Vehicles the factory never made - but should have.

MrChaos said:

In reply to earlybroncoguy1 :

i mean isnt there a new Jeep SUV that is bigger than the Grand Cherokee coming out?

Yes. The Grand Wagoneer. 

Mr_Asa said:

Ford should have brought those wonderful Aussie engines over.

Yes indeed.  A Maverick with an overhead cam in-line six?    Yes...

Flat H6 STI WRX. NA no turbo all revs. 

j_tso said:

Not an original thought, but Mazda should've made a rotary Miata.

They DID.

Drive a '79 RX-7 and an '90 Miata and you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference from the driving impressions.  There's a reason why Mazda sold a bazillion of both.

What I wish they'd made.... a Volvo S40R.  Imagine a 300hp, all wheel drive Mazda 3 that doesn't rust.

They already had the S60R engine and trans in the chassis-shared Focus RS, but front wheel drive only, with a smaller turbo for firewall clearance but still somehow cranked up to, IIRC, 345hp.    They already made all wheel drive S40s, which largely had the same drivetrain as the '04-05 S60R, just with a lower spec (but still turbocharged five cylinder) engine. 

This literally would have been parts bin engineering, all the hard-parts fit the chassis with no alternate crash testing needed, and were emissions certified in the US and Europe.

Another one:  Any longitudinal application at all for VW's 07K engine.  (this is the 5 cylinder 2.5l used in Rabbits, Jettas, and the RS3 and TT-RS)

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

What I wish they'd made.... a Volvo S40R.  Imagine a 300hp, all wheel drive Mazda 3 that doesn't rust.

They already had the S60R engine and trans in the chassis-shared Focus RS, but front wheel drive only, with a smaller turbo for firewall clearance but still somehow cranked up to, IIRC, 345hp.    They already made all wheel drive S40s, which largely had the same drivetrain as the '04-05 S60R, just with a lower spec (but still turbocharged five cylinder) engine. 

This literally would have been parts bin engineering, all the hard-parts fit the chassis with no alternate crash testing needed, and were emissions certified in the US and Europe.

Kinda sounds like you need to piece one together

GTwannaB said:

Flat H6 STI WRX. NA no turbo all revs. 

IIRC it was near 400hp.

They did need to weld up the valve covers (EG33) so they could clearance for the larger cam lobes without hitting air.

Mr_Asa said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

What I wish they'd made.... a Volvo S40R.  Imagine a 300hp, all wheel drive Mazda 3 that doesn't rust.

They already had the S60R engine and trans in the chassis-shared Focus RS, but front wheel drive only, with a smaller turbo for firewall clearance but still somehow cranked up to, IIRC, 345hp.    They already made all wheel drive S40s, which largely had the same drivetrain as the '04-05 S60R, just with a lower spec (but still turbocharged five cylinder) engine. 

This literally would have been parts bin engineering, all the hard-parts fit the chassis with no alternate crash testing needed, and were emissions certified in the US and Europe.

Kinda sounds like you need to piece one together

I do occasionally search ebay.de for the Focus RS's KKK K16 turbo/manifold assembly, which would be key.

The largest problem is electronics.  Getting the S60 Motronic to play nice with the S40's chassis.  It's a bit annoying, as it's ME7, like VW uses, and VW is thoroughly cracked and there is a decent sized online community for tuning/hacking, with wikis and tutorials even.  Volvo knowledge is just about impossible to find and you end up having to shell out $800+ to the gatekeepers.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Exactly. An SA22C but with rack and pinion steering, wishbone suspension, and 230hp.

j_tso said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Exactly. An SA22C but with rack and pinion steering, wishbone suspension, and 230hp.

So, an FD?

Donebrokeit said:

Chrysler Turbine!

 

 

Honestly surprised that these didn't make it to production.

Not because they were any good but mostly because of Chrysler's habit of turning technology loose on the market before it's fully sorted.

The first gen Mazda protege had an awd variant. 103 hp singlecam boredom. But all of their GpA homologation 323 GTR gubbins bolt right in. That twincam 1.8 with the big turbo can put down 300 whp with no trouble. They could have taken on the wrx and the evo in the 4door sedan wars. Of course they woulda had to do something about that glass gearbox they saddled us with...

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Sure, minus the turbos and a bit of weight - a baby FD.

edit: I should've just said the RX-01 concept. 2500 lbs, non-turbo, 230hp rotary coupe

I wonder what the market would have made of a front engined V10 Honda, the HSV-010. Would it have been like the LFA but cheaper?

The 2008 crash put an end to it, but they were far enough along in development to be allowed in Super GT (or Honda just bribed them). It raced with a Formula Nippon V8.

I love the Kia Stinger.  A sharp looking 5 door sport sedan. But. If they could have made the GT4 coupe concept? I'd have kicked a kid on crutches out of my way to get my hands on one.

Appleseed said:

I love the Kia Stinger.  A sharp looking 5 door sport sedan. But. If they could have made the GT4 coupe concept? I'd have kicked a kid on crutches out of my way to get my hands on one.

That's an awful lot like Audi trotting out multiple versions of their "Quattro" concept through the years

"And now we enter the Cadillac wing of our tour..."

A Toyota MR-S that was factory-equipped with the 180hp 2ZZ-FE. 

All the things I want they offer elsewhere just not here. i20N, i30N etc. 

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to j_tso :

I'm not sure how the RX8 is really different than the coupe version of the NC, honestly. 

I'm glad we didn't have to deal with rotary Miatas. Might have killed the platform. The last thing the Miata needed was being more niche.

Since we started with PCA, I wanted to see a Chagnum. Charger nose, Magnum body. You could probably bolt one together. I am also all over the SWB Blazer idea.

While I had my magnum on the road, I thought I'd like that. But I've seen it done. Didn't look good. Disappointed. 

You dont like Chargnums?

They look more natural with 300 front ends...because they actually did that in Europe.  Because nobody knows what a Dodge is. 

A Volkswagen GWI - The GTI/GLI drivetrain and suspension bits in the Jetta SportWagen... Manual and AWD as options. 

Dodge Razor: 

Buick Blackhawk (Never was gonna be, but a man can dream): 

Another never was gonna happen, the Ford Indigo: 

earlybroncoguy1 said:

Dodge/Ram/FCA/Stallantis/whatever full size SUV - The Durango was OK, but why didn't they produce a full-size to play with the Tahoe/Suburban/Expedition class of SUV's? 

They did... but only south of the border.

Some other interesting what-ifs:

The 7th generation "Toaster" Civic Si didn't go over very well for the US market - what if they'd made a hot K24A powered 7th gen coupe instead? 

MR2 Spyder with a 2ZZ-GE instead of 1ZZ-FE. This wasn't a practical daily driver; why give it the neutered engine? The Scion TC also needed a hotter drivetrain, which could have either been the 2ZZ-GE, or they could have decided to forget handling and thrown a V6 in it, but the base Camry engine didn't really help it cultivate a sporty image.

On the domestic side, if only Pontiac management decided to have their revenge on the brass who didn't want the Fiero to upstage the Corvette... imagine if they'd held it in production a little later so they could run the 195 hp Quad Four GM Powertrain was working on. Meanwhile, in the Chevy engineering department, they built a prototype Impala SS with a 6 speed manual.

Being a Mopar fan, I can think of a lot of interesting what-ifs there. The Avenger was essentially a stretched Ecplise; imagine if it could have had a 4G63 turbo as its hot option instead of a 2.5 Mitsu V6 that was slower than the four cylinder? The official reason was it wouldn't clear the hood. Seriously... stamp out a new hood. Also, there were a lot of rumors surrounding a 2.4 liter, turbocharged, possibly AWD version of the FWD Dart before they pulled the plug on that one.

There's also the matter of the nearly complete in-house rear wheel drive successor to the LH platform, which Mercedes nixed in favor of one of their platforms... no telling if this would have been better or worse than the LX cars that were made.

In reply to mtn :

Looks like Buick just made a new Y-job: