It looks awesome on the revolutions! Lower and drive...
It looks awesome on the revolutions! Lower and drive...
i say a CUMMINS swap
Because of course the Miata's rallycross wheels have to be on it. 
Bumping this back up for more ideas.
With the wagon class for the challenge this year I would like to build the Kadett. The stock engine is obviously not going to be competitive. It is not worth restoring since perfect examples of Kadetts are cheap. Starting cost is $800, not a whole lot of parts to sell for recoup.
My main idea is a motorcycle engine. I have been thinking inline 4 in the front, or find a Triumph for cool 3 cylinder noises? The other option would be a Goldwing engine under the rear seat area. I would prefer a 1500 or 1800 for decent power and reverse but those seem to still be expensive even at insurance auctions.
I do have a Miata roller sitting in my back yard but I doubt I could pull off a subframe swap in time for the Challenge.
Any 1000cc or larger 4 cylinder sportbike- buy the whole thing, crashed, and you should have plenty of parts to sell off. Reverse is overrated anyway 
EDIT: If you end up having extra time, some sort of homebrew reversing device (electric? HF Predator motor?) should be worth concours innovation points.
EvanB said:Bumping this back up for more ideas.
With the wagon class for the challenge this year I would like to build the Kadett. The stock engine is obviously not going to be competitive. It is not worth restoring since perfect examples of Kadetts are cheap. Starting cost is $800, not a whole lot of parts to sell for recoup.
My main idea is a motorcycle engine. I have been thinking inline 4 in the front, or find a Triumph for cool 3 cylinder noises? The other option would be a Goldwing engine under the rear seat area. I would prefer a 1500 or 1800 for decent power and reverse but those seem to still be expensive even at insurance auctions.
I do have a Miata roller sitting in my back yard but I doubt I could pull off a subframe swap in time for the Challenge.
With the 10" difference in wheelbase, I have to agree that the Miata chassis swap is made more difficult. That said, I would not give up on a chassis swap as it can be the easy button to an interesting car.
Here is a person doing a Volvo 122 who is much smarter than me. He found a car with the right wheelbase and his donor chassis never stopped being driveable. Note the very short timeline for getting the thing assembled.
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=333984
He did the entire body drop while filming in real-time just to give you an idea how quick it went.
For better or for worse, the guy is a perfectionist mad-scientist fabricator wo has now moved on the million details that would not be needed for a challenge car.
In reply to NOHOME :
I was thinking more of just using the front and rear subframes and adapting the Opel to fit them but that adds a lot of complexity over dropping the body on a chassis.
I have a Toyota transmission I could part with. It's a 5 speed from a 1973 Corolla SR5 (a T-50 ?) and is not very large. Find a 2TC/3TC Toyota engine to go with it ,maybe. From my distant memories they're both small engines.
I have been working on suspension jigs for building my own Kadett suspension crossmembers and rear suspension. I have a Miata rear already, but if you can get me a front I'll build you a hybrid.
oldopelguy said:I have been working on suspension jigs for building my own Kadett suspension crossmembers and rear suspension. I have a Miata rear already, but if you can get me a front I'll build you a hybrid.
Interesting, the rear suspension on mine is leaf spring so it could definitely use an upgrade.
You probably don't want to know about the motorcycle head/automotive bottom end hybrids I have been seeing. Like the Hayabusa head on a VW 1.8 destroked to 1.1l and making 387hp at 11000rpm...
Grab this Zetec with the supercharger, and transmission from a Ranger/Mustang/TBird/XR4TI/Pinto/... with Pinto/Lima 4 cylinder. The bellhousing on the zetec doesn't quite match the Pinto or Lima but its close enough to either ignore or use a piece of plate.
I have a leaf spring rear in one of mine too, I'll see about getting it on the rotisserie.
EvanB said:In reply to NOHOME :
I was thinking more of just using the front and rear subframes and adapting the Opel to fit them but that adds a lot of complexity over dropping the body on a chassis.
Once you get over the sheer lunatic-ness of grafting two cars together, the chassis swap actually makes a lot of sense. I now think of the donor chassis and a floor-repair panel for the recipient.
If the donor was good to go when you started, the you are good to go once the new body is in place.
If you don’t mind losing the cargo area, how about grabbing a wrecked 90’s Civic, stuffing that in the back under flared fenders, and if you have time, stuff a Miata front subframe under the front, and flare the front fenders?
Edit: Since you are starting with an $800 vehicle with few recoup options, the ability to recoup from your engine donor will be critical.
In reply to eastsidemav :
I would prefer to keep the cargo area. Not that I would haul much with a motorcycle engine but I like how it looks.
In reply to EvanB :
In that case, how married to the idea of RWD are you? How about running FWD? I just did a little checking - the 3rd gen civic is only about 2 inches wider than the Opel, and they run a solid rear axle that could be bolted to the leaf springs, or the coil spring rear could possibly be adapted. Not a ton of horsepower, but a huge upgrade over stock.
I've also seen a Saab 96 in Cincinnati with a Toyota Corolla FWD setup, pretty much any relatively narrow FWD subframe could probably be adapted to the Opel.
It also might end up making one hell of a MF rallycross car after the Challenge is over.
In reply to eastsidemav :
I'd rather have one hell of a MR rallycross car.
I had a '71 2dr sedan with the non sport shift and a 1.1. A guy gave it to me if I would drag it out of the kudzu patch by his house. I got the engine unseized but never got it running. I passed it along to an opel fanatic in Atlanta, but I've always looked back and thought about what a cool car that could have been with the (then unknown) influence of GRM. I'm glad that someone is trying to make it happen. I'm also kind of glad it's still not me.
Knurled said:You probably don't want to know about the motorcycle head/automotive bottom end hybrids I have been seeing. Like the Hayabusa head on a VW 1.8 destroked to 1.1l and making 387hp at 11000rpm...
Definitely don't want to know about those...I would like the rear end to survive for more than a few feet if possible.
EvanB said:In reply to eastsidemav :
I'd rather have one hell of a MR rallycross car.
In that case, if you are willing to do some major surgery, a first gen RX-7 has basically the same wheelbase.
oldopelguy said:I have been working on suspension jigs for building my own Kadett suspension crossmembers and rear suspension. I have a Miata rear already, but if you can get me a front I'll build you a hybrid.
I havea front subframe I could send but I'm not sure how to ship it. Do you need the control arms and knuckles? Steering rack?
Let me do some digging and see what I can come up with locally before we try and ship something that heavy. Should just need the crossmember and someone who has a a Miata and is willing to take some measurements for me.
eastsidemav said:EvanB said:In reply to eastsidemav :
I'd rather have one hell of a MR rallycross car.
In that case, if you are willing to do some major surgery, a first gen RX-7 has basically the same wheelbase.
The "major surgery" involved would pretty much be unzip the exterior panels from the Kadett and slide them over whatever chassis.
I am utterly shocked at how space-inefficient the Kadett is. It manages to pack a tiny engine very tightly under a giant hood.
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