One for the car guys - is this cool or just sick...?

[Street Glider]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

I never understood this thing about putting ridiculously overpowered engines in ordinary cars.

I just don't get the point.

I guess its a bit like putting magnetic pickups on acoustic guitars.

I have a 2014 Chevy Malibu. It's a 4cyl front-wheel drive.

A buddy of mine, who owns a speed shop, has been trying to convince me to let him convert it to rear wheel drive with a Chevy LS6 engine. He said parts and labor would be about $19K, but he'd throw in the labor for free just because he wants to do it...

[stokes1971]

Two videos and no hole shot? I want to see it take off.Bogus

[tinnitus]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

It’s a tube chassis so I wanna think it’s built right so it stays straight. I’m not sure if those front wheels ever hit the ground for those 8 seconds. [emoji23]

Wow, what a crazy toy! Probably half the guys I know would call it sick, and mean that as a total compliment.

I'm no automotive engineer/hot rod builder, but it's hard to imagine that tiny thing going fast in a straight line. Even assuming it has positraction, there's still a ridiculous amount of torque yanking sideways on the frame and everything else. I've seen MUCH bigger/heavier/studier cars twist so hard leaving the line that the body/suspension (and everything else) is visibly distorted. Add that to such a diminutive wheelbase, I'd prefer to watch from a distance. We should all leave comments requesting to see a 1/4 (or 1/8) mile run.

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by tinnitus

Wow, what a crazy toy! Probably half the guys I know would call it sick, and mean that as a total compliment.

I'm no automotive engineer/hot rod builder, but it's hard to imagine that tiny thing going fast in a straight line. Even assuming it has positraction, there's still a ridiculous amount of torque yanking sideways on the frame and everything else. I've seen MUCH bigger/heavier/studier cars twist so hard leaving the line that the body/suspension (and everything else) is visibly distorted. Add that to such a diminutive wheelbase, I'd prefer to watch from a distance. We should all leave comments requesting to see a 1/4 (or 1/8) mile run.

Back home in Puerto Rico, it was all about making small cars fast. Back in the 90’s when the USA was catching up with Import car racing and were doing 13’s in their honda civics, with the occasional 10 second one, people back home were doing 8’s and 7’s in 1980’s Toyota corollas, and Mazda RX-7’s (and their predecessors like the RX-1 and RX-3). Or they would stuff a Mazda rotary engine on something like a 70’s Toyota starlet, back-half it, and run 8’s all night long. Crazy times. Small wheelbase cars can go very fast under relative control when built right. And extra long wheelie bars! [emoji23]

[perttime]

People have put funny engines in cars that at least look like VW Beetle. I'm pretty sure a V8 in front has been done. And then there was Emerson Fittipaldi's racing car with twinned VW engines in the rear seat area.


https://www.wired.com/2011/05/emerso...ine-vw-beetle/

[H165]

I'm just now waiting for someone to install the new Corvette drive train in the first-edition Honda NSX. Has this happened already?

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by perttime

People have put funny engines in cars that at least look like VW Beetles. I'm pretty sure a V8 in front has been done...

Oh, yeah - and "funny engine" is an (historically accurate and literal) understatement :



Here's a little bit of background info:

https://www.nhra.com/news/2009/durachrome-bug

[Bob Womack]

My oldest son apprenticed and became a machinist before he moved up through the ranks and eventually became director of drydocks at a shipyard. He's one of those guys who just has a feel for materials and knows how to bend them to his will, if you will. He loves to adopt a car in need and adapt it to strip or track. Right now he is restoring a 1990s BMW but he wants to find a second and look into installing a huge mill in it. It'll be fun to watch.

Bob

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

... Right now he is restoring a 1990s BMW but he wants to find a second and look into installing a huge mill in it. It'll be fun to watch...

Something like this BMW Isetta conversion might be right up his alley:

[Gdjjr]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Something like this BMW Isetta conversion might be right up his alley:

Ha! I had a teacher in high school who had an Isetta! Four jocks picked it up and set it on the front porch of the main entrance

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Something like this BMW Isetta conversion might be right up his alley:

Wowzer. Wonder what could be done with a Messerschmitt?




Bob

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Wowzer. Wonder what could be done with a Messerschmitt?

There's an old saying I've heard in a more, shall we say, "adult-oriented" context : "If you can imagine it, somebody's already done it - and long before you were born"...

Proof positive:

[Dave Abrahamson]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

I never understood this thing about putting ridiculously overpowered engines in ordinary cars.

I just don't get the point.

Because they'd make crappy race cars if you didn't.😉😁

[RP]

I've got to say that it does absolutely nothing for me...

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by RP

I've got to say that it does absolutely nothing for me...

Not so - mashing the throttle may in fact eliminate any need for prune juice...