From The Atlantic:

“I like taking history, restoring that history, bringing the old school stuff back, but modernize it, and giving it today’s technology,” Bodie Stroud, a custom hot rod builder, says in the opening shots of The Real Thing. Julian King’s short documentary follows Stroud’s quest to transform a classic muscle car — a fire-engine red 1969 Mustang — into a modern day phenomenon. The secret? A very rare, powerful engine, specially designed for racecar driver Mario Andretti the same year. After being taken apart, customized, and reassembled, it’s a whole new car. “It’s not just a ’69 Mustang anymore,” Stroud says. “We’ve created this piece of art, if you will, that will handle way better than it did in ’69!”

Watch The Real Thing on Vimeo here.