It’s almost a given that any small car with a V8 is just cool, and most gearheads love the idea. The smaller the car, the more awesome it is to figure out a way to shoehorn in a big engine. In years past, this was common with the Vega and Pinto, and many of these swaps were done on foreign cars.

We’ve seen some interesting swaps, but when we came across this LS1 swap in a Triumph GT6 that Jonathon Cook has been building at LS1GT6.com, we were intrigued to say the least. A couple of us here at PowerTV have owned a GT6 in the past, so seeing this brought back memories.

The GT6 was built from 1966 to 1973, and while it was based on the Spitfire, it differed in a couple of ways. It was a hatchback, and it had a longer bonnet to cover the tiny 2.0L 6 cylinder engine. It had dual carbs, and was a nimble little car that was plagued with problems. The old saying was, if you have a GT6, have a spare trans and rear end because you’ll need them.

Still, it was a neat little car and over the years various engine swaps have been done to this car, however nothing quite like Jon’s swap. His list of parts is impressive, as is the build that he’s been doing for a few years now. The LS1 and T56 are from a 2001 Trans Am, and the rest of the parts are a smorgasbord of name brands, including Moser, Flaming River, QA1, Wilwood, Edelbrock, AutoMeter, Hurst… and the list goes on.

For rolling stock, Jon used a wide set of wheels from Enkei with a 17 x 7 in front and 17 x 9.5 in the rear. The 205/40R17 tires up front are about the largest he can fit, but in the rear some mods were done to fit the wide 275/40R17 Nitto 555s. While there is still a lot to be done, it’s pretty impressive and we can’t wait to see it when it’s completed.