Car Craft – November 2019

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64 CAR CRAFT NOVEMBER 2019

He found this one, an 83,000-mile,

one-owner example in Seattle. “A lady

was selling only because she inherited

another car from her mother who

died,” he explains. “She kept up on all

the maintenance and had every single

receipt of services done,” he says, mar-

veling at his good fortune.

With a pedigree like that it made

sense that Anthony was willing to

leave the car alone. But as life has a

habit of doing, it threw him a curve: He

seriously injured his leg. More than put

him up, it put him out of work for some

time. “I’m a fitness professional, so my

legs are a big part of what I do for a liv-

ing,” he says. “I was getting really down

on myself mentally being stuck at

home and really needed motivation to

do something somewhat active.” So he

did what any of us would do in the cir-

cumstance: he started researching LS

swaps. “The rest was history,” he says.

The leg injury was only one of the

challenges. The apartment Anthony

lives in has no garage. His mom’s

house had a big shop, but it was

almost two hours away. “With traffic it

sometimes took me over three hours

to get there,” he says. “There were

many nights when I stayed until 2 or 3

in the morning working on it during my

days off and weekends.” Whatever he

couldn’t finish there he’d take home

and work on in his living room. “Good

thing I lived solo!” And space wasn’t his

only constraint. “I was up against a

deadline because my mom was selling

the house,” he says. “Yes, I did finish

before it sold.”

We’re not saying a Caprice like

Anthony’s wouldn’t be cool done up

Pro-Touring, but we maintain that it

wouldn’t be as interesting as this.

There’s something compelling about a

car that defies expectations, because

even if it can’t deliver on its promise, a

car that’s been visibly modified proj-

ects the image of performance.

This thing, on the other hand, lulls

the competition into a false sense of

security. It has wheel covers, how fast

could it be? We’ll tell you this much:

give Anthony Griffin a shot and he’s

willing to remove all doubt.