Check this out!

There were kits to mount a chev small block in front of a Corvair transaxle. My little brother had one in the early 80's. The Tempest and Corvair transaxles were pretty much the same animal. The early swing axle ones (like the one pictured) were the weakest.

Even if it is photoshop'd that kind of stuff used to happen all of the time. You are 100% correct it is true hot rodding.

Chuck