Cars

[Snake Aces]

Well, it's been nearly 3 years since I've owned a car so I'm in the market again. After being in Europe for so long I have developed even more hatred for most Euro cars... except BMW of course because well, they're a lot of fun.

Anyway, so I'm looking and I'm not in a hurry. I managed to find work from home and I don't have an absolute need for a car because I can use one of my brother's cars if I need something. I just want a car.

I love trucks and I'll be buying another Mopar for next winter when it gets closer to winter but I'm looking for a summer car right now.

I've been driving a lot of Corvettes. 1970's Vettes have some shitty power but it's so easy to swap in a built 350 and I' m thinking of going with a T56 6 speed manual transmission to swap in at the same time. It's on the table... but I'm kind of a Mopar guy so I'm hesitant.

Then I thought about just building my truck to be sport and off-road... kind of like a Ford Raptor but build to my liking using a Dodge Ram. I might still be doing this but I kind of miss being low to the ground in a sports car.

When I was younger, I had a lot of decent sports cars. Supra, 300ZX, a couple different GTi's, a GLi, BMW 328is, Eclipse GT and so on. Of all of them I liked the way the BMW felt the most. So I've been doing some research and I've been thinking I want a Mopar and I've always wanted to build up a Chrysler Conquest but instead of using the turbo 4 cyl powerplant... I want to try slapping a turbo on a Dodge 318 5.2L v8 to pair with the T56 6speed manual transmission and putting it in a Conquest.

I realize the weight balance may be off, there is a guy who put a Chevy Corvette LS1 motor in one and he solved the weight balance issue by modifying the firewall and moving it back 6 inches. I bring up this concern because, in the 80's the Conquest/Starion was a handling beast! It was one of the best handling stock cars (non-exotic) of it's era leaving cars like the 300zx in the dust. The Conquest has 4 wheel independent suspension and 4 wheel disc brakes too! That's insane, it's basically a roll cage and a few sway bars away from being a race suspension!

I think I might want to try this. I might even want to drive one with the stock turbo 4 and do some mods to get it up to 300 hp or so to see how it feels with the 4 versus how it will feel with a v8 and 400 to 500 hp plus enough torque to actually give no fucks.

I don't know, so many decisions to make but I'm taking my time. Building a car will take a few years and I want to drive something this summer! The problem is even if I did have $30k to spend on a used Viper or SRT8 Challenger... I don't think I would actually spend the money on a car when I can build something fun for $12k or so.

Any of you guys ever build a project car? Was it worth it?

I'm looking at a 1988 Conquest shell that's clean but it's been sitting for a long time so it's probably perfect for a motor swap.

[karpathion]

If you just want a toy to play with, get something already set up for a V8. It's much easier to build. A lot of the cars designed for smaller engines take a lot of modification to change over. More than it's worth in most cases.

Trucks are the easiest to change over, and I'm about to do just that with a 2000 S10. It's a 4 cylinder, but they make kits for them that make the change easy. I'll be putting a LT1 in that truck.

Dodge Dakota's, Ford Rangers, and Chevy S10's are the favorites because of low weight and longer wheelbases. You also have very little mods to change the tranny and rear end as well.

As far as small sports cars being changed over, I've seen lots of 80's Nissan Z models with V8's. I hear they are very easy to change.

I went through this same stuff in the late 90's. I ended up getting an early 90's Thunderbird, and dropped a Ford 460 in it. Put stronger shocks under it, a 4 speed tranny, and a big bad ass 9" rear end. 
She ended up hitting 12.2 seconds by the time I blew it up. Turns out those 460's can't handle quite as much forced feul and air as they claim they can.

I'm just throwing my $.02 out there. Anything can be done, it just comes down to how much money and time you want to spend on it. Have fun with it!

[Securb]

Any of you guys ever build a project car? Was it worth it?

It was worth it for the fun but not financially. I wish I could start a project car, but I don't have the bandwidth. I don't even have time to change my oil and plugs. I take the car to the shop just to get the radio station changed.