Mid engine V8 Beetle (!)

The title of this thread really should have been "talk me down..."

I think I must build one of these!

http://www.rorty-design.com/content/beetle.htm

The day dream includes the body shell from my '71 parts car, an Audi FWD transaxle (or?) and an LS1 Chevy.

I'm a crappy welder at best, but this may be one of the coolest things I've seen lately, so I'll just have to get to practicing.

Do a search for CaddyWagen. Some college kid backed the pan of his bug up to the front of a FWD Eldorado, welded the subframe of the caddy on to the bug, cut the frame of the Eldo, welded the steering box and ended up with a caddy 500 in the back seat of his bug. Super grassroots, easy, and looked fun.

http://v8dubs.com/stepone.html

Here it is

Wow. Talented kid. I'm not crazy about the radiator right behind the seats, though.

I ordered the Rorty Design chassis plans...

I can't see in the photos, what did he do with the Caddy struts? How is the rear suspended? (why I ditched the Geo-llac)

Dan

I think you're thinking of the wrong kinda Caddy, Dan. The kid used a '74 Eldo, not a N'star. It appears that the '74's front susp. uses A-arms and torsion bars, which he replaced w/ coilovers... There's no clear pix, tho, so i could be wrong.

I love the fact that the CaddyWagen kid did this in the dirt parking lot across the street from his house/apartment. (I'm sure the neighbors did, too.) And the story of the project is basically: 'I bought my buddy's Caddy for scrap price and drove it to school a couple times. Then the Bug across the street came up for sale really cheap.'

I suppose we'd all have had about the same thoughts.

I love the concept, but wouldn't it basically work the same on a ghia? The aerodynamics would be much better, and you could make a real track car out of it.

do it with a Van or a type 4 wagon.. more room

kreb wrote: I love the concept, but wouldn't it basically work the same on a ghia? The aerodynamics would be much better, and you could make a real track car out of it.

There is a guy in San Diego that basically just rebodied a 944 turbo with a ghia amazing looking thing.

The Caddy powered Bug is cool, but I'm drawn to the Rorty Design custom chassis for a few reasons.

1. I am an amateur welder (at best) and want to get exceptionally good at it. What better way than to build a frame from scratch?
2. If I screw up said frame, I can start over without having to source more donor cars
3. I never really considered building a V8 Bug - it's not a life long passion - I just happen to have an extra Beetle body, MIG welder and a healthy sense of humor.

Has anyone here ever fabricated a frame from scratch?

I have not, but I am probably the same skill level as you and I got to thinking after seeing a rolled wrx on craigslist in a thread here. How cool would it be to temporarily brace the suspension points, cut off the body (leave the floors and firewall) and then weld up a permanent frame and fit some oddball body to it. Have a nice HP easily modified AWD powertrain and as a bonus, you could drop the body as low as possible.

Rusnak_322 wrote: I have not, but I am probably the same skill level as you and I got to thinking after seeing a rolled wrx on craigslist in a thread here. How cool would it be to temporarily brace the suspension points, cut off the body (leave the floors and firewall) and then weld up a permanent frame and fit some oddball body to it. Have a nice HP easily modified AWD powertrain and as a bonus, you could drop the body as low as possible.

Get out of my head, damn it!!!!!!

I'm surpised that I don't see more of that. It seems the quick way to a killer restomod.

What else could be put in the space where the V8 would go? A Subaru probably won't work (too wide). I'm thinking Audi 5-cylinder 20V turbo... Anyone have any inspired ideas?

1000+ HP Supra motor?

Well, the Audi v6 and v8 also use a similar bolt pattern to the 5 pot motors and the later 924/944 used Audi FWD transaxles. The rear suspension pieces are very close between the later beetles and the 924/944.

I'm just sayin....

M030 wrote: What else could be put in the space where the V8 would go? A Subaru probably won't work (too wide). I'm thinking Audi 5-cylinder 20V turbo... Anyone have any inspired ideas?

I dreamed up that same idea a few years ago. My buddy had a VW Bug just sitting in his yard, and I proposed we should put an Audi inline-5 into the back. I sketched up a lot of cool ideas in class, but that was about as far as we went with it...