how about a Chevette for Chumpcar?

i just found out that the Chumpcar series will be racing at Brainerd- which is about 50 miles from me. anyways, i know i can't get in it this year, but i can get a free 4 door Chevette that's been sitting in a cow pasture for the better part of a decade and build something for next year. i can figure out something for power- i have a good 305 and good TH350 just sitting around- but how good would the Chevette chassis be for something like this? i honestly don't care about winning- i just want to screw around with my welder and race...

How good would the chassis be? Probably not very good without a good deal of strengthening. Just do it, and post lots of pictures.

I'm finding myself strangely attracted to Chevettes, for some reason. You know, they weren't bad looking little cars (especially the later ones).

Off the top, I would say bad idea, but I have a friend who built one as a mini stock in 95/96. It was a delivery car, and already had a half million km on it. I was at the track last year, and he's still racing it. So they're probably tougher than they look.

I bought one new in 87, and never had a single problem with it. It was a very good car.

We have one in the Back 40. We put many, many laps on it (think rallycross type conditions). On the first outing, one of the quarter windows proclaimed emancipation from the vehicle. We taped it back on with duct tape and it's still there. After just one lap, we had to figure out what that deafening rattle in the rear was. We removed the snow chains from the area under the hatch . That was LOUD.

Eventually, the panhard mount ripped loose from the body/chassis. We haven't welded it back together yet, but I'm confident if/when we do that, it will drive many more laps around the Back 40 course.

Clem

I think the decade spent in a field will be more of a detriment than the fact it's a Chevette, personally.

In fact, I'm sure of it.

I have had one in the 1985 era.....yes i am 67. Since it is an older car, it is solid as design optimisation was not well developed in these days, so they were stronger, but heavier. If you want a real threat look for ideas on the web entering 'vauxhall chevette' and selecting a few webs. You will be astounded at the pics and specs, especially rally cars. Do not put a V8 or V6 in there. Get a 2L to 2.4 L, I4 and gearbox. I would get one myself, but they are scarce. Go for it if it' in shape, you'l have fun for cheap.

i think the car is probably still reasonably solid. it only had something like 60,000 miles on it when my brother parked it in the field after bending a fender and the hood after slipping on some ice and slamming into the barrier while going over the overpass that crosses the interstate about 100 yards from the house. he said it still drove straight and the wheel was still centered, but he was looking for an excuse to get a different car. the weird thing is that there is no vegetation growing around it- he just parked it in tall grass and all of it died. the cows won't go near it. that has to be a good sign. it is a brown 4 door automatic car with a tan interior that for some reason has a tilt steering column in it. i think it's an '80 model, not that it matters much...

i spent some time in brasil (they spell it with an s down there) bombing around in my cousins chevette. fun little car! factory 4 banger in it, lightly modded. if i could i would gladly own one

They were sold under the Vauxhall name overseas, and I think may have been an Opel model variant as well..... My step mother was almost killed in one after taking out both psg side wheels on a chunk of concrete and leaving an embankment at 60+ mph. The car was badly bent, but still not as much as you'd think for wrapping around an oak tree sideways.

Heck, drag it out and make it run. Unless there's enough bad JuJu on it to scare off the cows.

There are some killer V8 swap kits out there in the drag race world. Jus Sayin

If I recall, the Chevette was originally an Opel, or at least designed by them in Germany.

Dibs on the tilt column! They're rather rare, and it would be a good start for my Chevette project.

Auto is the TH180 (Fiat Trimatic) and bell housings are available for that trans to bolt it to some fun stuff like Chevy, Holden, and Rover V8s or more practical stuff like GM 60* v-6, 2.2L 4-cylinders, or Suzuki 1.6-2.4L 4-cylinders.

The Chevette engine shares 4/6 of the bell-housing bolts with the CIH Opel 1.9L. The Chevette was available with a T-5 as well. Some mix-and-match stuff there.

Front suspension was used on the Fiero, so any performance suspension or brake stuff you see for them goes pretty much right on. Rear is a torque-tube axle with a pair of locating links and a panhard rod, same type of set-up as on the Camaro. Closer in width to a 2WD S10 for a rear axle though, so narrowing the Camaro enough to use S10 axles would be the grassroots method of getting you some axle on the cheap.

Couple of V-6 Chevettes out there worth looking up. Several nice ones with 2.8-3.4L v-6s and a couple with 3800s or 4.3Ls.

For ChumpCar it would be great. Ditch the automatic and stuff a manual in it (remarked the voice of experience; this holds true with anything being raced this way) put some wide wheels on it and have fun!

I have seen one brave soul around here who has apparently seen fit to outfit his for Pro Street duty. I saw it cruzing (when I didn't have a camera), complete with massive slicks on. Was totally weird.

DoctorBlade wrote: I have seen one brave soul around here who has apparently seen fit to outfit his for Pro Street duty. I saw it cruzing (when I didn't have a camera), complete with massive slicks on. Was totally weird.

was it white and did it look like it had a Caddy 500 in it? another magazine did that once...

here's bits of my plan, so far. Fiero front spindles for the slightly bigger brakes and 5 lug bolt pattern to allow me to use any of the dozens of 13" and 14" fwd GM wheels that i have access to. a local junkyard has a couple of Fieros and sells parts dirt cheap. redrill the rear axles and brake drums to the same 5 lug bolt pattern to make life easier. if i can get the stock engine running and feel it would be fairly durable, i'd stick with that and concentrate on making the car turn and stop instead of haul butt on the straights. a manual trans would be nice- but i can't remember the last time i saw a Chevette of any kind in a boneyard to get clutch parts from.

.

novaderrik wrote:

DoctorBlade wrote: I have seen one brave soul around here who has apparently seen fit to outfit his for Pro Street duty. I saw it cruzing (when I didn't have a camera), complete with massive slicks on. Was totally weird.

was it white and did it look like it had a Caddy 500 in it? another magazine did that once...

Steve Magnante from Hotrod. I doubt its the same car. As of two years ago, it's still rotting in his backyard.

Appleseed wrote:

Box flares?

went out and lifted the back end of the car out of the dirt today- and it didn't fall apart. that's a good sign. well, one rear spring fell out, but there was nothing there to hold it in place, which looks like a design issue. i just jacked it up with one of those big heavy duty bumper jack looking things that farmers and 4X4 people love so much and threw a steel fwd wheel under each rocker panel to get it off the ground for now. i gotta find the 2 missing wheels and get it actually sitting on 4 wheels again, pull it out of the pasture, and see if i can get it running. the air cleaner has been on it the whole time, so it didn't get any rain or snow into the carb.. but some mice ate thru the air cleaner element and made a nest on top of the carb, so the choke blade is badly rusted. .

novaderrik wrote: was it white and did it look like it had a Caddy 500 in it? another magazine did that once...

I still have that article.