Daewoo/Opel drift car?

[Davinci_360]

Spent a lot of time at the track this year at the grassroots drift events. I've gotten the nickname "Daewoo" down there, because I drive up into the pits in my Lanos. I've been planning a potential drift car build and I wanted some input from you guys. I was thinking about modifying a Cadillac Catera shell to manual transmission, and maybe bolt my C20GET with a bigger turbo & intercooler to it. I'd have to see what kind of suspension parts are available, but it's an idea ...

I know there a lot of creative & ingenuitive people on here, so any other ideas?

[Rodd1s]

How about taking the Lanos, rotate the engine on custom mounts, fabricate a larger transmission tunnel and drop in the rear-drive drivetrain from the Catera. Then figure out how to make it all work once you get that far.

I've had this idea in my head for a good 5 years now... if I ever get my own workshop/barn/garage I'd do it.

[Davinci_360]

Funny you mention that. One of the guys there racing suggested almost the same thing - except he said he'd use a Ford rear-end. If I had a larger garage or a shop to work in, I would definitely do some experimenting, for sure.

I discovered something interesting in my research. Apparently BMW's and Isuzus use the same transmission as the Catera - it is an automatic, but It makes me wonder if one could do a bellhousing swap with a BMW manual transmission, and bolt one of our engines to it. I'm going to keep looking into this.

The other thing I considered was chopping most of the body off of an Isuzu Amigo, and creating a tube-frame chassis out of it. Like your idea, I'm afraid it would take a larger garage space to accomplish.

Still just toying with lots of ideas. As always, any insight is appreciated!

[Efratech]

I love drifting, for the past 5 years I've been working closely as a spotter crew chief with an S14 LS6 Drift car, we got 2nd in the Dominican Drift Series, we lost by the champsionship by 15 points to a Formula Drift driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjOmsdkOEnE

I tought the same once to convert my car to RWD with a BMW or Nissan transmision, but I feel I would kill the car.

He're is a mk2 astra converted to rwd, should be the same to the lanos: http://www.astra-mk2.com/forum/showthre ... T-YB/page6

To be honest I would get a cheap BMW to start and use a M50 engine, they're awesome for a turbo conversion.

[Davinci_360]

Hey, that's pretty awesome, Efrain! Congrats on your successful season!

I really just got into drifting, so I'm trying to find a cheap car I can practice with, until I get better.

I've actually seriously considered an e36 BMW with an M50 to start out with - just need to find one for the right price. Most I see for sale are in too nice of condition to pick up for cheap. I might also consider a Fox body Mustang with a 302 in it - those are super cheap and easy to work on! My buddy also makes a steering angle kit for them, so I might go that route ...

Still in the research stage here - the last thing I want is to buy a money pit car that will fail on me!

Let me know if you have any more tips for me ... Thanks!

[PrecisionBoost]

Honestly, there would be a huge amount of work in trying to turn the engine and run the power out the back end due to the torsion bar suspension design on the rear end.

Quite frankly, if your going to redesign the suspension you would be better off installing the engine mid vehicle and using your standard engine with standard gearbox.

In the end, both are very hard to do with this car design, I believe Efrain is right to suggest a different car all together.


My personal opinion is the only way you will make this happen in a Daewoo is to go electric.

You could use the engine to run a generator, which could then feed two good sized electric motors in the rear.

It's not uncommon for electric motors to generate 1000lbft of torque

You could base a small battery pack ( as buffer for the generator output) at the rear of the car to put the weight distribution just perfect for drifting.

Again, not cheap, it's likely going to be way over your budget unless you can find some sort of electric motors out of salvage.


The one advantage is that initiating a drift would be very very easy, you simply push more torque to the outside wheel and it will break loose and push the rear end out.

In fact, two independent electric motors on the rear would be a huge advantage, as you could theoretically calculate vectoring to produce an exact known drifting angle/radius.

Hell, if you had a decently powered computer with GPS you could even go so far as to have the computer calculate all the variable to keep you under precise control while drifting.

It could calculate distances to walls, you could use ultrasonic measurement to measure the other car's trajectory and match/overtake.


Yes..... I'm a geek..... and having a computer take out all the skill of drifting is lame.... but it would certainly be a fun engineering challenge and allow pretty much anyone to safely drift on a course of known dimensions.


I suppose one option would be to cut the entire shell of the lanos and weld it to an existing rwd lower chassis,then it would look like a Daewoo, yet it would have all the required parts to make it RWD right off the start.

[Efratech]

Chris, you broke the geek-o-meter on that post haha.

Is the cold hitting you hard already?

[Davinci_360]

If i had a slightly larger budget, this would be ideal ... Daewoo G2X!


image by tha_playah, on Flickr

I could pick up a cheap Saturn Sky and switch to Daewoo emblems. The Kappa chassis is very well suited for drifting!

[Rodd1s]

...


I suppose one option would be to cut the entire shell of the lanos and weld it to an existing rwd lower chassis,then it would look like a Daewoo, yet it would have all the required parts to make it RWD right off the start.

That's exactly what I'd do - seen it done on a Suzuki Swift using a combination of BMW and (I think) Toyota parts

[Davinci_360]

I recently came across a 1974 Opel Manta on Craigslist for cheap, and it really got me thinking. I mean, it weighs less than a Lanos, it's RWD, weight distribution is 53% front, and it has a HUGE engine bay (for a bigger engine or plumbing for a turbo). I know the stock engine is a 1.9 with Iron block & heads, so a modern Opel engine would not only increase power, but improve weight distribution as well. After looking at some pictures of the bellhousing it looks like the modern Opel/Daewoo pattern, so the new engines should fit, right?

This all sounds too good to be true, though ... What do you guys know about these cars? What kind of potential is there really here?

[Rodd1s]

I recently came across a 1974 Opel Manta on Craigslist for cheap, and it really got me thinking. I mean, it weighs less than a Lanos, it's RWD, weight distribution is 53% front, and it has a HUGE engine bay (for a bigger engine or plumbing for a turbo). I know the stock engine is a 1.9 with Iron block & heads, so a modern Opel engine would not only increase power, but improve weight distribution as well. After looking at some pictures of the bellhousing it looks like the modern Opel/Daewoo pattern, so the new engines should fit, right?

This all sounds too good to be true, though ... What do you guys know about these cars? What kind of potential is there really here?

You're pretty much spot on there... I've seen lots of Mantas with C20XEs over here, some even running the V6 XEs and occasional C20LET.

Even a search on google for '1974 manta c20xe' yields good results as examples.

[Davinci_360]

So, recently I've changed my mind on a drift car, and I've been looking into getting a 1998 or newer 4th generation Camaro or Firebird (GM F-Body). I'm considering the 3800 V6 powered versions because they have better weight distribution, and (more importantly) are within my price range. I know of a guy in Georgia that makes an angle kit for the front suspension, and the aftermarket is HUGE for F-Bodies, so I'd be all set.

Then, earlier today, my mind was blown ....

I was reading about people who build kit cars, and stumbled across a valuable piece of information - it turns out that the RWD Isuzu Amigo with the 2.2 and manual transmission has a removable bellhousing attached to a T5 World Class. That means I could (theoretically) put my C20GET into a Camaro or a Firebird! Imagine that - an Opel Turbo engine powering an American muscle-car!

What do you guys think? Have I completely lost it, or what?

There's a guy selling an Isuzu Amigo 5 speed transmission not far from where I live, and it's my day off tomorrow, so I'm going to go check it out to confirm this ...

[Davinci_360]

Ok, so here's a few pics of a 1.4 Cruze/Sonic engine bolted to a T-5 ...

[Efratech]

Now this is intresting!!! Buy it!

Whats the weight on those F bodys?

[Davinci_360]

I went and looked at the transmission at a wrecking yard, and the bellhousing was the same as Daewoo/Opel. The guy wouldn't sell me just the bellhousing, and I wasn't going to pay $450 for a transmission with SUV gear ratios. They hardly made any of the RWD Isuzu Amigos. I mean, who is going to buy that transmission any time soon? I guess he didn't want to make any money. I'm not worried, though - there are others close by, but a bit further to drive to, so I'll be getting one soon.

I believe weight reduction gets an F-body down to around 3000 lbs depending on engine and transmission. That's not much more than a stock Suzuki Reno hatchback for comparison.