Stupid Ideas

[Loren]

Stupid ideas. They tend to evolve over time. And, for me at least, they become more refined to meet the realities of what I'm capable of doing, what I can afford (or am willing invest in a car... I still have a HUGE mental block about putting too much money into a vehicle), and what I'm willing to live with.

One of my earliest stupid ideas was to stuff a V6 engine into a Triumph Spitfire. A project which I mostly completed at one point back about 1990, in spite of having nearly zero idea what I was doing, and little more than standard hand tools, a hack saw, and a hand drill at my disposal. I actually had that car up and running and drove it a few times (120+ ft/lbs of torque in an 1800 pound car is kinda fun). But, there was some kind of problem with the oil system in that engine that I never had time to sort out. (in hindsight, I'm certain that *I* did something wrong somewhere) It would run for about a half-hour, then the valvetrain would start getting noisy, binding up, and it wouldn't run right. Combine that with a divorce, and that car went away for about 1/6 what I had invested in it.

I had a similar stupid idea with another Spitfire that I owned in the mid 2000's. It started out innocently enough. I had the engine properly rebuilt with some choice upgrades, and converted it to throttle body injection and electronic ignition. (it was my first Megasquirt ECU project) That all went great, but damned if that engine didn't have a problem, too. And it took me so long to get it installed in the car that the warranty was expired before the problem appeared.

At that point, I decided to cut my losses (I'd already put over $3k into rebuilding that stupid Triumph engine) and drop in a $500 Ford Focus engine. (the 2.0 Focus engine is the same as the NC Miata engine) There's a proper 5-speed available that fits in the car, and an outfit that makes a bell housing to mate the engine to the trans. How hard could it be? Well, when you have a really nice example of a Spitfire, and you really want to KEEP it nice, it turns out it's pretty hard. I was actually paying a friend to do the job, but he ultimately flaked out on me and it ended up sitting in my garage for nearly 2 years, hardly touched. Sold it for about 1/4 of what I had in it to someone who wanted to finish it, and had the skills to do so. (he still has it, and it's still not finished... but, he greatly expanded the scope of the project to include a full Miata suspension swap, and a Thunderbird diff)

I've had my share of stupid Miata projects over the years, playing with suspension (up to and including developing one with NO swaybars), and playing with shedding weight. And I had the Yaris project for a couple years, which was actually a pretty simple and basic project... but, taught me that a silly lightweight FWD car can be a hoot to autocross.

More recent stupid ideas include the FASTiva, which most of you are familiar with. That one wasn't so bad. Between Ben and I, we probably dumped over $4k into that car (original purchase price was $500) over the course of 2 years. So, $1000 per year per person... we got a lot of entertainment and experience (good and bad) out of that. I ain't complaining. That was a simple suspension and brake swap, major lightening, and Megasquirt tuning autocross project. It was still quite streetable (not comfortable, but streetable), and was a little 63 hp autocross beast! But, it lacked in the reliability department.

My S10 with the 383 is another stupid idea. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It's not a horrible idea, I just don't have the motivation to do much with it.

And, of course, the whole notion of autocrossing an extremely underpowered top-heavy econobox like the Mirage is a pretty stupid idea. But, man, that's been a fun project! And continues to be!

So, the latest stupid idea. And it's just an idea at this point... very likely to stay that way.

I like the idea of a kit car. But, I drove Spitfires and Miatas for... at least 10-12 years of my life. Top down all the time. Hot, cold, sunburned, windburned... and I'm certain it's a major contributor to my chronic tinnitis. When I quit daily driving an open top car, I realized that I don't really miss the experience. There's something to be said for a car with a roof, tinted windows, and air conditioning. So, I'm not going to build a kit car, nor am I likely to buy another convertible... without the intent of leaving the top up and pissing off the top-down purists. (of which I used to be one) And I'm far too cheap to ever build anything more expensive than a Locost... which rules out a full-body kit car for me. Which is sad in a way, because I think I finally have enough experience and fabrication skill to pull it off! (coupled with the fact that I know my level of skill won't deliver a car that LOOKS perfect, and I'm OKAY with that)

Y'all know that I absolutely LOVE the idea of a LIGHTWEIGHT car. If I had money, I'd most likely be driving an Elise... hell, maybe even an Elan.

But, I still like creature comforts like air conditioning. And for a dual purpose car, I'm almost as enamored with good fuel economy as I am with speed. Big power is fun and all, but it often comes at the expense of weight. And both power and weight are the enemy of fuel economy.

These are all reasons why I love the Mirage.

The Mirage. I paid $6800 for mine with low. But, they continue to depreciate. There are perfectly good 80-100k mile 2014-15 Mirages being sold for $3-4k. That's not a lot of money for a 2000 pound car that's reliable and has great new and used parts availability, and can be pretty easily made "fun" to drive, even if it is slow. And if good running ones can be had for $4k, surely a crashed one could be had for under $2k? Hmmm...

Ready? You see it coming, right?

What if I bought another Mirage... perhaps one with a smashed rear end... got it to about where the current one is... 1900 pounds with decent suspension... and then... gave it the pickup-truck treatment? The rear glass alone would be at least 80 pounds. Sheet metal another 100-150 depending on how much is removed. All the rear interior removed, of course. Lightweight aluminum panel to block off the back of the cab.

Would be modded all to hell at that point, M0. Might as well add that cute little supercharger and get the power up to 95-100 hp.

Now I've got a reliable car with nearly stock components, with full interior and AC that weighs 1700 pounds and has 100 hp... and gets 50 mpg. And I could do it with less than $4k. Less than $2k if I used the suspension and other parts from the current car. Or, I could wait a few more years, and just do it to this car! I've kinda already accepted that this car is more or less expendable. The more years I have it, the less it's worth. 1.5 years and counting...

Stupid idea. But, probably less stupid than building a kit car. And less expensive than the notion of buying a Scion iQ and doing a manual trans swap on it... which would be cool as hell, but still weigh 2100 pounds.

[Loren]

Oh, wow. This was so bad, I didn't even try to save it.

Photoshop really didn't like the truckification of the Mirage! The way the side accent lines slant upward toward the rear puts the bed line pretty high, and the driver's seating position with the seat all the way back would put the cab about 8" into the window of the rear door. It could be done, but to have it look anywhere near "good" would not be easy.

It looks so difficult, in fact, that I thought "geez, it would be easier to just cut a foot out of the middle! But, even that wouldn't be all that easy... again due to the way the sides slope upward, but also the roofline gets lower... and I didn't even consider the fact that the car is narrower at the rear than in the front. Again, it could be done... anything can be done. But, it wouldn't be easy.

For fun: The overall length of the car is 159". I mocked up taking 15" out of it. Assuming each inch of the car's length is equal (I know, it's not), that could reduce the weight of the car from about 1900 to 1760. And it would look something like a Scion iQ or a Smart car. Cool thing would again be that it would be completely stock aside from being shorter. Gotta wonder what 15" less wheelbase would do to the handling and stability, though.

Putting this stupid idea to bed. It was fun to think about.

[ImpostorDan]

I'd say, start with a G4 manual, cut the roof off, find a crushed hatch, cut the C pillar, hatch assembly to give you a cab and a half.

The work on this will be the bed rail and whether to preserve the light assembly and raise up the rear door, or to cut down the line (preferred) but get stuck with custom rear light mounts and infill.

[Loren]

I knew I'd suck somebody else into thinking about this.

I didn't think about the G4. It is a completely different body style. Might be some options there. Hmmm...

[Jamie]

There's a reason car-based lightweight pickups (i.e., Dodge Rampage, Rabbit Pickup) didn't take off. All that sheet metal -- especially the roof -- you'll take off a Mirage or G4 keeps the chassis from flexing. You'd put 100lbs or more back on with subframe connectors or some other means of recovering rigidity (unless you're planning to build a 1500 lb kart and use chassis flex as suspension).

[twistedwankel]

https://www.newsnow.co.uk/classifieds/c ... dster.html
These are cool. I thought about shipping one back but they aren't street legal yet. Have to wait until 2028 for that. 3cyl turbo.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/ford-escort/1323441539
A Ford Escort convertible. How cool are these!! Will be street legal in 2015. Oh, that's now:)

Loren you have to let Dan take you on a guided tour of the modern UK strange, light, fun, economical, small displacement cars one day soon. They are normally quite reasonable unless a fancy performance model. About $1200-1500 to ship here is all.

Your 2015 "Loren" is apparently pretty much done now as you're looking at Sawzall specials.

[ImpostorDan]

There's a reason car-based lightweight pickups (i.e., Dodge Rampage, Rabbit Pickup) didn't take off. All that sheet metal -- especially the roof -- you'll take off a Mirage or G4 keeps the chassis from flexing. You'd put 100lbs or more back on with subframe connectors or some other means of recovering rigidity (unless you're planning to build a 1500 lb kart and use chassis flex as suspension).

An that G4, the A and B would be preserved, really just dumping the glass and the C pillar - but, if someone steals the hatch and C off a non-profit G4... Suddenly there's a back glass window to have, bonus points if the metal of trimmed and hatch preserved (rear door exit to the bed!). With a little reverse U bracket, the cross brace traditionally at the top of the rear seats could be instituted and then Fab up a swing tailgate FTW!

[twistedwankel]

https://www.mitsubishicars.com/mirage-g ... -hero-area

Geesus the G4 is even uglier than the LS. If one cut the back off it then it would look like a house slipper instead of a car.

Attached is the auto that inspired the Mirage???

[Loren]

Brief fiddling in Photoshop shows that the G4 has more potential for being truckified. It's got 4" more wheelbase, so it's longer... which makes it look better as a truck. But, the G4 starts out 100 pounds heavier than the Mirage hatchback. So, a good portion of the weight "saved" by chopping the back would just get it down to the weight of a regular Mirage hatchback.

Cool idea if you want a micro truck. But, not beneficial for trying to get the lightest "comfortable" modern autocross toy on a budget.

I just stumbled across this by chance:

https://www.motor1.com/news/297404/ford ... ent-rumor/

[twistedwankel]

https://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/ ... me.html/3/

Coming in at #9 is......1.2 Mirage BUT #2 is two Subaru engines in a tie. Whoa.

And...Yep the UK has a lot of really cool little cars and trucks with the steering wheel+ pedals installed for the passenger for some reason? I do like the 4dr Escort pickup but 2023 is too far off to consider.

[Jamie]

I just stumbled across this by chance:

https://www.motor1.com/news/297404/ford ... ent-rumor/

Because the world needs another vehicle too small to be a useful truck and too heavy and tall to be a useful car.

[twistedwankel]

So far one of the stupidest ideas I ever had was buying a t boned Sunbeam imp a very long time ago. I think Simca was owned by Chrysler back then in early 70's who almost immediately orphaned it. It was pea green and had 4 seats with 10" wheels and tires off a trailer. BUT it burned premium gas, stick, LHD, seated 4 adults and had a wheel on the dash to retard the spark if you got a bad tank of gas or advance it if you got the good stuff for 45 cents/gal. How cool is that? $100 and found a desperate guy from work to fix the body/replace door for +$150 in only 4 months. Those were the days my friend. I sold it for $450 to an Expat Brit working at Chrysler when I tired of it a couple years later. Kind of like a Mini ripoff. He absolutely loved it. It was a lot of fun full of people.

Generally I didn't lose any money on any of my stupid ideas so they were just somewhat misguided then? Pretty much given up on the kit cars by now:( No storage.

[Loren]

https://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/ ... me.html/3/

Coming in at #9 is......1.2 Mirage

Ah, another car reviewer who can't accept that every car doesn't need 400 hp. It's hard to find a good review of the Mirage... or its engine.

[Rawkkrawler]

I knew I'd suck somebody else into thinking about this.

I'm always ready to cut and weld, let me know! Plus I sleep a lot better at night when it's not my car.

[Loren]

Well, this happened today. One step closer to "it's a worthless beater, might as well hack it up."

[Native]

That sucks.
Something fall in the garage? While changing a bulb I dropped a fluorescent light fixture on my car once...

[Loren]

Yeah. I picked up a pair of free Miata seats a while back that I might eventually put in the Mirage. Got tired of tripping over them, so I was putting them up on a shelf out of the way. One of them fell. Seat rails are hard. And Miata seats are heavier than they look.

I actually did have the fleeting thought of moving the car first.

[twistedwankel]

We used to call those a "whiskey kiss" back in the day.