Car ideas that keep you up at night?

HiTempguy wrote: Oh where to begin: -v8 swapped Volvo 240 track car (previously discussed 8000rpm 4.8L SBC BECAUSE RACE CAR)

I APPROVE OF THIS!!

I woke up one night, at 3:00am, because I was designing a mid-engine 1969 Mustang Fastback. Build a firewall and use a Ranchero rear window; angle the quarter windows inwards like the Ferrari F40 and use them as air ducts; flare front and rear fenders about 3", but flare the whole fender box flare style, move the front seat forward about 3-5"; section the dashboard to make it more shallow and give you more interior room; 351-W poked and stroked and twin turbo boosted; NACA ducts in the tops of the rear flared fenders feeding diff and oil coolers (like the F40); Riccardo 6-speed transaxle from the Ford GT; GT40 style headers; LED tail lights; cut out the center section between tail lights and insert mesh grille (like the F40) and run the exhaust out the center (like the GT40); weld and fill the trunk into the body and make the whole rear half of the car open up; flare the rear scoops above the rear wheel wells to help feed air; vent around the rear window (like the Ferrari F430); 6 piston Wilwood brakes all around on 14" rotors; BRM style single lug wheels, 18x10 front and 18x14 out back; fuel cell up front; ducted hood behind radiator up front; full tubular front suspension and of course rear suspension with that transaxle; and to top it all off, cold ass A/C!!!

That is what I dreamed up one night, and I want to build it so bad I can taste it. I see it in my head and want to make it a reality, but it's friggin cost prohibitive at the moment. I'd love to get a Dynacorn body and build this rather than waste an original '69 Fastback. A boy can dream can't he?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

ransom wrote: Many things. Oddly, the immediate task of building a new front subframe and suspension for the 2002 is just a thing I think about. The recurring obsessive thought is a mid-engine tube chassis clothed in a VW fastback.

We have a similar delusion. I see this: [fastback pic] Plus this mounted midship: [vtec, yo] Held together with something like this: [kimini chassis, if I'm not mistaken]

Yeah! That kind of thing! I haven't decided on an engine yet, but that's very much along my line of thought.

It all started with thinking about how the whole front suspension on old VWs unbolts so easily, and wondering whether I could build a bolt-on improvement. And then I started thinking about making the rear suspension as good despite the lack of modularity. And the next thing you know I was thinking about how the whole pan unbolts...

Slippery slopes!

Javelin wrote: I've stared at that picture for 8 years.

I'm a fan of this bird

OH MY YES . . .

I didn't know you can get that much tire under a Fox-bird

ae861uz gp5 rallycar

can't get it outta my head.

I own a '66 Jeep, due to it's connection to the family(and the fact my wife bought it for me as a surprise), I'll never be able to sell it and not live it down. The frame is rust-free, and the body is nearly as clean. I really don't need another hobby like 4-wheeling.

...So I started thinking "Hmmm... just about any drivetrain can & has been swapped into a Jeep. They're light and have a short wheelbase. I bet I could fit the widest Hoosier A6 on it available. So if I lower it about 10", spend some real $$$ on wheels/tires/shocks/brakes, and about 500hp worth of motivation, I bet it would make one Hell of an autocrosser!"

And then I drive my Miata and wonder why I'd bother.

I'd like to take a fiero 5-speed powertrain/suspension/cradle assembly, replace the 2.8 with an aluminum 5.3, and mount it into the back of a corvair station wagon.

Keep me up at night? I use crazy car ideas as virtual jumping sheep...

My latest one is a Caddy Northstar powered El Camino, of course with the Northstar in the bed. I've always loved this motor after seeing one sitting on the shop floor in an auto-tech class. The other day a picture of a mid 80's (read cheap) El Camino made me think of what I could do with it. I have always had a perverse lust for an El Camino, to the point of shopping for one on multiple occasions. This hopeful wheelie machine would put those two together and bring me great joy in confusing people.

It all fits in my head and sub-systems have been somewhat worked out, plus the addition of a front trunk for convience. Aero impacts are still a question, as well as how to most effectivly hide the engine in the bed. Cap, bed cover, fake stack of 2X4's?

after driving my car on the dyno today and making only 128 whp and 125 wtq, (granted, in 50% humidity, and it picked up 5 hp from a 2% drop in humidity) I have thousands of ideas lol. most of them about cars that are not my kia forte
=]

This with about 800HP of turbocharged goodness under the hood:

I often have thoughts of building one of these Factory Five kits. If I ever run across a cheap wrecked Vette...

Biturbo restomodded with an LR4 and T5. Locost with an Alfa GTV6 engine. Another Locost with an old Audi turbo inline five. E30 with an LS2. Put two tiny turbos on something with only four cylinders. Sleeper Camry/Accord/626/Contour/whatever converted to RWD with a tube frame and C4 or C5 fun bits. Syclone-ized Colorado. Miata with twin turbo VG30. Mazdaspeed Protege with Pauter rods replacing the factory paper clips and 20lbs of boost.

Micro-locost powered by a mid-rear, transverse I-3 turbo from a Chevy Sprint.

Why? BECAUSE

Turning my grandfathers '67 IH 1300C dumptruck into a flatbed tow vehicle. Take out the wheezy old 240ci inline 6 and drop in a 5.9L Dodge Cummins Diesel with a 6-speed manual. Replace the front axle with a modern IFS out of a GM Dualle so I can have an better ride and front disc brakes, possibly replace the rear axle with the dodge unit. Replace the vinyl bench seat with a modern split bench with a fold down center arm rest. All new Stewart-Warner gauges for the old-school look.

There's more that's kept me up at night, but this is the kicker.

Turbo Ecotech Chevette with HSR body

Olds Aurora, last year made, with an old Aurora V8 race motor (they area available with both flat plane and cross plane cranks) with a full tube frame and suspension. Set the suspension up for track days, but do the interior in full blown "audi TT from the best years" and daily drive it when not racing.

Turbo'd 2WD SX4 2.0 drivetrain in the back of a Swift/Metro. It would be a wheelie machine. If I ever make it back to the challenge, it will probably be in this.

Usually, if it keeps me up more than a few times, I start building it. If I'm going to lose sleep over a car, I might as well lose it while in the garage and maximize the value of that lost sleep.

Bryce

First gen New Beetle shell, Audi TT rear suspension, twin T25 turbochargers, modified Aztek AWD transmission, GLI suspension and brakes, gutted interior with nice seats and R32 wheel.

A Miata coupe with a supercharged,or turbocharged 2 liter. And the transmission with ratios that drop the RPM to 3200 at 70 mph.Sort of a modern day MGB GT or Triumph GT6.

Miata with a supercharged KLZE.

Cayenne v8 powered early 944 6-spd.

Oh so many ideas:

Full size american vert with a diesel

Classic mini with a hayabusa engine

Classic Alfa GTV with a vtec engine

MGB GT with fender flares and a full miata drivetrain for a DD

Outlaw 356 coupe replica