READER PROJECT Custom-Chassis Muscle Mustang

Retro-realistic machined-metal muscle car

- RENGAN KRISHNA IYER & MATT BOYD

The photos of the extraordinary RC rendition of a classic American muscle car you see on these pages came to us from a pretty unlikely place: Malaysia. It is the brainchild of Rengan Krishna Iyer, who embarked on a five-year odyssey to scratch-build an RC car that not only looks but also functions like an authentic muscle car. Chassis layout, driveline orientation, suspension configuration—Rengan discarded traditional RC car conventions to redesign virtually every major structural element to work as much like a real muscle car as possible. When he was finally happy with his results, he submitted the tale of its creation to Readers’ Rides. His achievement was far too remarkable to be covered adequately there, so I reached out to him to share more details and photos. What follows is his account of how his custom muscle-car creation came to be.