Written by Jesse Keiser
… Continued from Part 1 …
Amanda is the actual owner of the car. “She wanted a Cadillac, but one actually older than a ‘65,” said Livingston. “I found this ‘65, and it was all in pieces. The body was sitting off the frame. It was just in boxes basically. We found the car and basically threw it together at first.”
He wanted to drive it as soon as he could, so his crew at Bomb Star Fabrication in Lenoir, NC, put the Caddy together with the factory 429 c.i. motor. He drove the car for a few years in the Carolina blue phase with the 428 c.i. drive train he purchased from a friend who also owned a ‘65.
“The Cadillac’s 429 motor frankly sucks,” said Livingston. After leaving a South Carolina show last summer, the 429 blew up, leaving Jason and his wife stranded….and pissed. When returning home, he scratched his brain for what the newest power would be; he knew it was not going to be GM. He decided on a Cummings about the time another friend called him explaining their dad was selling one.
“We just love diesels. We were going to do a Duramax diesel, but decided on the Cummings because on the East Coast, Cummings is….well, 90 percent of the trucks at shows are Cummings trucks,” said Livingston.
He landed an ATS sponsorship after being seen by an ATS rep at an all-diesel show in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The sponsorship featured a trip to SEMA at ATS’ booth. ”It’s a kinda cool thing to get a big sponsor. We have had other, smaller, sponsors, like Optima battery and others, but nothing as big as what we are doing now,” said Livingston. “ATS really stood behind us a lot in building the car.”
Like puberty, the Caddy has gone through phases as it matures into a homegrown monster, with more phases to follow. Livingston currently plans on swamping the automatic for a straight drive. The straight drive was hard to come by, but now they have what they need.
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We have some parts on the way for a straight drive. It will be quite a few miles before we put it in because we don’t want to miss any shows,” said Livingston.
That’s why Livingston built this Frankenstein of a car — to drive it. “If we are going maybe 8 to 10 hours on a trip, we will drive it” — driving for his and for others’ enjoyment.
”I love seeing other people’s faces when they realize it’s a diesel and they see that big turbo hanging off the side.”






