Hot rodders have never been short on imagination. They continually swap parts and pieces on their car trying to make their vehicle unique and perfectly execute the vision they see in their head. A lot of ingenuity, blood, and sweat are what separate one car from another.
Dan Troyer is a hot rodder. At the age of 71, he decided to take his 1956 Volkswagen Bug and stuff an LS3 crate engine backed by a T-56 six-speed transmission. The LS3 cranked out 430 horsepower and last we heard, Dan was considering a cam change to get a few extra ponies out of the engine. The mutated Bug body sets atop of a custom tube chassis with a Ford 9-inch rearend and a Heidts front clip. The car looks nothing short of sinister with the fenderless body and the chopped and raked roof.
Dan originally built the VW to compete in the Sand Hills Shoot Out up in Arnold, Nebraska, which is only about 45 minutes from his house. He wanted a car that had some shock value and would be able to compete at the shootout. At the half-mile event, Dan’s crazy looking bug managed to run 145.9 mph from a dead stop with the stock LS3 crate engine. While most people would be good with this performance, it is evident that Dan was not.
Recently we spotted Dan’s creation on the rollers, and this time the factory LS3 had undergone a few modifications. The factory cam was pulled and replaced with a Texas Speed & Performance “Bald Eagle” camshaft. The factory intake was also removed and swapped for an LSA supercharger. On the rollers, the new combination was good for 619 horsepower and 536 lb-ft of torque at a mere 5-pounds of boost using E85 fuel. We expect that at this power level the 2,500-pound hotrod should definitely be a handful, especially while grabbing gears with the T-56 transmission.
For more details on Dan’s Bug, check out the full feature in Street Muscle Mag.