Tempting lightweight swap platform, Is this a charade or would I be able to find parts for it?

1990 Daihastu Charade - $1100 (rochester ny)

craigslist ad said: I have a 1990 Daihastu Charade for sale, need some work. Asking $1100 OBO or trades.

I did a little digging, Daihastu is co-managed by Toyota so build quality is solid. Curb weight is supposed to be 1650 lbs, which is impressive. I found a video of someone that swapped in a honda B20 vtech engine and made it a screamer, but I'm wondering what I would do for suspension stuff. Hmmmm....could be a $2015 challenge for someone. What's everyone's thoughts...

It's not a car, it's a Charade!

The Aussies seem to have scads of the things. I might look there.

Or just watch Mighty Car Mods for inspiration.

Didn't these sell for that much when new?

I have a friend in California who has run a Charade for a few events in LeMons and Chump Car ("Team Dai Hard"). He's an admitted huge fanboy, but he also has brain problems maybe.

Early uncompetitive iteration: https://vimeo.com/8296505

A later iteration of the car, with more power and details on the build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFzb7XLGEXc

I think this one is even later on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAeJpQumJ_I

There's a surprising amount of weight you can still take out of these cars to make them lighter, especially if you're the kind of guy who likes plexi and knows which end of a sawzall is up.

They also have a later video which I can't find now that basically showcases how much faster they are now after some serious (for LeMons) development time.

I think their suspension is an eBay coilover set for another car that was adapted to the Charade and then tweaked along with moving pickup points until the geometry, damping and spring rate were good. One of the guys on the team is a suspension Rain Man so I'm absolutely sure I'm underselling it.

The biggest problem they've had is unibody tearing around the firewall under repeated racetrack loads with high grip street tires. They've also had to do a bunch of work on aero and suspension to make it a reasonable competitor. Otherwise it's quite sturdy, easy to drive and good on fuel.

They made a hot version of these called the GTTi in Europe that basically consisted of taking the 1L version of this thing and putting a teeny tiny IHI turbo on it. Reportedly it was quite the widowmaker in the UK - I would follow their lead and strap boost to it until it cries.

It seems like a pretty reasonable yet overlooked platform - if you can figure out how to get parts for it, I would be surprised if you couldn't build something that isn't at least giggle-inducing for a $2015 budget.

Why is it in my fuzzy memories that the hot swap for these was the 4G63T?

I have a buddy who had one in his garage for years while he was collecting all the parts to do so. Wonder if he still has it?

Built by yota? Swap a 20v 4age

Think about this: a guy asks a question about Daihatsu Cherade (never even heard of it) and he gets informed answers on how to build one to be a competitive -if not just fun- car.

Mind-boggling this place is!

You would be better off with a Metro.

ssswitch wrote: The biggest problem they've had is unibody tearing around the firewall under repeated racetrack loads with high grip street tires.

I just thought this was worth reiterating.

Daihatsus were only sold in the US in a handful of states (California, Oregon, and maybe New York and Pennsylvania) for 2 years. I think the Charade may have been offered for only 1 model year. They also sold a small SUV called the Rocky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daihatsu_Rocky

When I went to St. Maarten in the early 2000's there were Daihatsu Rocky's and Asia Rocsta's everywhere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Rocsta For some reason Korean small SUV's had cornered the St. Maarten automotive market.