5.7 L Hemi, ZF 8HP70 Swap

MuuMuu101 said
Have you ever hung out with the import crowd? Have you ever talked to an RX7 enthusiast about throwing in an LS into it? They will chew you out to bits. The RX7 mentality believe the Rotary is the Holy Trinity of life. The only reason why they throw LS engines into 240sx's is because it's cost effective and less complicated vs throwing in a turbo 4. Now you might be thinking, "Thanks for supporting my argument." Here's where things turn around... The main difference between a 240sx and a Barracuda (or any mopar for that matter) is that Nissan made approximately 260,000 of them in the states. Look on CL and you can find plenty of them running in the $500-1000 range. They're throw away cars. Why do you think they use them in drifting all the time. Part of it is they were engineered well, but the other part is because they're dirt cheap and another one is waiting to be pulled out of the junkyard if you crash yours. The next time you crash a mopar, tell me how easy it will be to find a very close replacement. I'm talking about same body style, options, condition (physically and mechanically), and within a 2 year span of your car.

And as much as I love pro-touring mopars, that one in particular is my least favorite. First off, it had a shady history and was possibly an original 440-6 pack car (someone may have swapped VINs in its lifetime). Even if it wasn't original, it already had a 440-6 in there and was restored to a very high caliber. I believe it was also sublime green before. Second off, they change the suspension and chassis completely and strayed far from the original chassis and suspension design. To me, that's a slap in the face to the Chrysler Engineers of the late 60's and early 70's. With their mentality back then, they'd probably still be able to school a bunch of engineers in today's day and age. Third, they stuck an LS engine into it because it was "cheaper" when the owner through 10's of thousands of dollars on the rest of the car. It was already a pretty pricey car to begin with. There is nothing "Mopar" about that "Challenger" except for parts of the body. It's just another case of a guy who has deeper pockets than brains. He could have probably built an identical looking Challenger, that would have performed just as well utilizing stock-like style suspension (or at least a tubular K), and a Hemi for cheaper or just as much.

Actually the 240sx is so popular because of the steering angles work so well for drifting. AND the V8 swaps aren't simply a cost factor. The V8 is a better engine for drifting because of the low end torque. The turbo 4cylinder drift cars have to be kept revving to the moon to make the tire spinning power. The 240sx as a drift car has nothing to do with the numbers produced. Otherwise there would be a whole lot more of 80s/early 90s muscle car crapola turned into drift cars.

And which Rx7 enthusiasts? There are a lot of people who prefer the v8 swapped ones because the rotary engine(while cool), has some serious flaws. I'll also guarantee people won't be losing their damn minds over the v8 swapped rx7s like people here do about LS swapped mopars.

I hate to break it to you, but that would mean most of the high dollar protouring mopars are a "slap in the face" to chrysler engineers. A large number of people go to the alterkation suspensions, non-chrysler transmissions, and enough aftermarket parts so that even if the block was chrysler, nothing else is. One could even go as far as to question the validity of the new hemi as a mopar engine. After all it was created during the mercedes owned days and now fiat owned.

As for "schooling" people today. Go ask wracks71, he did both the full tilt torsion bar suspension and the alterkation. He insists the car handles better with the alterkation. The engineers of the 60s/70s(of all makes/models) were fairly limited given the technology. I doubt they school anyone. Especially at this point in time when sports cars/muscle cars have gotten so good.

Just because you're spending buckets of money doesn't mean the budget is unlimited. I'm sure the LS worked out better for the sake of cheaper to build, cheaper to get one that's all aluminum, and producing the same if not better results as the hemi. $6200 can be a hard pill to swallow for a bare aluminum 6.1 block.