Mr. Avionics

Now here's a FWD to RWD conversion I'd like to see.
Stick a Big Block Chevy, 396/427/454, in a Honduh Civic.
Thing wouldn't corner worth ****, be squirly as hell on acceleration, but would be a blast to play with ricers with at the street lights. Oh yea, for the rear end use a narrowed 12 bolt posi. Try and keep the exterior appearance as stock as possible.

Years ago wanted to shoehorn a big block into a chevy chevette. Same crazy concept,

Bill

Peckster

What are you talking about?

Anyway, this project makes a 951 conversion seem like a good idea by comparison.

Matt H

Have seen a Northstar V8 in the back of a Corvair 'vert.

Matt mentioned the AWD eclipse train. I have converted on of those to RWD. Very cool, worthless there after (except to drag racers) but cool.
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44mag

Yeah you're right peckster, I guess it was a nice thought while it lasted... why did they go fwd in the first place???

Tom R.

I prefer the idea of a V8 Fiero. I think i saw something in GRM about a northstar conversion.

History lesson time.
Some of the reasons the car companies went to front wheel drive

No hump in the middle, so more passenger room - think rabbit, mini
70/30 weight distribution over the front wheels - Excellent all weather traction - The term fishtail really meant something then
Something about lower manufacturing costs, hence lower price point
I think I read in the 70s about better fuel economy.
Dont forget all season tires. They dont do much good on the camaro or 944 even thin ones, but I got through a lot of snow in my dasher, legend, aurura just to name a few.

Now think of the old movies, and think Pinto (RWD), Gremlin/Pacer (RWD), Vega - Chevette(RWD) and then think Rabbit (FWD), GLC-323(FWD),

The corolla was RWD until the early 80s always a decent car for what it is, chevette became the cavalier, a decent car for what it is, pinto the escort also decent, and the list goes on.

The main reason RWD is coming back is because of traction control. Sure RWD handles better in the dry, but most people dont use 20% of their cars capabilites.

Matt H

Tom, I have seen that as well. A lot of the modded Fiero guys are also modded Corvair guys. We are working on a 3.6L Corvair motor now. Should be about 260HP with the Carbs and over 300 once we get the MAP kit working. My father in law is an engineer, he loves this stuff. You would be shocked how weak parts are on Corvairs. Then again a set of heads complete runs about 100 dollars. A spare set of pistons and rods was gifted to us to measure (and he wont take them back!). The spare crank was 50 dollars and the list goes on!
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hacker-pschorr

Just drive backwards

sdparks

Take your FWD monster to the demolition derby. They are heavy and strong, and you can beat the hell out of people with the rear of the car without damaging the drivetrain ;-)

FSAEracer03

lol, yeah, getting to or replacing any drivetrain parts in a FWD car is about 3 times more of a PITA than a RWD... a few cars being exceptions. One of which is the 944... great technology, horrible weekend fixer though. Your friend is really good with FWD cars to be able to do that at a track, kudos to him. Replacing a clutch on a RWD car, say a Mustang or something, can b done in half the time easily... and less on a lift. AWD is even more of a bitch, as you have even LESS space and more components (transfer case, blah blah blah). I've had the (mis)fortune to do all three in parking lots and in a race shop I work at back home as well. As for the internal components, well there isn't too much of a difference, that isn't the issue here though. Having a transversely mounted engine creates a lot of problems when larger engines are used, as in V6s. A simple job such as changing the spark plugs now often requires loosening the front pivoting motor mount and dislocationg the rear, and swinging the engine up a few degrees to get to the back bank of cylinders. Now if you're telling me this is simpler than working on a longitudinally mounted engine in a RWD car, I think ya need to explain a few things here! Back to the drivetrain; replacing the tranny and or clutch in a RWD car is pretty straight forward and doesnt require half as much time as similar work for a FWD car. Also, the time spent working on the FWD car is more agrivating and difficult because space is not an issue in a RWD setup as it is in a FWD setup.

The big 3 didn't switch over to FWD for simplicity, they switched over b/c the big impending sellers from overseas were small cars. American auto makers wanted to create a different concept of American cars... one that didn't involve huge hoods and bad gas-milage (did somebody say "crisis"? ) So to have a shorter, sleeker front end, you flip the engine around 90 degrees and whalah, a smaller more aero profile! No wait a second, ya can't go RWD simply with a transverse mounted engine, so lets make them FWD and call it a day. Now this was the mentality from the 70's on through the 90's...as cars grew smaller and smaller. The original concept, however, wasn't done to reduce space, it was an effort to achieve better traction in bad weather and basically just to have something new and different.

what i was trying to say before about the power issue wasn't necessarily aimed at power "gains"... i was trying to show that it cost more in R&D to produce a car with a FWD platform than with equal power in RWD. so i'm saying it costs more to get a maxima to 260hp than it is to get a Mustang GT there.... just more $$ on the auto makers part, see??

Ok, hopefully i made some sense there, lol... i hope that clears something up

-kevin

FSAEracer03

...dude, i dont even know what i'm talking about anymore lol...

Red 944

nope, I gotcha .. I meant huge as in wide. That thing would have to be at least a foot wide to handle the torque of a cadi v8.
To combine what two people said: one with the northstar, one with the japanese sleeper. How about an older mr2 with a northstar .. that thing would be KILLER.
There was a Saab on ebay a couple of weeks ago where the body was mounted to a mustang frame. I'll see if I can pull it up.

951phile

its possible, i saw it in a tuner mag., but it cost them $50,000 to do it to a Civic

Awoir

Why can't we just go back to horse and buggy's so everyone stops fighting?

Legoland951

Mr. Avionics, instead of the civic, I was able to get a friend of mine to put a 454 CI big block with a turbo 400 trans into a 1981 RX 7 and shut the hood with a very small bulge on the hood and no air cleaner. The total cost, $2000 including the car and the drivetrain. The only thing we had to fabricate was to weld a solid mount for the motor from the crossmember and weld reinforcements for the transmount to the chassis. The driveshaft was a cut short chevy driveshaft with a mazda universal joint at the end (cut, welded, and balanced for $200).

FSAEracer03

Holy Bajebus... Image what you would have in a 951 if you had 50 grand to spend!! *cough* Tony G *cough* DFASTEST *cough* ...how I wish I had 5 grand to spend sometimes!!

I don't know why someone hasn't tried taking a Prelude, and linking it's 2.2L Vtec motor to a modified S2000 drivetrain and making room for the propshaft. Make new motor mounts, reroute the exhaust, new rear suspension, and all the rest... hell throw on a turbo, and you have one NICE Honda that most of the import scene could probably never appreciate... but will never beat