Vehicles the factory never made - but should have.

F-body wagon:

Also, Bronco built on the 97-03 F150 platform.

A Toyota 86 with a Toyota engine.

A modern Lincoln personal luxury coupe built on the S197/S550 Mustang platform.

Call it a Mk X (thats Mark ten, not Emm Kay Ecks you heathens!)

These were MSPaint from back in 2012 when Factory Five was working on the Subaru powered car.

Someone needs to build this as well:

asphalt_gundam said:

1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass with a W43 - (455 heavy duty block, Pent roof 4 valve per cylinder heads, 7200rpm redline). DOHC and turbo versions were  also in the works before GM killed Oldsmobile's entire experimental division over it. And Yes, they had every intention of putting it into production.

Turbo 300 Ford or better yet the Aussi 4.7 Turbo I6 in an F150

4 valve pushrod Olds 455. Would have been sweet in the W30.

In the 80's Chevy had a prototype Monte SS running around with a L98 350 TPI. Should have produced it. 

In the 90's they had a 572 powered Impala SS. Yes, that would have been nice.

Adding a small turbo to performance Quad 4's would have made for some very fast cars for the period.

Should have made two variations of TPI in the 80's versus the one that was sized for the 305. That one I will never understand as the Vette alone should have warranted a unique version.

And my version of how Ford should have utilized the 3.5 Ecoboost in a Mustang chassis.

stanger_mussle said:

A modern Lincoln personal luxury coupe built on the S197/S550 Mustang platform.

Call it a Mk X (thats Mark ten, not Emm Kay Ecks you heathens!)

I’ve been thinking this for years. Do a four door version too and go after the Germans for real. Think Kia Stinger but sexier with a V8. Would do a lot more to revitalize the Lincoln brand image than a tarted up Escape or whatever it is they’re selling these days.

You know what would be sweet from Ford?

A new Thunderbird. A REAL Thunderbird, a 2 door, sexy, long, low, sleek and fast. Take the Mustang chassis, sneak a few inches between the axles, put in a drop dead gorgeous interior, smooth, quiet, powerful drivetrain. Less ROMP-ROMP than the Mustang, more G L I D E. Something to give Corvette buyers an option to consider.  

ProDarwin said:

A Toyota 86 with a Toyota engine.

A Toyota Supra. 

ProDarwin said:

A Toyota 86 with a Toyota engine.

Toyota's all about slapping their names on other peoples' cars.  Driven an iA lately?  Mazda infotainment system stares you in the face.  (And the manual shift gate on the automatic goes the correct way, like every Mazda I've seen - forward is down, back is up)

E39 M5 Touring. The fact that a number of them have been built - with a high level of effort - underlines the fact. 
 

This one sold for $72k two years ago.
 

The EF generation Sonata/Optima twins have 4g63s, double a-arm suspension all around and don't weigh much. If only the Mitsubishi Sirius engines weren't so notoriously difficult to turbocharge that could have been a really cool 2000s N series Hyundai.

New edge Mustangs but instead of the heavy, massive, anemic mod motors FOMOCO decided to update the Windsor with an aluminum block and ls-style heads. That said, whenever you have the opportunity to make your engines bigger, heavier, less efficient and less powerful ...

GM could have decided to import the Torana and the Holden 308/304 engines that went along with them if not for the sacred Corvette protection.

3SGTE engines in the AE86 would have been hilarious fun in a black widowy sort of sense. 

Nissan could have resisted the urge to develope multiple iron block, aluminum head DOHC twin turbo six cylinder engines in the 80s and 90s, avoided technophile bankruptcy and blessed us all with RB series Z cars. 

Flat sixes in literally any front engined Porsche would be ultra cool (and replace a lot of relative turd engines). 

AWD Honda Civic Type R, any generation but mostly EG. 

 

earlybroncoguy1 said:

You know what would be sweet from Ford?

A new Thunderbird. A REAL Thunderbird, a 2 door, sexy, long, low, sleek and fast. Take the Mustang chassis, sneak a few inches between the axles, put in a drop dead gorgeous interior, smooth, quiet, powerful drivetrain. Less ROMP-ROMP than the Mustang, more G L I D E. Something to give Corvette buyers an option to consider.  

I saw a white '05 one today.  I appreciated it back when they first came out, but I actually liked it when I saw it today.

Too bad they got such a E36 M3 power plant and trans.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

The Ford Capri mk1 and mk2 should have been the one car America got completely negating even the concept of the Mustang II.  They should have hung Mustang II and then Mustang III badges on them (mk1 Capri = Mustang II, etc).  Top spec would have been a Cobra or Boss model with the 302 V8 like the Perana in S. Africa.  The increase in volume would have allowed for a front suspension re-design which was basically the Mustang II front end to go under the Capri in all markets improving "both" cars.  

That's the first time I've ever heard the Mustang II suspension called better than the Escort/Capri front end.

MII front doesn't use the antiroll bar as the method of keeping the lower control arm from moving fore & aft.  MII is also an SLA setup vs. what most everyone would consider to be inferior, the Mac strut setup of the Capri.  The Capri suspension is pretty poor from an engineering standpoint.  I can't believe anyone would pick it vs. MII comparing general setups of each for any reason beyond cost and packaging.  Struts can obviously be made to work decently but the Capri setup is really not that good.

j_tso said:

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

Imagine if instead of the RX-8 they made a coupe verson of the NC with its engine.

Quoted For truth.

A rotary should have been an option on the Miata and the RX8. I would seek the rotaries

In reply to DaewooOfDeath :

IIRC, Nissan could never import the RB engine to the US because emissions.  All that metal made it take too long to warm up to operating temperature.  (That was the reason given, anyway)

Same for the reason the Ford pushrod V8s had to die.  They were simply too flexible of an engine to have good emissions, in a nutshell, due to poor ring seal and other factors.  Ford decided that they had to start from the ground up with an engine not designed around using as little iron as possible.

DaewooOfDeath said:

The EF generation Sonata/Optima twins have 4g63s, double a-arm suspension all around and don't weigh much. If only the Mitsubishi Sirius engines weren't so notoriously difficult to turbocharge that could have been a really cool 2000s N series Hyundai.

New edge Mustangs but instead of the heavy, massive, anemic mod motors FOMOCO decided to update the Windsor with an aluminum block and ls-style heads. That said, whenever you have the opportunity to make your engines bigger, heavier, less efficient and less powerful ...

GM could have decided to import the Torana and the Holden 308/304 engines that went along with them if not for the sacred Corvette protection.

3SGTE engines in the AE86 would have been hilarious fun in a black widowy sort of sense. 

Nissan could have resisted the urge to develope multiple iron block, aluminum head DOHC twin turbo six cylinder engines in the 80s and 90s, avoided technophile bankruptcy and blessed us all with RB series Z cars. 

Flat sixes in literally any front engined Porsche would be ultra cool (and replace a lot of relative turd engines). 

AWD Honda Civic Type R, any generation but mostly EG. 

 

There was a JDM market Z31 with an RB20DET stock, the 200ZR.

I'm surprised they have not yet made 4 door Pony cars. 

We all know that Jeep Wranglers long held onto the tradition that a Real Jeep needed to be 2 door since the old CJ days.  Then, the 4 door was finally launched.  Now, 75% of all Wranglers sold are 4 door.  I expect the 2 door to be discontinued by next redesign. 

Every week here on GRM we get asked, "what fun car with 2 kids in the back seat?"

I think the answer could be 4 door Mustang or Camaro.  That new car doesn't even have to have the same name (for the purists.). Dodge gets this done with the Charger/Challenger twins.  (I realize that the Dodges are big by Pony standards, but, you get the idea.) 

In similar vein to above, not having a Dodge Challenger Convertible seems like an obvious miss. 

Ford designed a Independent Rear suspension for the original Ford Mustang using all "off the shelf" type parts.   I used to have a photo of the set up and a parts list but don't know where I stored it.

 Unfortunately the bean counters opted for the cheaper Live Axle and the rest is history.

John Welsh said:

I'm surprised they have not yet made 4 door Pony cars. 

Yeah.  If the ATS was Camaro priced instead of BMW priced, I would be all the 4cyl manual version.

John Welsh said:

I'm surprised they have not yet made 4 door Pony cars. 

We all know that Jeep Wranglers long held onto the tradition that a Real Jeep needed to be 2 door since the old CJ days.  Then, the 4 door was finally launched.  Now, 75% of all Wranglers sold are 4 door.  I expect the 2 door to be discontinued by next redesign. 

 

Every week here on GRM we get asked, "what fun car with 2 kids in the back seat?"

I think the answer could be 4 door Mustang or Camaro.  That new car doesn't even have to have the same name (for the purists.). Dodge gets this done with the Charger/Challenger twins.  (I realize that the Dodges are big by Pony standards, but, you get the idea.) 

Ford hasn't really made an effort in this segment, but I think GM has. The 4 door Camaro by another name was the ATS, (or CTS V-Sport if your kids were bigger). If you had to have a V8/manual then for about the same price as a loaded SS Camaro, you could choose a Chevy SS.

Agreed. Ford has made no effort and GM has only made weak/confusing efforts like the still-born-ness of the SS. 

As stated above, if you could pay similar to the price of an entry level Camaro for an entry level ATS (sure, forgoing some of the lux but replacing it with more function oriented sport) I think you'd have a seller on your hands. 

They say no one wants sedans. The answer might be, "no one wants the sedan you are offering.". Looking at you Malibu. 

1 ton 4 door mini trucks with diesel power plants and manual transmissions.

Actually, they MAKE them, but not available in the US