If you’re not already familiar with Cleetus McFarland, here’s the short version. His real name is Garrett Mitchell, he’s got well over 4.5 million subscribers on his main YouTube channel alone, and his content is exactly what you’d expect from a guy who owns a private airfield he calls the Freedom Factory and once stuffed a Boeing jet engine into a Camaro. Burnouts, big builds, chaos, and horsepower, that’s the Cleetus McFarland formula, and it never gets old.
His latest creation might be the most gloriously stupid thing he’s ever built, and that’s saying something. He picked up a 1957 Chevy Bel Air stretch limo off Facebook Marketplace for $9,900. The previous owner had stretched it a whopping 140 inches before the money ran out and the project got listed.
For most people, a classic Bel Air is already a jaw-dropper. A stretched Bel Air is something else entirely. But Cleetus being Cleetus, a stock version of either wasn’t ever on the table.
The team yanked out whatever was in it and dropped in a 10.3-liter big block V8 with a supercharger… right in the middle of the cabin, sitting among the passengers. The engine runs on alcohol and reportedly makes around 1,500 horsepower. It’s finished in a gorgeous two-tone red and white paint scheme with typical chrome accents and those unmistakable ’57 taillights round out the package. The interior, true to form, got wooden bench seats positioned around the fire-breathing motor keeping the passengers company.
The debut video is pure gold. Cleetus and his partner Squirrel dressed up in cheap suits, laid out a list of absurd limo rules, including an $800 fine for touching the throttle, ran out of fuel mid-trip, and accidentally hit a kill switch in the middle of an intersection. The whole wild ride ended with a steak and lobster dinner, followed by Cleetus seemingly jokingly pitching his friends on investing in a scheme to fund the limo service. They all passed, and the business plan is dead. The limo, though, is very much alive, and it might be the most Cleetus thing to ever exist.
