I never saw this thread, but I feel like it's been made for me. I feel like there's a few neurons in the back of my mind dedicated to mashing imaginary parts together just to see if anything might fit something else that might be cool. I used to have a whole document of ideas, but there are two that have been consuming a lot of my capacity for thought lately.
The first is a rally car/off roader based on Cayenne guts, but installed in a tube chassis. It would probably end up looking something like the SuperChicken or, going a different route, a Bowler EXR. The cars are getting stupidly cheap in everything from pristine to salvage condition but you get 450hp and locking diffs. What could go wrong!?
The second is a bit more involved. It's basically a balls to the wall lap time machine based on the current E63 drivetrain (although any of the mega sedans would work) but with a chassis and aero somewhere between the Mustang GTP car and the Nissan GT-R P1 car and styling closer to a Veritas RS III or something else that works better aesthetically than the Ford or Nissan did. With unrestricted tunnels and AWD I feel like there's nothing you couldn't beat on track.
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Had an interesting visitor to the NOHOME garage yesterday. The person is quite into the car scene (Actually started CASCAR ) and is quite into the fiberglass kit car scene.
He was admiring the Molvo concept and mentioned that he had a 2000 Miata with a clean tittle and two Aston Martin Zagato body shells. (Fiberglass) Was wondering if I might be interested in helping with that project.
If I understood him right, I think his company makes the plastic bits for this thing:
Nothing radical, but this would be "the plan" if I had time, money, and space:
1.) Buy late 70s c10 SWB. Use as parts hauler.
2.) Purchase a NA6 Miata and an NB1 Miata.
3.) Swap NB1 drive train into NA6.
4.) Purchase rough Honda Odyssey
5.) Swap in Honda j35 to the now empty NB1 Miata.
6.) 4/6 drop on the c10, c5 rims, built TH400 with warmed over sbc. Hoon.
Do something unnatural to a Prius such that it can spin the tires in a big way. I'm thinking any one of a number of FWD drivetrains dropped into the backseat, preferably turbo. The goal is to have others think "What the..." as you leave a light spinning the rear tires as God intended. Only this can reverse the Prius embarrassment and emasculation effect at traffic lights.
kb58 wrote: Do something unnatural to a Prius such that it can spin the tires in a big way. I'm thinking any one of a number of FWD drivetrains dropped into the backseat, preferably turbo. The goal is to have others think "What the..." as you leave a light spinning the rear tires as God intended. Only this can reverse the Prius embarrassment and emasculation effect at traffic lights.
I think the LSx into a Prius has already been done. So, I present the antithesis of that idea: A Prius into a Firebird. http://www.engineswapdepot.com/?p=9342
Lots of interesting ideas and actually some pretty cool ones in this thread. But I need some real world challenge advice. What to do with my 2016 C4 challenge Corvette for the 2017 challenge.
For 2016 we just trying to get the car running for the event. For 2017 we have plenty left in the budget to sort our engine and transmission problems. The car was lightened to 2700 pound and handled pretty decent.
I'm not a Corvette purest and never really wanted one. But she dance with the one who brung. I don't like the excessive overhang of the front and rear bumpers. The easy thing would be to build a Vette Kart but that's already been done. Need suggestions on how to rebody it or modifying the existing body to make it something interesting. Removing the front and rear bumper impact subframes leaves a chassis with virtually no overhang on a 96 inch wheelbase. What say the grm Brain Trust?
Ovid_and_Flem wrote: Lots of interesting ideas and actually some pretty cool ones in this thread. But I need some real world challenge advice. What to do with my 2016 C4 challenge Corvette for the 2017 challenge. For 2016 we just trying to get the car running for the event. For 2017 we have plenty left in the budget to sort our engine and transmission problems. The car was lightened to 2700 pound and handled pretty decent. I'm not a Corvette purest and never really wanted one. But she dance with the one who brung. I don't like the excessive overhang of the front and rear bumpers. The easy thing would be to build a Vette Kart but that's already been done. Need suggestions on how to rebody it or modifying the existing body to make it something interesting. Removing the front and rear bumper impact subframes leaves a chassis with virtually no overhang on a 96 inch wheelbase. What say the grm Brain Trust?
I think you are on track with the idea of the Vette-kart as a starting point. since you dont want to run it as a naked chassis, the questions becomes "What dress do you put on her"
Based on experience:
Make sure the wheelbases are withing an inch. With the seats set to one extreme of the fore-aft travel, measure from center of seat to center of front wheel. Now do it again for the other extreme. Your body donor should have an axle to centerline that falls in the range.
Measure the distance between the center of the seats in the C4. The donor body should have a similar spacing so that you don't end up driving behind the windshield post.
If you are ambitious, find an old rig and steal the body, Cut, chop, channel and fabricate till it looks kinda like this and fits over the C4.
I would like to take an old, small lighweight FWD hatchback and put a modern FWD 4/6 cyl powertrain in the rear to make it mid-engined. Put the fuel cell under the hood, up the grip and brakes, etc. and build the chassis out for road course handling as a fun, very fast track day toy that remains streetable enough to drive into town for lunch but probably trailer to the track.
Very much in the spirit of the Renault R5 Turbo but... normally aspirated. I haven't figured out any specifics but it seems like just wheeling the whole drive cassette with the front wheels still on, replacing the steering gear with adjustable fixed rods and shoving it into the back of a hatch would be easy to get together with the right donor car. SO, the donor needs a factory LSD, rear facing header, easy to interface cable shifted manual transmission, hydraulic clutch... and decent output. The patent just needs to be very light and tall enough in the rear to swallow the cassette tilted with the weight in front of the axle.
One of these days a Fiesta roller will turn up free or close to it and I'll be compelled to try. Maybe even an R53 mini that wasn't worth it for someone to fix. A RWD r53 would be awesome. It could be it's own donor.
In reply to Huckleberry:
Neon for the drivetrain and subframe.
You could do it for challenge money.
In reply to Huckleberry:
Have you read the MetSHO build for LeMons?
I can't seem to directly link the thread on mobile...
Dusterbd13 wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: Neon for the drivetrain and subframe. You could do it for challenge money.
I don't really care about challenge money - I want the finished product to be polished so parts bin stuff is fine but not just because it's cheap. I want a GREAT motor with a nice trans, good gearing, etc. When I think "sweet motor" I'm probably not thinking 90s Chrysler. Probably more of a late model Civic Si kindof output.
curtis73 wrote: Nice. I have to admit that my main motivation for doing something like this would be because I love Spits, but I actually want to drive it - not just look at it disassembled in the garage like every other Spitfire I see.
Amusingly, some years ago we bought a factory hardtop for my ex's Spit, the guy we bought it from was installing a RWD Celica engine/trans into his Spitfire. It was a pile of parts in the garage as well. He had the engine in the car. Sort of. But it wasn't running and it hadn't run in some time. The problem is there is surprisingly little room under the bonnet of a Spit. IMHO, a F3 Camaro EFI V6/5spd would be a better fit and be equally reliable.
Anyway... I have project-dreams aplenty... I'll start with the cars I already have:
1 1800ES with a custom interior and a healthy B20, MegaSquirt and either a T-5 or T-9 transmission.
2 MkIII GT6 with A/C and uprated engine, EFI, T-9 trans, R160 diff, CV axles.
3 '79 Spitfire with uprated engine, EFI, maybe a T-9, R160 diff and CV axles and IRS conversion.
Then we start getting into the "some day..." builds:
4 '69 Charger resto-mod with a G3 Hemi/6 spd.
5 '71 Demon resto-mod with a Slant-6, 6 ITB EFI and 6 Spd trans. Painted black with red accents. Badged "Demon 666" on the back. Because I like annoying people... 
6 '49 Caddy 2-dr fastback coupe with a stock looking exterior and interior, but with completely modern running gear and suspension.
7 '79 F-250. Blown 460. 6" suspension lift. 3" body lift. 3" cut-out flares. 44" tires.
8 Some sort of small-bore, open-cockpit, sports-racer type custom build.
In reply to kb58:
LFA drivetrain swap into a Prius.
In reply to Ovid_and_Flem:
Not sure how much budget you have but I'd go for cleaning the look up (cheap or free). Maybe paint it with tractor and implement paint or thinned down rustoleum.
Next take whatever money you have left over and make it faster. Turbo could be cheapest.
Third remember that you got beat by a Japanese sedan as inspiration to work hard. It won't help cause that sedan will beat you again next year but at least you've tried.
In reply to Stampie:
LOL....YOU SO FUNNY!
with the little bit of recoup plus what was left over from last year we should have a little over $1300 for 2017...
But tranny work is gonna be about $400 and motor is gonna be about the same. So for cosmetics I'm looking at about $500 which will give me a pretty good budget for remaking the car. Maybe I'll reskin itit as a short wheelbase piece of E36 M3 Infinity LOL
My big goal is to get it below 2500 lbs and an honest NA 325 whp
You should be able to rebuild that tranny yourself for less.
Stampie wrote: You should be able to rebuild that tranny yourself for less.
Not with the parts I'm going to put in it. I might blow the motor up but the transmission is going to stay together and shift like a mofo 
Oh and on half off day an ls, tranny, and wiring/computers would be less than $500 at a local you pull it.
In reply to Stampie:
I've decided to yank all the computer crap and go old-school with a carb. And I've located a manual valve system and some trick internals for the transmission. Working on a prepped 400 crank to give me a 383. The weak link is going to be the Dana 36 rear end. Let's hope I don't break that
OK I'll spot you 1.5 seconds in the 1/4.
Stampie wrote: OK I'll spot you 1.5 seconds in the 1/4.
Trash talk is starting early LOL
So back to the thread. My crazy build was to get a 4 door e30 and a 460 Ford. I'd weld up the front doors and move the drivers seat to the rear seat. Bolt the transmission directly to the differential. That'll put the engine in the front floorboard. Cut the windshield frame and move it back to the B pillar. Use the left over metal from the roof to make a new hood over the engine. So now we have a 2 door Ford powered BMW that I'd call the Beetah after the Cheetah.
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