Kia Spectra

May 18, 2023

You have to admire the effort that's gone into turning an old Kia into a Ford Mustang even if the result is hardly a perfect copy

In the West we’re used to people taking ordinary cars and turning them into replicas of the vehicles they really want but can't afford. But while in America that might mean converting an old Toyota MR2 into a Ferrari with the help of an off-the-shelf body kit, in Pakistan it means whipping up a Ford Mustang out of a well-used Kia Spectra and doing the whole thing from scratch out of metal.

That's what Kamran Rasheed of SBC Modifier did to create the car you see here. And considering that he started with a four-door, front-wheel drive Kia sedan, the results – specifically the front and rear when viewed dead-on – are amazing. But not as amazing as the amount of work that's gone into the transformation. Hours of cutting grinding and welding must have been needed, not to mention even more hours of filling, sanding and painting.

No one is going to mistake this Spectra for a real Mustang, because as soon as you move to the side view it all goes down the pan, especially when someone lifts up the Lamborghini-style doors, and if you were being unkind you might say it looks fairly ugly in profile. It also probably seems ludicrous to most of us that anyone would go to that much trouble to clone a car you can buy from a used-car lot in the U.S. for as little as $12k.

Related: This Dodge Challenger Hellcat Disguised As ’68 Charger Would Look Awesome In Your Garage

But Pakistan is not the U.S. and it's impossible not to admire Rasheed's drive, vision and skill to get as close as he has given what he's got to work with. His YouTube channel, SBC Modifier, is worth checking out because it's full of similar projects, some of which, like the Vauxhall Victor-based Dodge Challenger seen in the second video below, make clear that he's got a thing for American muscle cars.

Again, the Challenger is no perfect clone, but it's hugely impressive and makes you wonder what the guy could achieve given the kind of budget, raw materials and state-of-the-art workshop facilities well known U.S. custom houses have at their disposal. Above all though, SBC's creations are fun, and that's what modifying cars should be all about, whatever you’re wrenching on.