Paging AngryCorvair...

Okay.  Here's the mental image that prompted me to post this.  What I'm thinking is an early 60's "Special", with custom bodywork and built to compete in endurance races.  Sort of a super "Poor Man's Porsche".  Maybe even put a fiberglass 356 body or something on it.  I know the floorpans are junk but they're a pretty straightforward replacement in this case.  It's already a manual and prolly about 100 hp so you can't go so fast that you're seriously going to hurt yourself--put in replacement floors, weld in a cage then start with the replacement body.

What do YOU think?

I've heard you can put corvette engines in them.

I like the idea of this - how close can you get?

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

That engine sounds pretty nice.

I see that the dune buggy only has 4 lug wheels.

VolvoHeretic said:

I see that the dune buggy only has 4 lug wheels.

4-lug = 1960-1964 = "early" = swing axle 

5-lug = 1965-1969 = "late" = multi-link

exception: trucks and vans = "FC" = 5-lug and swing axle

VolvoHeretic said:

I've heard you can put corvette engines in them.

I have heard this as well

That's pretty interesting to see.  Someone cut the body off an early (only the doors and hoods unbolt), so that is a lot of work / cutting.

One note with the pic is that the steering is massively extended.  As it is, you would need to sit in the back seat area with some shifting and pedal challenges.  I wonder what the plan was.

I would start with a 65 or newer ,  it just has everything better !

Subaru motors seem to fit in  but not sure if they make an adapter to the GM transaxle ,  not that hard to do , 

Then I would look for a Devin style body .

OR  as others have said , CROWN made a mid engine adapter for a V8..........

aircooled said:

That's pretty interesting to see.  Someone cut the body off an early (only the doors and hoods unbolt), so that is a lot of work / cutting.

One note with the pic is that the steering is massively extended.  As it is, you would need to sit in the back seat area with some shifting and pedal challenges.  I wonder what the plan was.

It's not that the steering is extended it's that they cut a whole section out of the car and shortened it. They've cut out the whole section of the floor under the driver's seat and where the rear seat passengers feet go.  In the picture below of a stock Corvair you can see the cross brace that the front of the driver's seat bolts to in the lefthand side of the picture and the front of the rear seat cross brace right behind the doors.  They've cut out everything in between.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the front and rear suspension on a 'Vair a self-contained unit that unbolts and drops off complete?  Couldn't you take that car and then build a Locost tube frame to connect the drivetrain/suspension at the front and rear?