Low Cost with High Cool?

I am new to kit cars and I am looking for the lowest cost kit with the highest impact (the WOW-effect!).

I would rather have a kit based off readily available modern cars. I have looked at the EasyRods kits and at $3600 they seem reasonably priced and I can find T-birds cheap with V8s, but I was wondering if there were others in this price range as well.

Any experienced help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks  
Scottsman