Every petrolhead entertains the idea of building their dream car occasionally, but few of us ever do due to money, skill, and time limitations. So when someone in the car community takes the leap, it's always an interesting spectacle. That's what Kaleb from the YouTube channel, Built Official has been doing over the past four years. He's built some pretty awesome cars in his garage, but it's his most recent project, a classic 1974 MGB GT that has grabbed our attention the most.
Previously, he has grafted Ferrari parts onto a Toyota MR2, widebodied an Audi A4 and is also working on a widebody Datsun 620 truck dubbed the 'Fatsun'. It's safe to say Built Official is a little bit obsessed with widebody kits, and who can blame him? Tell us a car that doesn't look better with wide arches and a big wing hanging off the back. When he announced the project online we were very excited to see how it would come together. The render alone had us needing to change our pants. Check it out below, have you seen anything wilder outside of SEMA Show?
What Do You Get When An RWB 911 Has A Lovechild With The Most Sold British Sports Car? The RWMGB GT
If you haven't come across Built Official on YouTube then it's well worth a watch. Kaleb started out providing useful tips for the DIY car tuner and gravitated towards building widebody kits for his project cars. He even widebodied his son's Power Wheels. One of the most viewed videos on the channel is the Audi A4 build, where he completely transformed a mundane German family car into an awesome Pandem-style dad-wagon, complete with Group B inspired livery, that you'd never want to get out of. Best of all, he gave it away to one of his subscribers when it was finished. But, it's the widebody MGB project that has got us the most gassed.
We've all seen and probably lusted over the RWB Porsche's of Japan and Akira Nakai's creations have caused ripples in the car scene the world over. The brilliance of this project is that the MGB, although being the best-selling British sports car of all time, doesn't have a large following among car tuners. Why is this good? I hear you shouting from across the bar. Well, the problem with some cars is that they become cultural icons, it happened with the 240 & 280Z's, it happened with the 964 911's, and it happened with pretty much every Japanese sports car of the '90s. When a car becomes a cult icon it starts to narrow people's vision and their cars adopt a certain look. In other words, unless your JDM coupe has TE37's it won't look like everyone else's and no one will like it on Instagram, which is what we all want, am I right? But with the MGB, most of the owners like to keep them original.
There Is Something Super Cool About Old Cars With Wide Arches Bolted To Them.
Other than the Sebring MG's of the 1960s there isn't a large selection of aftermarket parts for the cars. This is why this build is so exciting. The base is great, not only does it look similar to both a Porsche 911 and a Nissan 240Z, but MGB's are affordable. There were so many made you can pick a project up for less than $5,000, and when have you ever seen a widebody MGB? This whole build is pretty much from scratch. If you've wrenched on your own car you'll know the stress that comes with fixing bodywork, so imagine making a complete body panel from absolutely nothing. Where do you even start? A good point is with cardboard. You mock up a rough shape then move onto clay modeling, and many changes and a lot of clay later, you end up with a fiberglass piece. The style of this car definitely dims its lights to the RWB Porsche's, and that is evident from the kit Kaleb started with, it's actually for a 930 Turbo. But, if there is one thing Built specializes in, it's making something not made for the purpose fit.
In the latest video of the series, the fender flares have been bonded onto the car and the whole thing has been sprayed flat black. He even went as far as fabricating a way of fitting a GT2 spoiler to the back. Oh, and did I mention the Ferrari F40 style wheels? Yeah, they're thirteen inches wide. You'll also notice the Bosozoku style triple-tier wing, which is marmite, you either love it or you hate it. Future plans are to swap out the old four-banger with something that will make the car move as fast as it looks standing still, and if his previous builds are anything to go by this is going to be an amazing car for something built by one dude in his garage. Yes, it's not quite Liberty Walk quality, but for a guy working out of his garage with no professional training, Kaleb has done a cracking job. We can't wait to see the finished product.
Check out the build so far here.