He's building a VE Valiant with Honda power and BMW suspension!

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Think ‘drift car’ and visions of Nissan Silvias, 350Zs and Skylines, AU- BA Falconsm, Toyota 86s and the like. VE Valiants and other Aussie classics don’t usually come to mind, but Adelaide’s Adam Bianchetti is planning to change that!

“I bought a 1968 VE Valiant seven years ago with all the plans to build it. I had a hot 225 slant six built for it with triple Webers and it was ready to go to paint. Then, the build stalled to due to a lack of funds and the VE sat in my paddock for a few years.”

“I’ve had plenty of different cars over the years, starting with an LX Torana, moving onto a VH SL/E, a FD Mazda RX7 and a VF SSV as my drivers. I’ve been into drifting for years and have had two Nissan 180SXs, a VG ute and a BA Falcon. I wanted to do something different, so it occured to me that I could do the Valiant!”

The Val is a serious build and there won’t be much Mopar left in it. The plan calls for a body drop over custom chassis rails, using BMW E86 front crossmember, lower control arms, diff cradle, suspension, and front and rear subframes, as well as S13 coilovers on the front. The Val will cop a complete new floor.

Adam thought about a few different engine combinations, but landed on a turbocharged Honda K24 four-banger and T56 ‘box due to a lack of space in the body dropped engine bay.

“I’ve wanted to build something from scratch for almost my whole life! It took me until I was 40 to start and I’m about six weeks in now. I can weld ok, but I have very little experience on the rest of it! I watch a lot of videos and when I see custom cars I take a lot of mental notes on how things should work. Otherwise, I’m just having a crack!