Wrecked GT500 Gives Ultimate Crown Vic Build New Life

To those of us with Panther-platform daily drivers, this Crown Vic project is the stuff legends are made of.

YouTuber Cleetus McFarland has a riot of a channel. Quality builds, stupid/awesome hijinks, and a great sense of humor are the perfect recipe to lose several hours of time on a video binge. Luckily for us, he’s something of a Ford guy, and he’s got one impressive project underway right now.

McFarland had purchased a Crown Victoria to build for his neighbor, who unfortunately passed away. It was decided that the build would continue as a tribute to him. The initial plan was to Coyote swap the Crown Vic, procharge it, and terrorize the streets. The Coyote engine was purchased, and things were set to go forward as planned, until something even cooler fell into McFarland’s lap.

McFarland purchased a wrecked 2007 GT500 with just 30,000 miles on the clock. While the car itself is almost completely destroyed, the supercharged 5.4-liter engine and TR-6060 six-speed transmission seem to be in more or less perfect working order.

Opening the hood reveals a few nice surprises. The car has recently had a McLeod clutch installed, and the supercharger has an aftermarket pulley. The headers also appear undamaged, and an aftermarket heat exchanger is present as well, with the stock one included.

With a jumper box, it started up and ran fine. At this point, it’s pretty much a no-brainer to use this complete setup in the Crown Vic. It gets better, though. While one of the awesome GT500 wheels was damaged in the wreck, there are two extras with still-fresh drag radials included with the sale.

While McFarland was planning on sinking more than $10,000 into the Procharged Coyote build, he bought the wrecked GT500 for a paltry $7,500 instead. We’re pretty excited to see when he finishes this. Any Ford lover who’s driven a Panther-chassis car has dreamed about this exact setup.

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Cameron Vanderhorst

Cam VanDerHorst has been a contributor to Internet Brands' Auto Group sites for over three years, with his byline appearing on Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Corvette Forum, JK Forum, and Harley-Davidson Forums, among others. In that time, he's also contributed to Autoweek, The Drive, and Scale Auto Magazine.
He bought his first car at age 14 -- a 1978 Ford Mustang II -- and since then he’s amassed an impressive and diverse collection of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, including a 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Mystic Cobra (#683) and a classic air-cooled Porsche 911.
In addition to writing about cars and wrenching on them in his spare time, he enjoys playing music (drums and ukulele), building model cars, and tending to his chickens.
You can follow Cam, his cars, his bikes, and his chickens at @camvanderhorst on Instagram.
When he's not busy working on his Harley-Davidson bike, the vastly experienced writer has covered an array of features, reviews, how-tos, op-eds and news stories for Internet Brands' Auto Group and is also a co-founder and co-host of the popular podcast Cammed & Tubbed.

Check him out on Instagram at: Camvanderhorst.

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