We built this at a shop i used to work at.
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July 18, 2010 2:07 p.m. Wally SuperDork
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July 18, 2010 2:50 p.m. 4cylndrfury SuperDork
Wally wrote:
the awesome sauce just dissolved my brain. I am now a bumbling idiot thanks to this forum.
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July 18, 2010 3:06 p.m. Jensenman SuperDork
DeadSkunk wrote:
Jensenman,
How much of the subframes went under the Opel? Or, did you just swap in the the engine and trans? I've been wondering how easy it would be to build a Miata GT by putting as much as possible of the mechanicals into an Opel.
The rear subframe was narrowed to fit under the Opel body, IIRC the rear track width was 51". The rear frame rails in the Opel were kept but the sheet metal between them was cut out and then cross rails were made from 2x2x .120 steel with crush tubes in the bolt holes at the correct positions. I used stock Miata rear shocks mounted to a crossmember made of the same 2x2x .120.
At the front, the Opel lower control arms were modified to accept the Miata lower ball joints. To keep the camber curve reasonably close to the Miata's, the Opel upper control arms were shortened to have the same percentage relationship to the Opel lower arm as the upper/lower Miata (IIRC it was something like 71%).
I used Miata rear shocks on the front also, and modified the Opel double upper shock mount to work (you need to look under one to see what I mean). I used the Opel steering rack with Miata outer tie rod ends. The Opel inner tie rods are hollow, so I cut the ends off of a pair of Miata tie rods, cut the ends off of the Opel inner tie rods, tapped the Miata pieces into the Opel piece till I got the length I needed, then welded them together.
The engine was a 13B NA rotary. I had all the really hard work done and was working on the floor pans etc when a situation arose where I needed quick cash. I had to sell everything off before I was able to complete and drive it.
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July 21, 2010 8:56 p.m. DeadSkunk Reader
I take it that the Opel is a narrower car than a Miata? I wonder what it would take to cut the floor out of an Opel and drop the body shell over a Miata undercarriage. I've seen a thread someplace where a guy did the same sort of thing by dropping a Ford Anglia panel over a BMW 2002 flooor. It took an awful lot of welding and fitting, but it was nicely done in the end.
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July 21, 2010 8:59 p.m. oldopelguy Dork
DeadSkunk wrote:
I take it that the Opel is a narrower car than a Miata? I wonder what it would take to cut the floor out of an Opel and drop the body shell over a Miata undercarriage. I've seen a thread someplace where a guy did the same sort of thing by dropping a Ford Anglia panel over a BMW 2002 flooor. It took an awful lot of welding and fitting, but it was nicely done in the end.
Would probably be easier and better to just graft the Opel front and rear ends onto a munched Miata. Keep the modern everything inside and get the styling of an Opel GT. Someday I'm going to do one, after I finish up the other 743 or so other projects bouncing around.
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Oct. 25, 2010 9:34 p.m. 05_Raven
alex wrote:
Grtechguy wrote:
Surely somebody's done something to make one of these driveable.
Anyone know of a locost-ish tube frame design for this? $6.5K for a '98 roller on ebay...
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Oct. 25, 2010 11:09 p.m. 96DXCivic SuperDork
I wonder if you can make a Miata frame under one of these (w/ some shortening)
http://www.modernmicrocars.co.uk/prices.html
Edit: ignore that. The Miata is much wider then any of those cars.
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Oct. 26, 2010 12:26 a.m. MrBenjamonkey Reader
I wonder if you could do this with a 924/944. That would be a super awesome start to a tube frame car.
Front clip out of ... anything. Engine out of ... anything. Make a torque tube and walla, you now have an imitation C5 chassis for a fraction of the cost.
Considering what I have in the junkards around here, 4.6L Hyundai V8 from a wrecked Genesis plus front clip out of a Daewoo Prince, minus crappy autobox, plus tube chassis equals destroying everybody at the track ....
