call me stuped!!!! but....

[pinkskud]

As some of you may know, a friend and i have a workshop hidden away in the back *** end of nowere, in whitch we come up with and make silly cars.

at the moment we are working on a 3.2L 4x4 vw corrado!!!!!

however as this project is comming to the half way point, we have started thinking of the next one.

the plan is to start with a rapid. (so if you see one for sale, let me know.)

widen the rear end, chop the roof down and have it sitting on the floor.

but we were still kicking the ball around regarding engine and transmition.

until we were working on out load lugger, the passat estate. used to ship large parts of cars up and down the land.

it struck me that the passat has its engine and gear box the right way round (in-line) driving the front wheels.

the brain starts ticking and we come up with the plan.

to use a passat gear box and a vw engine (20v t) with the engine in the middle of the car. as it would be positiones in the passat engine bay, but in the middle of the car driving the right wheels.

what say you?????????????

[jonnycatbiscuit]

I say "Are you English?""

Seriously though, sounds like fun. I'd love to put an alternative engine and gearbox in my beetle but I don't have a workshop, or the expertise

[KenONeill]

Ok, you're stupid PinkScud!

Seriously, you just know this is the sort of bonkers project I love!! All I'm going to do is encourage you, and advise you to start by finding out how big a hole you need, and putting a firewall bulkhead across the front of it before starting to cut the floor away!

[skofast]

so that'll mean cutting out all the bottom half of the rear bulkhead with the step above the gearbox,and all the rear floor including the tunnel ?

I think the phrase 'welded-in rollcage' is going to be high on the list !

[Jonny5ive]

you're stuped!!!!!

[pinkskud]

I say "Are you English?""

o dear, does it show?????

Thanks for your reply's so far. indeed the project would require a rather large hole in the middle of the car, extended to the rear axle. and a full cage would be quite essential.

i was (when times were good) a fine limit fabricator and specialist welder, so the metal work is no great deal. to convert the corrado to 4x4 we have had to remove the rear floor and replace with a mk2 syncro golf floor. but trust me, the floor was definatly not the last pannel to be welded in lol.

was having a little think about the engine today, i thing a pd130 derv would make for an intresting mid-engined super car.

[hawkeracing]

Diesel it wrong....its the fuel of tractors and scrooges....they sound rotten and after 2 seconds of hard acceleration its time to change gear. Fast does not equal fun when its related to diesel. Do the Rapid youre going to chop up a favour and give it a decent engine!

[KenONeill]

No, it's petrol that's wrong. Every time you want to accelerate you've got to change down 3 gears to get into the powerband, and then it's only 2s wide anyway! That and when you're going down the m/way you've got to rev its n*ts off just to keep up road speed!

[jonnycatbiscuit]

but diesel is smelly and you can;t use it to clean things...

[Babs]

Diesel it wrong....its the fuel of tractors and scrooges....they sound rotten and after 2 seconds of hard acceleration its time to change gear. Fast does not equal fun when its related to diesel. Do the Rapid youre going to chop up a favour and give it a decent engine!

Correct

No, it's petrol that's wrong. Every time you want to accelerate you've got to change down 3 gears to get into the powerband, and then it's only 2s wide anyway! That and when you're going down the m/way you've got to rev its n*ts off just to keep up road speed!

Wrong :thumbdwn:

Again, you're comparing a TURBO diesel, to a naturally aspirated petrol... level the playing field, same size engines, both turbo'd and the petrol will be faster.

Although, I've not got a problem with the in-gear acceleration on my 2.8 V6

[TeflonTom]

ed, if you are going to go to all that trouble of cutting out the rear pan, you might as well put a v8 in there

[jonnycatbiscuit]

V8 Power FTW...

You just can't beat that sound...

Go for it Skud, V8 V8 V8... (then give it to me to test :D:D:D)

[KenONeill]

Something went badly wrong editing this, please delete!

[KenONeill]

Wrong :thumbdwn:

Again, you're comparing a TURBO diesel, to a naturally aspirated petrol... level the playing field, same size engines, both turbo'd and the petrol will be faster.

Although, I've not got a problem with the in-gear acceleration on my 2.8 V6

Amazing as it may seem, I compare similar price and spec cars on total performance, not a family saloon with a top of the range GT!But if you want silly comparisons, I'll take a 3-chamber rotary and blow the VR6 away for the 3s it can be kept in the powerband across 5 gears.

[Babs]

We're not comparing price, your comment implied that you were comparing a turbo derv with an N/A petrol, with no reference to price. You simply said that one was better than the other. If you want to bring a price-point in, then fair enough.

But your original post - as has been a common theme with many of your posts - has compared a turbo diesel with a N/A petrol in a high gear and accelerating. Well done... it's like holding a 100m sprint between Usain Bolt and Steven Hawking. The contest is clearly biased towards one side.

Your comment about "revving it's nuts off" to keep up the speed, you've obviously not driven anything more than a 1.2 or 1.4 on the motorway! These city car engines will generally rev around 4,000rpm at 70mph, which (for a petrol) is not revving the nuts off, but as you're clearly inept at taking into account anything more than this figure, since your derv will run out of puff just after it, I'll forgive you.

My VR6 cruises at a shade over 3,000rpm at 70mph, my Dad's 2.0 Mondeo a shade under, my mate's Passat 2.0, the same, his Dad's Pug 406 2.0, the same. See a theme? 3,000rpm is not "revving the nuts off" in any way, shape or form!

And 3s? Hardly... it pulls from idle all the way till 6,500rpm! And sounds awesome - unlike a tractor

Edited 13 August, 2009 by Babs

[pinkskud]

ed, if you are going to go to all that trouble of cutting out the rear pan, you might as well put a v8 in there

trust me tom, that idea came soon after.

i wander how a 4.4 rover would mount on a passat gear box??????????

note to people chucking facts and figures about. the engine that will go in, is whatever is going cheap on ebay that day.

[KenONeill]

How can you be so wrong? This is the real World, where price is a factor for most of us, so the only reasonable comparison is between similarly priced and practical cars. Otherwise I'd just take a Caterham 7 and blow your doors off (but you'd have advantages on those things most of us need cars to do, like carry luggage and passengers).

Ok, my diesel will be running out of revs at a bit over 4_000, but since this is 120mph in top, and it will still do something like 360miles (where legal and roads clear enough) at this speed... It's not even long-geared by modern diesel standards; a TDi130 would be doing more like 140 if it has the power!

Oh and I'll be running about 2_400rpm and 50mpg at 70mph. I'd need to do 90 before I reached 3000 in top!

[KenONeill]

trust me tom, that idea came soon after.

i wander how a 4.4 rover would mount on a passat gear box??????????

note to people chucking facts and figures about. the engine that will go in, is whatever is going cheap on ebay that day.

Dunno about a Passat box, but if you can find a Renault 30 transaxle then the Rover V8 fits to that.

[hawkeracing]

Ken....diesel is just wrong...its smells, it rattles and its no fun. My main road car is a Saab 9-3 Aero and I'd be more than happy to line it up against your tractor engined car.....it was probably also cheaper to buy!

[Skoda-Msport]

1.8 20VT has already been done in both Estelle and Rapid over in CZ as have alot of other engine transplants.

[jonnycatbiscuit]

isn't there a diesel v petrol slanging match thread elsewhere??

[cherry evo]

In the same vein then, how can you possibly compare an n/a diesel to (anything!!) an petrol n/a? Turbo derv & n/a petrol is a fair enough comparison to me. Pity that modern petrols are total crap unless they're blown - bloody emissions - grrrr

[cheezemonkhai]

ed, if you are going to go to all that trouble of cutting out the rear pan, you might as well put a v8 in there

Then supercharge it just for the noise

[TeflonTom]

trust me tom, that idea came soon after.

i wander how a 4.4 rover would mount on a passat gear box??????????

note to people chucking facts and figures about. the engine that will go in, is whatever is going cheap on ebay that day.

aside from all the **** waving in this thread.... you could use a rover v8 engine and gearbox/rear diff/propshaft, and and graft in the rear transaxle from an ldv van or similar...

or you could go down the ford yb cosworth route

[Babs]

In the same vein then, how can you possibly compare an n/a diesel to (anything!!) an petrol n/a? Turbo derv & n/a petrol is a fair enough comparison to me. Pity that modern petrols are total crap unless they're blown - bloody emissions - grrrr

Because that's fair. Both are naturally aspirated. A non-turbo diesel will have all the pitfalls of a non-turbo petrol.

And aren't all modern petrols turbocharged these days? VAG group has a 1.2, 1.4, 1.8 and 2.0 turbo'd engines. That's pretty much a full line up of family-car engines there! I can't imagine that other manufactures aren't doing the same. As has been said, diesel efficiency has actually dropped slightly with more modern tech, but petrols still have a long way to advance so will only get better

isn't there a diesel v petrol slanging match thread elsewhere??

Yes, but they keep throwing their rattles out of the pram and I have to clean the mess up!

I'm quite sick of arguing, but there are too many delusional people about!

Back to the topic!

I agree with Tom, a Rover V8 would be a very good idea