"The Homemades"; Build Your Own Sportscar for £1000 ($1800)

  • Thread starter Thread starter YSSMAN
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YSSMAN
That is one wacky idea, but it does make sense with the parts available and how cheap they would be. But my only question comes to how they get the 3800 S/C to work with what I assume is a manual transmission. Given that it is designed for FWD cars, 4T65E (or was it the HD?) transmissions, there must have been a lot of work done to get it to work out right.
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Holden offered a 3800 S/C V6 for a awhile (with manual option) in Commodores and Statesmans and as you know they are RWD. I doubt there is much of a problem bolting up a RWD trans to the FWD 3800 S/C american engines.
 
The 3.8 has been used in a bazillion different applications, both FWD and RWD - hell, it's been used in school buses. So it's darn near bulletproof at this point and adapts to a variety of output configurations.
 
Duke
The 3.8 has been used in a bazillion different applications, both FWD and RWD - hell, it's been used in school buses. So it's darn near bulletproof at this point and adapts to a variety of output configurations.
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Not to mention 4WD in the form of all of the Jeep CJ's.
 
Toronado

Not to mention 4WD in the form of all of the Jeep CJ's.
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That's not GM's 3800 engine, however. That's a Chrysler product.
 
Duke
That's not GM's 3800 engine, however. That's a Chrysler product.
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In 1966 GM sold the design architexture and tooling of the engine, blaming failing sales during the musclecar era, to Kaiser-Jeep. This was pre-AMC ownership, so until AMC bought Kaiser and put the AMC straight 6 in it in 1971, you could get a CJ with the 3.8L V6 that was the same as the 3800 V6 of today. GM didn't buy it back until 1974.
 
I see that it was the L67 (Series II) Supercharged version of the 3800 used in the Commodore. I take it that is the engine that was replaced by your Alloytec ("High-Feature") V6 from our CTS?

Thats really interesting. All of the American models it was used in were FWD, and all of them used the same four-speed automatic transmission.

Just goes to show once again that the Aussies have had it right for far longer than we have...
 
are you guys talking about the brunton superstalker? with the S10 running gear? yeah, bonnevile......

i have videos of that MR 4AGE powered one. the thing is amazing. he actually talks on the grassroots motorsports forums about it and his progress. very interesting indeed.

a motorcycle powered one would be great, but the lack of torque generally keeps them at the track....and as i already said earlier, the lack of a reverse gear.
 
YSSMAN
I see that it was the L67 (Series II) Supercharged version of the 3800 used in the Commodore. I take it that is the engine that was replaced by your Alloytec ("High-Feature") V6 from our CTS?
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Yes the the Supercharged Ecotech is history now the Alloytec is here, which is a shame as I always wished Holden would bump up the 3800 S/C to match or come close to Fords 4.0L Turbo, but instead the S/C 3.8 was never real popular here.
 
Toronado
This was pre-AMC ownership, so until AMC bought Kaiser and put the AMC straight 6 in it in 1971, you could get a CJ with the 3.8L V6 that was the same as the 3800 V6 of today.
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OK, I missed that you had specified the older CJ series - my mistake. You're correct, of course.

And yes, the SuperStalker is what I was thinking of - a fairly brutish Seven replica using S10 donor parts and a variety of engines, up to and including the supercharged 3800. The V6 itself doesn't really change depending on orientation; it's really the transmission and bell housing that set the placement.
 
VIPERGTSR01
Yes the the Supercharged Ecotech is history now the Alloytec is here, which is a shame as I always wished Holden would bump up the 3800 S/C to match or come close to Fords 4.0L Turbo, but instead the S/C 3.8 was never real popular here.
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They are still selling the 3800 S/C here in the US in a few models, but the power has pretty much stoped at 260 BHP, right where the 3.6L "High Feature" V6 starts off. I belive the production of the engine will stop when the last of the W-Body cars roll off the line later next year when GM makes way for their Zeta/VE replacements here in the US, but of course nothing is completely solid.

I've always liked the engine, as I have had plenty of expirience with it in Buick coupes and sedans. The engine had plenty of power off the line, and the slight supercharger whine was not only funny in a Buick, but it was also a surprise as well.
 
blargonator
...and as i already said earlier, the lack of a reverse gear.
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Plenty of companies over in Europe (particularly the UK) than build adaptor kits for bike engined kit cars that provide a reverse gear.

The Tiger I posted a link to earlier has one fitted, heres the piece from the Tiger site on it.

The Suzuki GSXR-1000 bike gearboxes are used in the Tiger Z100, both driving into a bespoke transfer box. Sequential gear change is obtained through a split alloy gear lever mounted central tunnel; reverse is incorporated into the transfer box with a small alloy lever on right hand side of carbon tunnel.
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Generally the torque is not as big an issue as it may seem, mainly due to the extreme lightweight of the bike engined models.

Regards

Scaff
 
Is he going without mufflers on that thing? I would have expected it to be a bit more quiet, but still, it looks like a helluva lot of fun!
 
Even tough it would be (considerably) more expensive, I'd plump for a factory built Caterham and be safe in the knowledge that if it goes wrong, it wasn't my fault.
 
YSSMAN
Is he going without mufflers on that thing? I would have expected it to be a bit more quiet, but still, it looks like a helluva lot of fun!
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Forgot to mention that he currently holds the track record there. I think it's like a 1:03.3xx Next closest car is actually a turbo civic hatchback, followed by a WRX.
 
Im a bit confused about these road legal twin gixxer engined Tiger cars. They say that the were driven on British TV and they are road legal.

But i was under the impression that having 2 engines running at the same time was illegal on the roads in the UK?
 
I think that's ok, since there was the MTM twin engined TT over here.

Let's not forget the Hybrids too.
 
GT3man2001
Forgot to mention that he currently holds the track record there. I think it's like a 1:03.3xx Next closest car is actually a turbo civic hatchback, followed by a WRX.
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Now that part is particularly wild. Not surprising... a Civic holds the current street car record at the twistier of the two local professional tracks here... followed by an EVO. :lol: ...damn ricers. :lol:

Twin engined Tigers, yeah... forgot about those... but they're still not AWD.

This is:
dp1096.jpg


Of course, since this is just one guy... who's still building the prototype three years later in his garage (and God knows if the thing will actually be driveable when it's done...), this is as far as it's gotten:

dp1215.jpg


The website's still a wonderfully compelling read.
 
This may not be entirely on-topic, but how many of you know about the Grassroots Motorsports $2006 Challenge? Down at the bottom of the page are links to the rules, and to some teams' websites.

Each entrant or team has a total budget of the year number - i.e., $2006 this year - to buy and build a race car. Each car must enter 3 different competitions: autocross, drag, and concourse, so there's no way a one-trick pony will win the show. Their times are ranked, and points awarded. Then the concourse points are figured in, and an overall winner is chosen.

There are strict rules in place and all expenditures must be documented and under budget. A claim rule keeps people honest as well.

The top cars typically show some amazing performance numbers and a high level of detail. They do this annually, and publish the results in the magazine. It's really very interesting.
 
nothing more that i love than picking up that specific issue duke.
i am basically broke so they are usually the type of cars that i'm into anyway.

also, interesting on that reverse gear for the tiger, sorry about not checking out the link the first time <8- P
 
I've read up on some of the older 200x challenges. Some of the entries are very interesting, and it's amazing how little money out of pocket you are if you sell off stock parts from the donor cars.
 
If you want to learn more about some of the cars in the C&D article, here they are.

the turbocharged car
the bike-engined car
the orange car

I don't think Jon has a website. However, it was built originally for the Grassroots $2005 Challenge and can be seen in that magazine somewhere.

To answer a couple of questions, my car does have a muffler and meets sound limits at the track. It's still fairly vocal. GT3man2001, thanks for the video. I've never seen video of the car on the track before. That didn't look like a very fast lap though :)

Lap record at the local track is 1:03.363 in my car. Second fastest is a modified WRX at 1:05.9. In the 1:06 range are a bunch of turbo Miatas, a highly modified EVO, a turbo Civic hatch and possibly an NSX. Meanwhile, the shifter karts are turning in the 52 second range I think.

Ultrabeat, a Caterham that will run with my car will cost you over $40,000. I'd love to have one myself but that's just not an option. And if something goes wrong, you have to fix it no matter whose fault it is. At a track day this past weekend, a Superlight R cracked its collector. The muffler flipped around on the rear hanger and the exhaust system was ripped off the car as the back wheel ran over it. He has to order a new exhaust from the UK. On my homebuilt, I'd just order another muffler from Summit and weld it on.

Omnis, the tires on La Bala? Well, the car isn't done. My car was photographed with 4 different sets of tires over the course of the build because you just stick on whatever is handy. Sometimes they go on backwards. But in the case of that particular photo, check out the wide outer rib. That sort of tire is usually installed with the wide, stable rib on the outside just like in the picture. The Falken Azenis is like that.

Keith Tanner
 
They built a Caterham in 8 hours on TopGear this week.
 
^ Yes, I saw that and once again it got me thinking about building a car like that again. Clarkson, even for having a "engineering degree" didn't seem to know how to do that much. Honestly, it can't be that hard now...
 
KeithT
Ultrabeat, a Caterham that will run with my car will cost you over $40,000. I'd love to have one myself but that's just not an option. And if something goes wrong, you have to fix it no matter whose fault it is. At a track day this past weekend, a Superlight R cracked its collector. The muffler flipped around on the rear hanger and the exhaust system was ripped off the car as the back wheel ran over it. He has to order a new exhaust from the UK. On my homebuilt, I'd just order another muffler from Summit and weld it on.
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Ouch, pricey.:ouch:

There's lots of alternative versions on the 7 idea, such as the Locost.
And surely there's a few parts you could substitute for parts in cars that are available near you?
But it could still be pretty expensive, despite being called Locost (which is a play on the name of Lotus and Low-cost. Also, the Locost logo is an L because it also looks like an upside down 7, as in Lotus/Caterham 7.)
 
YSSMAN
^ Yes, I saw that and once again it got me thinking about building a car like that again. Clarkson, even for having a "engineering degree" didn't seem to know how to do that much. Honestly, it can't be that hard now...
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He probably did most of the work tbh, what he does on camera is an act, he's a lot smarter and more technically capable that what he makes out to be.
 
Yes, you kinda got that feeling part way through the video when he starts dancing around with the Stig comming closer to the track.

...I still want to build one, but I want some VW Power. But then I was thinking about it, it isn't all that expensive to build a SuperPerformance Cobra either. Apprently you can put one of those together for less than $20K, and given that it would have nearly the same performance as a Corvette, that isn't a bad deal at all. Of course, I'm putting Chevy power under the hood, as I don't want to deal with the Ford crap most guys throw in...
 
Go all out and have a specaily built Cosworth engine shipped over, would probably buy you a cheap house instead like :lol:.
 
YSSMAN
Of course, I'm putting Chevy power under the hood, as I don't want to deal with the Ford crap most guys throw in...
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That a boy!

I would do the same if I had the time and money/resources

AND, if I were to build it, I would be a go-kart on steriods

200hp in a 700lb chasis:D
80-90 inch wheelebase
 

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