The fabled G-body was one of the most endeared rear-wheel drive cars to roll off the General Motors assembly line, and it has a plethora of aftermarket parts available to match about any application you can dream up. One of the new G-body classics, the fourth-generation Chevy Malibu, is becoming the gearhead’s choice as a performance platform for their modifying needs.

One such example comes to us from Nick Taylor, who decided to take his 1980 LS Malibu known as “Maliboost”, and create an LSX-swapped 8-second sleeper that’s a legit street car.

Taylor picked up his Malibu for a song at just $500 when he was 15 years old, but the car needed some work before it was track-ready.

“My dad made me cut all the rust and bad spots out of the floorboards, then make my own new floorboards for it. During this process my dad also had me weld in the roll bar since the interior was removed from the car. I worked on everything for over a year, and got it running with a healthy 355 cubic inch small-block Chevy as a starter motor,” Taylor explains.

The SBC that Taylor started with ran well, dipping deep into the low 12-second zone naturally aspirated, but that wasn’t quick enough for him. Working with Adam Hodson and Chris Bishir, Taylor began the process of swapping in a 6.0 liter LSX-based motor into his Malibu. After some tweaking with the Holley EFI system, Taylor was able to run a best of 11.97, and was now ready to mix some boost into the equation.

Adding the necessary supporting mods along with a BorgWarner s475 turbo, Taylor’s Maliboost put down 680 horsepower and was running in the 9.60s at the track. After some chassis upgrades Taylor was ready to really squeeze Maliboost hard and see what the car could do. A new 6.0 liter engine was sourced from a 2008 Chevy van and was upgraded with a Brian Tooley Racing valvetrain, Jarret Faggart Racing custom turbo cam, and a BorgWarner s480 turbo. These new parts, along with some tuning, netted an 8.98-second pass at 149 mph for Taylor.

You can look for Taylor and his Malibu at the 2016 edition of Drag Week, where he will attempt to improve on his 2015 third place finish in the Street Eliminator category.

Video credit MKERacing