The oddest car body, engine combination you've ever done,seen,been in?

another -84 or so ford ranger with turbo V6 buick and turbo 350 from a Riviera. only 14 mpg but it laid ALOT of rubber.

 

About 20 years ago I came across a '65 Beaumont
(Canadian Pontiac clone of a Chevelle) 4-door sedan
in a boneyard......with a Chrysler 383-2bbl and an
A833 4-speed swapped into it! The engine and tranny
swap was a complete butcher job, but the car had
apparently been driven for at least a while with the
383/4-speed in it, before ending up in the boneyard.

One 'sort of oddball' car that I actually owned was a
'67 Firebird with a stock385 hp/427 and a powerglide
swapped into it. I know a big block Chevy in an early
Firebird is not really unusual, except that this
particular 427 came out of a '68 or '69 full-size
Canadian Pontiac and the valve covers and air breather
still had the original "427 Pontiac Astro-Jet" decals on
them! Back in the day, I had a lot of fun and won more
than a few street races by telling people that the
engine in the Firebird was "just a stock Pontiac" and
then after a race, opening the hood to "prove" it!

mart

P.S. Almost forgot about this one too. Back in the mid
and late 70's, I had a buddy who was into Studebakers.
Among other things, he had a daily driver '65 Studebaker
Cruiser 4-door sedan that oriiginally came from the factory
with a 230 Chevy 6 and a 3-speed stick. When the Chevy
6 finally died, he replaced the engine and trans with a
4-bbl Pontiac 250 OHC 6 and 4-speed out of a '69 Firebird.
Swapping the Chevy 6 for the Pontiac Cammer was pretty
much a straight bolt-in, but I think it definitely qualifies as
"strange'!
======================

 

iv'e got an old hot rod publishing engine swapping book that this car is featured in. some other strange stuff in that book too bbc in a 56 t bird, 302 in a jag, volvo 4 in an old mg T the best pic in the book is the steering linkage that runs through the oil pan on a chevy 2. makes you wonder what they were smoking in the late 70's

 

----------------------------
I've heard of "tubbed" cars before.....Ive even had
a couple .....but you've taken the concept and the
meaning to a whole different level! <LOL> By the
way, VERY COOL, VERY NEAT car!

mart

==============================================

 

We put a 49 stude 6 in a 46 cjwillys military jeep. A one inch spacer
between the trans and bell housing and walla. Also a six inch spacer
to move rad and grille forward. Almost 2x the hp.

 

I heard of a guy that was trying to fit a diesel in his jeep and then a v-8 in a tr-6 triumph. I never saw it so im not sure if he was serious or just blowing smoke up my ass

 

There was a guy about 10 years ago in Minneapolis (I was there for BTT50s) with an 80s Volkswagen Pickup truck and a Cadillac 500ci engine jammed in the truck box.

Pretty scary beast. Wish I had pictures of it.

 

didnt it have 4 wheels on the rear too? not dually but tandem?

another weird one i saw in a bone yard was an svo mustang with a butchered in oldsmobile 350

 

Well here's my list of projects...

'94 Chevy 1500 P/U w/ a 425 Olds/TH400/9 inch (almost done!!!)

'25 Dodge frame, 240ci Olds Straight 8 and the '36 olds trans and rear end, 20 something Chevy cowl, custom boat tail (kind of mocked up, getting started on when the truck is done)

'26 Willy's Overland Whippet modified, rear mounted 223 Ford I6 mated to a 425 Olds transaxle...at least that's the plan any way...

'31 Model A P/U w/ 303 Olds, LaSalle trans, 4x4 with front and rear Halibrand Quick Changes....just a pipe dream

And then I've got a 218 Chrysler six I need to do something with... I do have a '29 Poncho frame...or another Whippet frame and cowl....Hmmm

I do have a '38 Poncho 2dr Sedan...but I'm not sure if I want to do anything to it...It's to big, and I can't go as crazy with it as the other heaps...

 

i think the '69 bug takes it hands down!!

 

Those guys had an old flat motor from years ago,anf they dropped it into that car to run at B-ville,they had all the shit to do it,so it didnt cost much to build it.
they set a record or two at maxton and b-ville.

 

I remember a local chap that put a Buick Aluminum V8 in the back seat of a VW bug. He used the transmission and entire running gear from a racing Porche. He raced the car at Mosport and would drive it to the track. I last saw the car in a parking lot in Brampton Ontario back in the 70's.

 

I never saw this but Mike swears up and down he saw it out at Wichita International serveral years ago. Still blows my mind just thinking about it. How about a 427 big block mounted in an ISETTA!!!! Mike Said the motor was mounted sideways behind the seat. Now WHO in thier right mind?

Carrie

 

Out my way there is a guy with a stone stock looking 28 Nash, with a Front wheel drive Chevy V-6 mounted in the back.

 

Sometime in the late 80's I saw a Morris Minor with a blown FE Ford at the Street Machines Expo in Sacramento. I'll never forget the license plate... MNR PROB.

It was a complete pro-street job that was done to look like a reworked stock Morris Minor... Hunter Green paint, stock Morris skinnies up front and widened steelies out back with the stock Morris hubcaps all around. I also remember about half of the finned aluminum Cobra Jet valve covers were above the fenders.

Perfectly executed and the quality of the build was awesome. I know I have pictures of it somewhere... it was also in Hot Rod around the same time.

About the same time (...might have been the very weekend) I was at Sacramento Raceway and there was a guy with an early Pinto (...'71-'73) powered by a SOHC 427. This thing was NASTY!! He laid into it when the lights turned green and it started toward the wall... He got in and out of the throttle about three times and still ran a low 9 second pass! AND... the announcer said that he drove it to and from work everyday! Triple black and bad to the bone!

 

A guy in town has a rusty 'ol Model A RPU but you can see in the bed the top of the VW engine that powers it.

 

A local guy had a 1958 Rambler Station wagon with a Mopar flat 6. He said it had originally been a rail inspection vehicle for a railroad.

 

I saw one of those at the Street Machine Nats in Des Moines back in 75 or so. Had a Corvair engine in it. Just a little blip on the gas and that thing would pull the front end up. Scary!

 

Model B Sedan with a VW Golf front wheel drive motor turned sideways with one drive shaft locked and the other driving the prop. You shuuda seen the gear linkage.

 

Someone local has a variation of that theme, a Model A pickup cut up and rearranged over the VW Bug pans, with the top cut off and made into an RPU. The hood proportions are way off because it's shorter than stock and it looks kind of funky. He may have sold it, I know at the 08 Nats he had it out with For Sale signs on it.

 

Cummings diesel in an 59 apache dont know that he finished that project though

 

That I'd like to see! I wonder how the gearing worked out. Locking one drive flange will double the speed on the other, but you're turning the differential internals all the time at speeds much higher than they'd see for any length of time in a stock application. I don't think it could last.

 

Heard a bad one, some years ago, about a guy who hot rodded a VW Beetle back in the 60's, by wedging a 235 in place of the back seat.
It was said to be the fastest car in whatever county the guy lived in.
Ended up wrapping it around a telephone pole.
Can't remember now if the owner lived or died, but something tells me it was the latter.




6narow

 

It wouldn't.
I had a '68 Bug back in the early 80's and it was dog-walkin' SOB.
I owned the car for 3 years. In that time I went through 5 throw-out bearings and two transaxles.
Contantly turning corners isn't a good thing, and basically what that Model B was doing, as far as the tranny was concerned.


6narow

 

Don't know why I didn't think of it before, especially since I mentioned it in another thread: a slightly breathed-upon DKW two-stroke in a Morris Minor. It was quite a neat installation, with the radiator over the bellhousing as in the DKW, where the battery usually goes in a Minor. I didn't see it run but apparently it went like the proverbial scalded cat.

That gets me thinking of a Mazda rotary in a '50s DKW. Here's a local example with Mpumalanga plates:

With a rotary and Audi AWD it might not be HAMBworthy, but it would be cool.

 

My Volvrolet:

 

That's the one!! Thanks for posting!

 

My Pinto with a 500 Caddy and Jag rear end.

 

I've ran across an old Renault rear-engined car that I thought about putting a big block in the front of it. When I first saw the car, I thought it was a morris but further inspection proved me wrong.