Even though technology marched on in the late 1960’s leaving them as little more than a niche form of vehicle reserved for throwback exhibition events half a century later, Gassers, with their heavily-modified styling and jacked-up stances, are still way cool in our book. Not since that era when Gassers ruled the strip have cars been constructed for real competition in such a manner, however, with builders opting to go down with the ride height rather than up. But at least one Hoosier native doesn’t concern himself with how cars of the day are or should be built, choosing instead to pay homage to the good old days with his one-of-a-kind racer that we discovered up for auction on eBay this week.

The vehicle you see before you is in fact a 1978 model Plymouth Sapporo. Now, if you’re kicking yourself for not knowing what it was, don’t feel bad, as we admittedly had to do some research ourselves. Interestingly enough, these cars were produced by Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors and were exported to North America, South America, Europe, Puerto Rico, and Australia, under various names and brand badges — with Chrysler switching up the styling cues to deliver two cars: the Dodge Challenger and the Plymouth Sapporo, with the Sapporo certainly more forgotten over the years than the Challenger.

This particular car, which appears to have weathered the last thirty-plus years quite well, was transformed into a bracket racing steed in 2011, to the exact liking of the owner, who clearly has a love for the old-school Gasser look of years gone by. A complete new front end, new suspension, a straight front axle and all were constructed, with a 360-inch Chrysler bored .030 over assembled, using Eagle rods, a set of dome pistons, Edelbrock heads and Super Victor high rise intake, and a 750cfm Holley carburetor. The owner then backed it up with, what else, but a manual transmission, with enough grunt to run 6.80’s in the eighth-mile and 10.70’s in the quarter. Adding to that, the car has a new interior and gauges to go along with the roll cage and Kirkey race seats, making it a bonafide — albeit certainly unique — bracket warrior.

If they’d kept building Gassers into the late 70’s and early 80’s, this is probably a glimpse of what they’d have looked like.