Chevy SSR (2004)
When GM decided to roll out a special retro mojo, it commissioned the Chevy SSR, an awesome-looking hot-rod pickup with composite body panels and a snazzy convertible top. Unfortunately, the chassis and mechanicals for the SSR were carried over from GM’s midsize SUV lineup, making the putative performance machine heavy, underpowered, and unforgivably lazy. Over the next few years, Chevy beefed up the SSR, but by then the credibility was gone. The SSR also violated a principle of hotrodding.
Chevy SSR (2004)
Plymouth Prowler
By the mid-1990s, car designers had powerful new computing tools that allowed them to pursue low-volume, high-zoo projects where development costs would previously have never been reimbursed. The Prowler was one such project. Inspired, if not plagiarized, by a retro roadster design by Chip Foose, the Prowler looked like a 22nd-century dry-sea runabout with an open front wheel and a low, hot-rod hull. Except they forgot to make a hotrod out of it. Eager to contain costs, Chrysler tucked its standard-spec 3.5-liter V6 under the hood.
Plymouth Prowler