it was removed in favor of a naturally aspirated build.

The engine build started with a pair of JBA long tube headers— acquired in the sale of the turbo kit— which feature 1 7/8-inch primary tubes and 3-inch collectors feeding into a 3-inch Spintech exhaust. Next, a cam from Tick Performance, featuring 237/242 degrees of duration and .630/.610-inch lift on the intake and exhaust respectively with a 111 degree lobe separation angle, was installed and gives the modern Goat a nasty chop. A DuSpeed cold air intake keep the GTOs LS2 flush with crisp air.

“I dialed up Tick Performance, I had the mentality of go big or go home, and asked them to send me the largest cam they had that would fit,” Nathan said. “They sent it out in a kit with the correct valve springs and we installed it that weekend.”

After the car had been stored for the winter, Nathan was itching to get the project moving again and started by removing the heads to replace the stock lifters that were original left when the cam swap took place. While the heads were off the car, a friend of Nathan’s had an interesting idea.

“A friend of mine dropped by while we were doing the lifter swap and had an interesting idea,” Nathan said. “He said it would be cool to polish the outside of the heads instead of just leaving their gritty, dirty look— that lead to everything else in the engine bay getting polished; that or painted and cleared.”

So far, the outside of the heads have been polished, along with the belt tensioner, power steering pump and bracket, water pump and just about every other piece of exposed metal in the engine bay.

Once the polish work on the motor was finished, the engine was removed once again so that the entire bay—including the firewall— could be smoothed, painted and cleared. While the body work on the engine bay was taking place, Nathan took the opportunity to reroute and hide the stock engine harness and even went as far as relocating the abs module. It now resides lower down, just behind the fog lamp.

Nathan designed and produced all of the relocation brackets and emblems you see on the car and in the engine bay. The custom Indominus valve cover overlays were designed and cut on a water jet, as were the relocation brackets for the ignition coils, power steering pump reservoir and abs module. The ProForm valve covers were then painted to match the car’s external pallet.

In fact, not only does Nathan use his custom parts on his personal vehicle, he sells them to others through his Facebook page Bad Haas Productions. His most popular items are the splitter and side skirts that you see on his car.

“When I was in high school, our uncle trained my cousin and I in AutoCad,” Nathan said. “And then in 3-D design.”

Haas’ custom parts business not only gives his car a one-of-a-kind look, it also keeps the cash flowing for more modifications. A FAST LSXR 102mm intake, which was custom smoothed, painted and cleared, was used in conjunction with a ported LS2 throttle body. The custom intake helps the GTO develop roughly 450 horsepower at the rear wheels and an RST clutch from McLeod, funneling power through the stock rear end, makes sure that every one of those ponies is making their way to the ground.

Most would consider that plenty for a street car, but Nathan tells us he isn’t done yet. A set of ported 243 casting heads are waiting to boost the GTO’s power production levels even further and a 402 stroker motor may not be outside the realm of possibility in the near future according to Haas.

The GTO is rolling on a set of 19-inch MMR VP5s wrapped in Michelin rubber. D2 coil overs set the car’s ride height and help eliminated body roll while keeping the tires firmly planted on the tarmac. Vohn Man Customs supplied all the necessary components to change the Goat’s interior lighting to emit a blue glow and paint-matched interior panels wrap up the final touches.

All together, Nathan tells us that the car has well over 2,000 man-hours in all the custom work. And while the car may be named after a dinosaur, and the company that original produced it is extinct, one thing is for sure, this beast is still terrorizing its prey.

See more of his car, and products, on Instagram @badhaasproductions or in the clip below.