Kit Cars And Kit Trucks

[John-b-gone]

MY VW powered Fiber Fab Avenger would never go as fast as it looked. so after a Corvair motor we found a 215 cu. in. aluminum V-8 motor out of '61-'64 Olds. Someone was making an adapter plate for the VW trans axle, left the 6 volt starter, put some extra strong springs inside the stock springs on the pressure plate. Mounted the radiator up front with a couple electric fans. Needles to say speed was never an issue (neither was 1st. gear). It was tape $100 bill to the dash fast, we figured pushing 300 HP.

 

[W. WIllie]

The best easy swap for the earlier VW is a Subaru turbo. They work great in the old vans.

 

[Coss]

Craziest conversion I ever worked on was for the owner of Akers VW & Porsche Repair.
He had a VW Vanagon (the newer style VW Bus), he took out the stock VW motor and replaced it with a twin turbo Porsche 3 liter Carrera motor.
This thing would do 60 crossing a 4 lane intersection; it would start out like a regular VW and by the time you rolled 10 feet it was like it had rocket boosters; it would just throw you back in your seat.
First outing with it he managed to melt his license plate (heat from the turbos)
He told me "if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have done it"

He never quite told me what he meant by that; but it had something to do with his wife taking it out and not knowing about the conversion first.

 

[pistonboy]

What is it, and what is it built on?

It is a replica of a Frazer-Nash, built on a VW chassis.

 

[NSTG8R]

Craziest conversion I ever worked on was for the owner of Akers VW & Porsche Repair.
He had a VW Vanagon (the newer style VW Bus), he took out the stock VW motor and replaced it with a twin turbo Porsche 3 liter Carrera motor.
This thing would do 60 crossing a 4 lane intersection; it would start out like a regular VW and by the time you rolled 10 feet it was like it had rocket boosters; it would just throw you back in your seat.
First outing with it he managed to melt his license plate (heat from the turbos)
He told me "if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have done it"

He never quite told me what he meant by that; but it had something to do with his wife taking it out and not knowing about the conversion first.

The reason I bought my SVX was to rip the engine out of it for my '73 Porsche 914, but the more I drove it the better I liked it. Ended up buying a spare 3.3L for the Porsche. If you're ever going to do a Suby/VW conversion, this is the place that knows their stuff.

https://smallcar.com/conversions/the-230hp-vanagon-vx.html

 

[Coss]

The reason I bought my SVX was to rip the engine out of it for my '73 Porsche 914, but the more I drove it the better I liked it. Ended up buying a spare 3.3L for the Porsche. If you're ever going to do a Suby/VW conversion, this is the place that knows their stuff.

https://smallcar.com/conversions/the-230hp-vanagon-vx.html

Fife is just outside Seattle (my neck of the woods) the Vanagon I talked about was the first one done, this place got started from working with Ackers.

 

[NSTG8R]

Fife is just outside Seattle (my neck of the woods) the Vanagon I talked about was the first one done, this place got started from working with Ackers.

Wow! Small world. They are the 'go to' place for Suby conversions [VW/Porsche]. Got my 3.3L headers from them for my 914 conversion, then found out they carry some descent SVX upgrades on their site. The more I checked out their site, the more I wanted a Westfalia camper conversion. It's just the wife and I now, so a VW camper might work out pretty nice for our local weekend jaunts to the wilderness.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

I really would want an Ultima GTR.

http://www.ultimasports.co.uk/GTR/Intro

The Factory Five kits are nice but the ones from Superformance are better in almost every way. (sorry) I was going to buy a 427SC Cobra once upon a seemingly impossibly long time ago... Anyway, I went to a Superformance dealer. They had several there and they seemed VERY well put together. Even the area behind the driver's seat where the bodywork ends had no discernable edge. But what got me was the one they had up on a lift. The brake lines were retained at about 6 inch intervals and there were two going across that caught my eye because when they made a turn, the inside one was mandrel bent to 90 degrees but the outside one was bent to 45 degrees and then 45 degrees again to match up with the inside one. They were perfectly spaced. The attention that they put into such minute details won me over. Plus, they were a blast to drive!

http://www.superformance.com/default.aspx

I'll just put this right here.

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/145-superformance/267297-superformance-better-than-ffr-because.html

 

[TCBronson]

MY VW powered Fiber Fab Avenger would never go as fast as it looked. so after a Corvair motor we found a 215 cu. in. aluminum V-8 motor out of '61-'64 Olds. Someone was making an adapter plate for the VW trans axle, left the 6 volt starter, put some extra strong springs inside the stock springs on the pressure plate. Mounted the radiator up front with a couple electric fans. Needles to say speed was never an issue (neither was 1st. gear). It was tape $100 bill to the dash fast, we figured pushing 300 HP.

The aluminum 215 V8 was actually a Buick engine used on Olds and Pontiacs. Than Rover bought it and still use a version of it in Land rovers.

 

[TCBronson]

I used to want to build my own KIT car of some kind. I thought it would be really cool to take a C4 Corvette (1984 -1996) and convert it to a Jaguar XKE with a fiberglass hood and call it a JAGETTE. I have no idea how to work with fiberglass but I think it would look good and run/handle good.