Quote:
Originally Posted by metroschultz
Hey Phil,
How about weighing in on one that perhaps us poor people could buy from a junkyard and play with.
I was thinking of the Ford Probe.
I have no numbers but, from what I remember they were designed with aero in mind from the factory.
Also their sister car the Mazda MX6.
Both are relatively inexpensive if you were to buy a rolling assembly from a bone yard and add your own drivetrain.
I'm thinking take my Metro/Swift engine /trans and put in a stripped out Probe rolling chassis.
I would play the devil getting the weight out (and for the suspension I would not be able to remove weight), but what about the possabilities for aero on something like that?
Schultz
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Hey Schultz,just now catching up on posts.Yeah,the "poor people's",I'm definitely in that camp! You could probably do worse than the Probe,however it was never anything as slick as it's namesake.I think I have numbers for that car.Just shooting from the hip I'm thinking Cd 0.32 but I'll confirm that.--------------------
You'll want to check out engine swap vs state environmental regs if you live in a non-attainment area for air quality as I do.Texas will not allow mods as you are entertaining for any car under 24-yrs of age.If your cars have to be "smogged" or pass air quality tests during annual inspections you'll need to know this.--------------------
As far as powertrains,would a Ford Escort 4-banger and 5-spd overdrive slip in there? Those cars could hit in the 40-mpg range and with streamlined Probe coachwork could maybe really sing on the open road.----------------
I'll dig out those numbers for this Saturday.And I'll scratch my head in the meantime.--------------------------
As for those other cars like the MX-3 and say the Nissan 200-SX,and such,the bodies show promise but I've never understood why the powertrains were so inefficient.'suppose they were configured for "performance" not real economy.Too bad!