I'll start:
Suzuki Samurai:
Toyota AE92:
Suzuki Super Carry microvan:
- Hydraulic clutch engagement assistor
Subaru Impreza
Daewoo Cielo
Ford Focus
- Tapered seat bottoms for easy insertion of adult feet below the seat
GameboyRMH wrote:
Daewoo Cielo
- Spark plug in gas tank
My mom has a Daewoo and that would be the most useful accessory I can think of.
1st gen Neons. a spare car for parts
Ford Pinto
Blast plates around the gas tank to direct the explosion rear-ward in case of a rear-end collision. Sharing the wealth so to speak.
Per Schroeder
Technical Editor/Advertising Director
11/3/08 3:24 p.m.
Saab 99 and 900: Porthole in firewall to allow the repair of timing chain components.
Per Schroeder wrote:
Saab 99 and 900: Porthole in firewall to allow the repair of timing chain components.
Every so often, we used to see 2.0 German motor Pintos which had a blob of A/C 'dumdum' on the firewall behind the valve cover, not easily visible. Here's why: they would eat camshafts and the front cam bearing was, for some obscure German reason, smaller than the middle and rear ones meaning the cam had to come out of the back of the head. Some bright boy figured out that you could take the radio console out and use a holesaw to make a hole right behind the head and below the heater box, you then lowered the back of the motor and pulled the cam out from the inside of the car. Put the cam back in through the same hole, use the dumdum to put the piece of firewall back in and the tunnel carpet would cover it on the inside. Cut a 8 hour job to about 2 1/2 but warranty still paid 8. 
MGB: Self changing front lower control arm bushings.
Spitfire: Velcro oil pan gasket, sure would cut the main bearing/thrust washer chore time way down.
Jensen Healey: a fuel odor 'stink o meter' for the trunk. I have never seen one (including mine) which didn't have fuel vapor in the trunk.
Trooper: a speaker which emits a cackling sound when climbing hills with the car trailer to remind me of how much Big Evil Oil loves that 9.8 MPG.
Jensenman wrote:
Every so often, we used to see 2.0 German motor Pintos which had a blob of A/C 'dumdum' on the firewall behind the valve cover, not easily visible. Here's why: they would eat camshafts and the front cam bearing was, for some obscure German reason, smaller than the middle and rear ones meaning the cam had to come out of the back of the head. Some bright boy figured out that you could take the radio console out and use a holesaw to make a hole right behind the head and below the heater box, you then lowered the back of the motor and pulled the cam out from the inside of the car. Put the cam back in through the same hole, use the dumdum to put the piece of firewall back in and the tunnel carpet would cover it on the inside. Cut a 8 hour job to about 2 1/2 but warranty still paid 8.
A very similar firewall hole is very common on the Volvos with the PRV engines, for the same reason.
neon4891 wrote:
1st gen Neons. a spare car for parts
I learned that the day after I bought my first one.
Now I have 4. My dumb ass.
AWD setups. Lots of them.
My current favorite uses an Audi Quattro drivetrain mounted in the normal way, and a midships mounted engine running a torque tube up to a transfer box that engages the input shaft via a huge chain. But I still kinda like the front wheel drive Subaru drivetrain mounted amidships and sideways, if only I could find strong enough final drives in the 1:1 range. (It looks like the 205 T16's setup was this way) Or the simple, basic 4x4 setup mounted backwards.
On the subject of chains, I continually think about milling all the gears out of a 5 speed transmission and replacing them with doubled up #40 chain. It might be strong enough for a low torque engine, and the efficiency would be WAY better than gears. And I could make the ratios any which way I wanted. Maybe this isn't so critical for a huge engine, like two liter plus, but it'd be awesome for a sporty 1-liter range runabout.
^^tell me about it. It would have cost me $60 to buy back my totaled sport from the insurance Co. But at that point I wasn't planning on another neon... I still want one in Nitro Yellow Green
