√‘Road-legal’ Ford Taurus NASCAR offered at auction

Shake and bake! This 2003 Ford Taurus NASCAR replica may look ready for the Daytona 500, but you can actually drive it to the shops, in theory…

The final line of the Barrett-Jackson Auction listing for this NASCAR racer notes that it “may not be emission compliant in all 50 states”. We’re thinking that would be the least of your problems.

Created as a replica of Dale Jarrett’s UPS (number 88) stock car, this professionally-built, tube frame chassis Ford Taurus is pitched as being ‘road legal’ and features LED headlights and tail-lights, indicators, windscreen wiper and external mirrors. There’s even a passenger seat and a cup holder.

And yes, it does more than turn left.

Despite being left-hand drive, we’ll assume this tenuous road legality is only for particularly lenient locations within the USA, and not in any way pertinent to Australia.

Based on the NASCAR Generation 4 chassis (1992 to 2006), the car is powered by a 418 cubic-inch (6.8-litre) V8 with a four-speed manual transmission and rear-wheel drive. During this period of NASCAR racing, cars were limited to 358ci (5.8-litre) engines, but these produced around 850hp (630kW) and 745Nm.

It is not known how much power the replica offers, but we’d assume it would be sufficient to spin the 275/60R15 Goodyear Eagle rear tyres.

For the 2003 NASCAR season, Dale Jarrett finished 26th out of 71 starters. His number-88 UPS car won the second round at Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina, and out of 36 starts, finished 25 races with 49 laps in the lead, and seven top-ten finishes.

The 2003 Ford Taurus NASCAR is offered for sale with no reserve, and will hit the auction block at Barrett Jackson Palm Beach between 7-9 April 2022.

View the listing here.

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