If you had the time and money......

gumby6371 · Post by **gumby6371** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 3:55 pm

I recently watched one of the many American car customising programmes that have appeared on TV where they took a new muscle car (charger I think, wasn't really paying attention) and slapped an early model body on it.
Now sitting here musing to myself about taking a nice new 508 GT 2.2 HDI 200 BHP, de-fap and remap up to around 250 BHP and slap the body from a 406 coupe on it.

Yes, yes...I know it probably couldn't be done due to the different chasis etc... but in my head it works.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Post by **Welly** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 4:31 pm

An Audi RS4 with a rusty old Montego Countryman body shell over it

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 4:52 pm

I'm getting a bit old for that sort of thing but what I used to do, before you could buy decent diesel cars was to fit diesel engines into various cars making improvements as I went. My first was a brand new Perkins 4/99 engine into a 1956 Vauxhall Velox, Perkins made conversion kits for practically every British car and van of the time, a very feeble and noisy engine at the time but gave amazing economy.

The next incarnation of that engine was the 4/108, a bit more powerful but still pretty dirty and I fitted that one in about 10 different cars making various gearbox and transmission modifications as I went.

If I had the energy and money now I would like to use something like the BMW 6 pot diesel engines in cars I prefer but since the introduction of mass electronics it makes the job much more difficult now - and I have run out of energy.

Peter

Post by **Doggy** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 5:36 pm

gumby6371 wrote:Now sitting here musing to myself about taking a nice new 508 GT 2.2 HDI 200 BHP, de-fap and remap up to around 250 BHP and slap the body from a 406 coupe on it.

Can you get one with a proper gearbox? I think not.

You could get almost the same results with a more extremely tuned original 2.2 HDi coupe - last time I looked 215 BHP / 450 Nm was possible for about £5/600, (that's just software and alternative MAP + rail sensors - no mechanical mods). Chuck in a 6-speed + clutch / dmf and you'd more or less double that figure, but still have one seriously quick coupe for not much money.

GingerMagic · Post by **GingerMagic** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 7:02 pm

Years ago, when I were a lad, I used to read Street Machine magazine which was a great thing.
There were many insane engines in normal cars ( V8 supercharged and turboed Mk3 Cortina anyone..? ) but there were also some relatively modest incarnations..

As Gumby asked the question, I remember being in awe of a guy that got a 3ltr Capri, shortened the chassis and put a Moggy Minor body on it....

I would like to see an amalgamated Bugatti Veyron / Austin Princess...

peugeot30v6 · Post by **peugeot30v6** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:01 pm

I remember seeing a corsa b with a 3.2L v6 supercharged. I wonder how they shoehorned that in?

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gumby6371 · Post by **gumby6371** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 1:58 pm

I see your point Doggy and in a hyperthetical world I'd agree but if I was actually going to do it I'd prefer the mechanicals to be shiny and new including the suspension parts.
I believe the 508 GT's flappy paddle box is pretty good...and who wouldn't want a HUD and 2 turbo's?

I'd also be happier getting an extra 50 BHP from an engine designed to give 200 than 215+ from an engine designed for 136. Less chance of things going spectacularly wrong!

The other alternative might be a 406 coupe body on a remapped 407 3 litre HDI chassis if you want it to be seriously quick, while you were doing the swap you could fit an access panel for the inevitable climate control flap failure

highlander · Post by **highlander** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 2:23 pm

Aren't "body swaps" a lot harder these days since all production cars (saving the noteable exceptions of the likes of Caterham and Morgan) are monococque forms, rather than bodies-on-ladder-chassis? i.e. you can't just lift the body off a car, leaving the wheels, powerplant+drivetrain, etc. all still attached to the chassis, and drop in a new bodyshell on top, because the bodyshell is a structural component of the chassis, sitting on top of a front and a rear subframe.

That said, there's a cracking thread on Pistonheads "Readers Cars" section where a guy with username "andygtt" is fitting the V10 lump from a BMW M5 into an old Ford Capris bodyshell. The same guy has also taught himself how to make and mould carbon-fibre body shells, and has done serious work on his own Noble in terms of replacing metal with carbon.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... mid=387227 - Ford Capri with BMW V10

dirtydirtydiesel · Post by **dirtydirtydiesel** » Sat Sep 12, 2015 10:19 am

If your serious about doing it it can be done, what you have to do is plasma cut out the floor pan of the new body shell is
a 406 coupe & do the same with the doner cars drive train floor pan. This is mega simplyfied I could write pages & pages with a detailed description of the work involved but I can't be bothered

.
Surfice to say it's been done loads of times & my favourite was a heavily modified mkII mini shell with a scooby wrx 4x4 drivetrain
& floorpan mega motor

406oc.co.uk