For a very long portion of the year AU Falcon front-swap photoshops on just about everything had been popping up, simply for the fact that it was what people considered to be the worst front end ever made. But with all those virtual recreations, no one had nutted up and done it for real — until now.
Timm Brien tells us that his AU swapped R33 all started off with a friend sending him a link to a local sale post that saw an AU being wrecked and told him to “make a meme come true”. The seller was asking peanuts for the parts and Timm snapped up the lot, although it would sit dormant for a few months until only a week out from Champs. “Me and my mate with a low IQ but the ability to use a grinder, got to work. It took all but four afternoons to cable tie and tec-screw it together, with the front surprisingly fitting averagely well.” says Timm. “Most people told me because of how it was fitted that it was a ‘shit build’ and that I should have done it better. But they didn’t realize the time and money [or lack thereof] put into it.”
What most won’t know is that prior to the front-swap, the car ran a full M-spec kit and a gaggle of 15-inch Japanese wheels as a fun toy in Timm’s collection. Not meaning a lot to him, it was a “no brainer” to do and Timm tells us that it got way too much attention for the amount of effort that went into it considering the quality of cars surrounding it, but how could it not, considering the unimaginable had been achieved.
It’s the kind of thing you love for the simple fact that you hate it, and that seemed to be the general response, as Timm explains: “Most people either took the side of the Skyline, and said I ruined the Nissan name, or took the side of the Falcon, and said that I ruined the Ford name. End of the day, it was all purely for a laugh.”
This piece appeared as a vehicle spotlight in the NZ Performance Car coverage of the 2017 V 4 & Rotary South Island Champs — grab a copy of issue No. 254 for the full event