in oz/nz...with all the cheap 4wd imports and half cuts.....would it be worth converting a 1200
to 4wd turbo??

My favourite subject :) I had thought about a 4wd 1200 before. I doubt its worth it but would be great fun. I thought somehow graft in a Skyline gearbox and tranfer case onto an SR20det.
Use some late model front wheel drive struts. The only problem i could think of is trying to place the transfer case under the Sr20!! Not alot of room in a 1200! There would have to a be
a completly new front end welded in. Big job i bet, but it would be cool to have a 4wd Datto 1200. That'll give those WRX poofs something to worry about!

Scott
Davo

Like you said about my idea, sounds good on paper (soory I'm not trying to get you back).
The cost would be huge. I don't think ultimately you'd find enough room and strength under the car to fit it all in and if you did I would nearly put money on teh fact that it would upset
the great balance that the car naturally has for its size and weight and ulltimately not perform that well. The weight alone you would have to put in to strenghten it would ruin the power
to weight ratio. It would become much heavier which saps power and 4WD drive trains also sap more power than 2WD's. Sure 4Wd's put their power down well and grip well but I'd bet that a
2WD 1200 with the same engine and state of tune would almost always outrun the 4Wd version.

It goes against my "keep it in the family" philosophy but what about a Subaru transaxle and a Mazda rotary for the four wheel drive idea? You would still need front strute from an
FWD car but that shouldn't be too tough to come by. And I take offense at the "WRX poofs" comment as I am planning to buy one as soon as they get here.
Tim
p.s. I'm not really offended.

That actually sounds like its possible. The Subaru transaxle would have to sit quite a bit forward. The bell housing would have to be allmost inline with the struts which still doesnt leave
much room in front to sit a 13b rotary. Or maybe instead of sitting the transaxle forward, have it sitting back but some how make the shafts go forward about 50cm or so?? Like a Z shape
driveshaft? If that makes no sense, dont worry i understand it. The reason u would have to do this is because the WRX struts are pretty much right next to the firewall were as the datto
ones are sitting alot more forward. Interesting concept tho.

WRX's go hard. The WRX poofs comment was only made cause the majority of the owners think they have the best car in the world and nothing can beat them. I like driving them, they are fun
but i would never buy one. If there was a way of "switching off" the 4 wheel drive, i would be more inclined to buy one because the fun factor would be alot higher.

Scott
Davo

I'm not sure what you mean by the fun factor being higher if you could switch off the all wheel drive. My daily driver is a '98 Legacy 2.5GT and I have tons of fun with it. A four
wheel power slide is a hoot! And it is alot of fun to surprise someone with 2wd in the wet... Wait a minute. I'm sorry, I'm not going to turn this into a Subaru vs Datsun site. Y'all
have a day.

I got my 1973 1200 coupe June 24,2000. The previous owner had set up the car for a racing look minus the motor, tranny, upholstery which he had discarded. The tranny tunnel had been cut
for a mazda rotary engine that the mate never got around to installing. All the body parts were there and the dashboard was still intact. In the past year have I stripped a 1975 B-210
and switched all the suspension parts including the A-14 crossmember to accept the A-14 emotor and tranny in my 1200.I fixed the trans tunnel with mesh wire and fiberglas. I had to make
a new transmission mount from a "L"beam which I bolted to the body floor.To see the pictures, go to the Links page and click on SMJ's 1200 coupe.

A four wheel drive 1200 would be a monstrosity. The subaru has the axles inline with the front wheels and that would put all of the motor a long ways in front of the axles, making it a
non handler. 4WD is more friction also. On the subject of exhaust pipes, I made up a 3 inch exhaust system for my first 1200 and it worked perfect. I used the stock 1 1/2 as a guide and
duplicated all of the bends. I even welded the 1200 muffler mount to use the original rubber o-ring hangers onto the glasspack muffler. What I did was use bends and cut them at strategic
points and welded the pipe together piece by piece. I even went over the rear axle housing just like stock. Nothing hit and it didn't rattle. Another subject, EZ Outs aren't.

Well. You cant exactly throw a WRX around corners with ease or fishtail em up the road at 100 clicks. Im sure a 4 wheel power drift is fun but i've never done that before. I've
never had the oppurtunity! Subaru's and Datsun are completly different cars so there no point on a Datsun Vs Subaru thing. Subaru's rock in there own way but Datsuns just kick
ass!! Cya.

Scott
Davo

I aggree about the 4WD conversion. I read in a recent car magazine over here some comments from the editor which also supported the idiocy of this conversion. Obviously they had had a heap
of people writing in to a tech section about how they should tackle doing a 4WD conversion to their 2WD. Well he must have had the shits with it because when the next one wrote in he told
them it was a crap idea and they were not going to bother printing anymore similar requests because the cost and engineering work to make something like that work was never going to be worth
it and that if they wanted a 4WD to bloody well go and by one.
Ezy Outs you're right. I have only ever used them once without heat first and that was in an RB30 Nissan which wasn't that old.
That 22.8 mpg sounds OK but I'm not sure of the conversion to metric (also can't be bothered.
I have been trying to get some miles up on my Commodore which runs the LS1 5.7 litre and 6 speed box as it is part of a salary package and has to do a minimum number per year. I get a
monthly fuel statement and averaged 10.46 litres per 100 klm's in February I had several 10's and a couple of 9's with a best of 9.46l/100km. Mind you I also started the statement with a
worst ever 17.18. Must have been a lot of rain that week as I generally don't trash the tyres as they are 18's and quite expensive.