It can be done.

Not cheaply in every respect, but enough.

The K-series rotates CW.

The diff in a Hewland Mk9 can be flopped.

I wrote about it before just to be a crazy *******, but it's calling me...I can hear it thru the sight of the walls melting.

It's a FWD CRX. It's got a foot added to the front end. It's a kraazy tube frame with an oddball rear axle setup.

It's got a chopped top - take about 6 inches off it - so it looks right. I'll drive it from the back seat like Doug Peterson drives his Mini.

It'll have mucho rubber hiding under the Moby Dick front fends.

AND - I'm going to take it to Willow Springs to give a beat down to the SoCal Honda Challenge H1 guys!

Uh....in the year....2006?

Scott, who says "...got to have a dream...if you don't have a dream...how you gonna make a dream come troo?"...and who wishes that either he was born smarter or hadn't done so much acid in the 60's....or both!

 

I sometimes wonder why these science projects that you think up always require that the vin number stamped on the firewall indicate that a large portion of the steel between the wheels once was a CRX.

 

I don't know why it's always a CRX.

I don't know why I lika the blondes either.

I've got one other fantasy going:

This guy named Don Eriminas makes and sells clones of the Alfa TZ1. I've traded a few emails with him to sound out this course. In this dream it's a TZ1 replica powered by the Alfa 164's 4-cam V6.

Whatever I do after I've satisfied my ambitions with the ITR has to be much faster and, for want of just the right word: unique.

That that means completely nonsensical financially can't be helped. As pleasure machines go it would still beat the hell out of a one armed bandit.

Scott, who HAS looked at his ITR and thought about it, but that car really doesn't deserve such a fate....maybe I'm not being "open minded" enough?

 

Any pics of the tubular parts of the chassis?

 

That doesn't sound toooo tough to do. Although, this is coming from someone who helped put an LT5 into a 240SX. Which surprisingly enough, wasn't all that hard to do, and actually had better f/r weight distribution with the V8 as compared to the 4.

 

Not too tough - just gotta start, keep going, and finish. Then develop.

The hard part will be the compromise between simultaneously racing one car while building another - as if life wasn't full enough and money scarce enough already.

The other hard part is racing it. NFG for GT - stock drivetrain config or conventional front engine rear wheel drive only. Gotta love rules. That leaves regional SPU - which is just fine.

Joe - pics of the TZ1 replica? I don't have any of it, but I've seen one locally and it's a pretty conventionally built clone of the original save for using the Alfetta torsion bar front end.

Thing about the TZ is that it's a narrow car, and so not the optimal platform for a modern monster - and applying flares to such a beauty is out of the question.

Maybe I find a way to start on the CRX next year. Have to start with making the adapter ring from the K-block to the Mk9, and whatever is required of the input shaft. I'll probably get to know Craig Taylor pretty well.

Scott, who thinks it would be so much easier to use a Mazda Rotary for which all the hardware exists already...and which gives a more compact assembly...with a lower cg....I'm gonna hafta decide exactly how stupid I am before I start this...I can only afford to be so stupid after all...oh, crap!...I could do a Rotary FWD C-Sports Racer with a Mallock style body...but I can't figure out if that's too stupid or not stupid enough...

 

mine doesn't involve a honda, but I have voices in my head too.

I have a 76 Fiat X1/9 in my garage (Mid/rear setup with 60hp stock). And I have a Eclipse turbo sitting in my yard that needs a new head gasket. The voices keep telling me to build up the eclipse motor and put it into the Fiat. I could go from 60hp to over 300hp in a very light car.

But then my brother has a 500 cubic inch cadilac motor that makes over 500ft lbs of torque that he's trying to jam into his fiero. And I keep wondering if I could fit one of those into the back of my del sol...

 

S2K-powered '73 Opel GT with full-custom suspension dancing in my head.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hatch2k &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">S2K-powered '73 Opel GT with full-custom suspension dancing in my head.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

oh god i just spit out my gum and it's stuck on my monitor -- that car is pure sex.

i'm partial to a b16 powered bmw 2002 (hello drivetrain headaches?!?!) or maybe an SR20 powered 2002, or an rb25 powered 3.0 CS...

 

I've been asking around about the Opel GT, here's what I found in a nutshell:

FR
~2000lbs
~100hp
cheap and dead-sexy
'tall' 4speed
Open Diff
Mediocre suspension
Nose heavy

Pontiac has been kicking around this Solstice coupe concept,

which is a very similar idea, but it would weigh 1000lb more.

I guess I'll just dream about my perfect car, read the Kimini diaries http://members.***.net/kimini2....html ), and hold out for the RWD electric sports cars to come around someday.

or at least a hybrid

 

Actually I wanted to see this tube-frame CRX

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Angry Joe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Actually I wanted to see this tube-frame CRX </TD></TR></TABLE>

You wanna see it? I can see it - in my brain. And "you don't want to go there".

Just picture a typical GT-2,3,4,5 car. Then picture a typical tube frame formula car...backwards. Then overlay the pics.

If you are ever walking thru a paddock and you see an old Renault LeCar race car stop and take a look. That's the basic layout I'm thinking of and that's the car that inpired this odd fantasy of mine.

This would be a huge undertaking, but one I've envisioned for a very long time.

Scott, who will let his subconcious tend the project for now, 2004 will require all of my conscious attention...

 

I know a guy who has a rolling chassis (no engine or transmission) Opel GT that he needs to get rid of in Monterey, CA.
It's in good shape, but his neighbors keep sending the city out to make him get rid of all his cars. Last I checked, it is free to whoever takes it away.

 

Dang, if only I lived closer!

 

innnnteresting. that's only a few hours drive from here...

 

Sorry, Scott, to have strayed off the topic so much, but this thread got me thinking about dream cars again, and how ( for me ) they're not ferraris or what-not.

I was looking into the Opel GT and thinking, damn, theres the roots of a really competitive, yet still efficient vehicle, totally up my alley. I mean we all respect efficiency, or we'd just go allout with big iron right?

I was close to despair at the state of things with SUVs taking over the roads, but then there's this recent Detroit show, where GM's new Kappa platform came about. A light-weight, rear-wheel platform for supercharged 4-cylinder cars like the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Curve, and Chevy Nomad... all aimed at $20. Dodge showed up with a mid-engine 2-seater, too, the Slingshot.

Not that Im going to go buy one, but it shows a trend toward a more autocross-oriented bevy of affordable vehicles hitting the roads someday, and Im hoping Honda follows suit. I know the S2K is great and all, but who says the Rear-wheel drive car has to be the top-o-the-mark sports convertible or the truck or a heavy beast of fuzzychested compensation?

Smaller is smarter for what we do with our cars, so the future is getting a little brighter.

 

Dammit, now you got my brain going. Let me know if you want any CAD help

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bad-monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">innnnteresting. that's only a few hours drive from here...</TD></TR></TABLE>

The only reason I haven't picked it up is I have nowhere to put it. I even have 100mile towing from AAA to get it home.

 

hatch2k - No need for sorry. The unlikely intrusion of your fantasy about an Opel GT in my thread about my fantasy is kinda interesting.

I'd about forgotten about Opels, except for whenever GM takes a fine Opel and "adapts" it to our market unsuccessfully. I do remember when the Manta was popular with the magazines in the early 70's, and I always thought that that shape had alot of potential to look really good, but the GT isn't quite to my taste.

Joe - This project is a ways off right now, but thanks. Did you find the time to read over and think about my last ramble? Good luck on your FSAE car.

Scott, who still has alot of development and racing to do with the ITR...