Rob Hester owns Flat Out, a custom shop in Jonesboro, Arkansas, that does custom work and a whole lot of restomod Corvettes. He purchased this Velocity Exo as a project with the intent to finish it but ended up buying the jigs and the company as well. The project sat for a couple of years until Hester’s 12-year-old daughter convinced him to get it ready for Hot Rod Power Tour.

The Velocity Exo uses Pontiac Solstice suspension in the rear and Volkswagen front suspension. That may seem a bit strange at first, but the original intent of the car was to use a Transverse 1.8L VW powertrain and uses Passat steering gear. Eventually, versions were built with Audi’s 4.2L V8, but why use a hard-to-find, expensive engine when an LS will churn out as much power as you like? This one’s powered by an LS1 with a BTR cam that puts 385 horsepower to the ground through a Porsche Boxster six-speed transaxle

Flat Out plans to build a couple of these a year and intends to add a forward-tilting composite hood to replace the current setup, which is a canvas skin. The newer versions will have a more thorough interior panels as well to make them a bit more streetable. At just 1,900 pounds it can be a handful, but with the luggage carrier on top it made it a viable Long Hauler, racking up more than 1,000 miles in a week on HOT ROD Power Tour.