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Some builds make you ask why. This one makes you ask how. The seller of this Mid-Engined, Yamaha-Powered Austin America Custom took a forgotten econobox, moved the engine behind the driver, and pulled the body styling from the BMW 3.0 CSL "Batmobile." It's live on Bring a Trailer in Ontario, Canada, currently sitting at $2,607 with about five days to go. The auction closes Saturday, October 31.
From Club Racer to Mid-Engine Oddball
According to the listing, this Austin America was built into a race car in the 1980s for CASC competition. The seller bought it around 2010 after many years in storage, and in 2022 started a multi-year rebuild. The body was put on a rotisserie, portions of a donor car were used, and steel sheet was fabricated into a front air dam and box flares that were welded in and smoothed. The hood tilts forward, and the rear section of the roof is removable via quick-release latches, with a Lexan rear window held by Dzus fasteners. It's finished in white with painted tricolor stripes.
That's a long way from the car's roots. The Austin America was BMC's front-drive, small-displacement 1100/1300 sold in the U.S., not exactly a platform that screams track weapon. Converting it to a mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout takes a real commitment to the bit.
Snowmobile Power, Reverse by Winch Motor
The engine is a 998cc Yamaha inline-four that the seller says came from a 2006 Apex 1000 snowmobile. It has a wrapped header feeding a stainless-steel muffler, an electric radiator fan, and an oil cooler. It's paired with a continuously variable transmission, and power reaches a live rear axle sourced from a Legends race car through a Lotus-style rubber coupling. The rear is located by a three-link setup with adjustable coilovers.
A CVT has no reverse gear, so the builder improvised. A modified electric winch motor drives V-belt pulleys fitted to the driveshaft, with a linear actuator applying belt tension. It works in forward or reverse and doubles as a parking brake. The seller claims a dry weight under 1,300 pounds, a figure worth treating as a claim until someone puts it on a scale.
Cage, Seats, and Pinto Rotors
Revolution 13-inch three-piece wheels wear Avon tires. The front suspension and rubber cones were retained, and braking comes from front discs with Airheart calipers and Ford Pinto-sourced rotors, plus rear drums. Inside there's a roll cage, bucket seats in black vinyl with tan inserts, a custom center console, toggle-switch controls, lap belts, and an aftermarket tachometer with digital readouts. A custom fuel tank sits in the front trunk, and the odometer shows about 14,000 kilometers (roughly 9,000 miles). The listing includes extra body panels and other parts.
What to Know Before You Bid
The car is registered in Ontario as a 1971 model, and it's being sold on that registration, which serves as the ownership document there. That matters if you're bidding from outside Canada, so check import and registration requirements before you get carried away. The seller also says ground clearance is very low.
The builder has been active in the comments, saying the project grew from years of road racing and the freedom to try something new. He's also dropped a hint that a homebuilt Can-Am car he raced in 1986 is headed to the site next. Right now there are two bids on the car, and the listing has drawn well over 300 watchers.
More Weird and Wonderful
If you like your specials strange, we recently spotted a one-off tube-frame build hiding a C5 Corvette's LS1 and a supercharged, mid-engine Toyota Previa. Yamaha's engineering also has a long history in unlikely places, as we covered in our look at the Yamaha V6 inside the Ford Taurus SHO. And if the CSL-inspired styling has you curious about the real thing, check out this 1974 BMW 3.0 CS.
Ready to bid or just want to browse the gallery and walk-around video? View the full listing on Bring a Trailer.
