wrecked ~88-91 escort gt into a dune buggy/go cart?

[streetpirate]

i can get one locally for the cost of an abandoned vehicle title, if i can get it out of the ditch. iyo would it be worth all the trouble and expence to make a small go cart/sand car out of it? should i wait and use the slant six and automatic with a rear end that im gonna have extra here soon?
i think the four banger out of the escort will give better power to weight, but im unsure about trying to fab a mid engine buggy with front wheel drive running gear. am i just crazy? should all this time go into something more worthwhile?


the first time i did this it was an '84 mustang, got as far as stripping all the extra weight out of it and cutting the roof off before i lost storage space. started running bad after i pulled the heater core, and the alternator blew when i plugged the dash back in backwards. go ford, by not putting a little plastic tab so the plug only goes in the right way.

 

[cmotsvt]

Ive heard something of using a transverse engine/trans in a N/S position truning the axles into driveshafts and adding a limited slip to the transaxle.

 

[patf1234]

http://www.off-road.com/atv/press/2004_05/rvt.html

go there and look at it, you can do the same thing with yours

 

[NXJ]

That's funny, because I'm going to look at an ‘85 Escort 1.6 litre tomorrow, that I can have for free. I don't know much about these, but I assume they're injected and FWD?

Well, if I get the Escort, I'm going to swap it for something 4x4 (currently drooling at a local UNIMOG 406). However, you can (if the drivetrain allows, and being worthy of it) build a rock buggy around the front wheel drive engine/transaxle, with CV-shafts as drivelines to some sort of light axles, link both ends, air shocks, 35's - everything mounted to a full tube chassis. Cheap and lightweight.

 

[streetpirate]

haha! took another look at it, ive gotta post some pics, its that good. that thing is so wedged in between big trees in a crick. so the car has to go 2 feet straight up, four feet to the right, then get dragged backwards out of the hole its in. way to much work for an engine in a wrecked car that has been in the woods without a hood for 6 months.

 

[krakhedd]

I heard they used to turbo those little 4s to 600+ flywheel HP....

I always wanted to build a small car like that. Depending how custom you want to get, you could even throw in an AWD drivetrain. Pull a WRX's motor/tranny/diffs, should be about the same wheelbase (+/- 12 inches). Definitely a custom fab job, but hell, who would see you pull up at a stop light and think, "Hey, that little Escort's pretty riced out, what a moron" only to find out it doesn't just LOOK completely custom, it IS completely custom, and fast as (place appropriate adjective here)