My RWD Eclipse (25.1e full tube chassis)

[vassil]

This project started in November of last year. The car was a 1992 Eclipse GSX that I drove daily. It ran a best ET of 10.97 and a best mph of 129.98. The concept was to make it a little lighter and and go faster this season, but somewhere in the middle of all this, just like any DSM project things got out of hand and I decided that the car will have to become a RWD tube chassis. After ordering an SFI 25.1e book, parting the car out, gutting it so it is literally a sub200lbs shell, buying a welder, learning to tig weld and fab things up, I ended up with this (see pictures below). It is far more time consuming than I ever thought and I ended up making a lot of mistakes (to the day I screw things up almost weekly), but live and learn ... its a DSM after all ... things usually don't go smooth. The plan is to race the car next season. Hopefully I will be able to manage to do this time and money wise. I work a regular 40hr week as a network admin at a local ISP, so the DSM is strictly a night/weekend project.

Enjoy the pics and feel free to ask any questions.

 

[vassil]

Here are some more pictures

 

[SRiz]

holy crap nice work and I thought AWD conversion was hard keep us updated... by the way what tranny did you use I see the adaptor but dont remember which tranny its for.

 

[vassil]

The adapter plate is from David Buschur and the transmission in the car will be a TH400, three speed with reverse manual valve body. I would love to have a Gfroce or a Liberty , but that is way beyond my budget

 

[DSMunknown]

Keep up the good work!

 

[vassil]

Thank You. I have quite a bit more pictures on my website. I try to keep it reasonably updated. Here is the URL:

http://www.eclipserwd.com/gallery

 

[thekellbeast]

That is absolutely insane. Any idea of what it will weigh when you're all done?

 

[vassil]

I would guess somewhere in the 2000-2100lbs range

 

[Mo-Bo0st]

That is the most ambitious project I've seen in quite some time!

Great work...Cant wait to see the end result and some ET's!

 

[THE_ARTIST_]

i want to do that to my 2G not to the extent that yo have gone but i deff. want to make it rwd, ill be checking up on your progress often. nice work though.

 

[marcmsj]

Looks amazing. Keep up the good work. I'll love to see how this all turns out.

 

[Defiant]

Oh. That's not normal.

 

[sbengineering]

I f@cking love it!

 

[b00st3d]

Looks cool but why did you choose to set the motor so high?

They tuck in there nicely.

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[dazzellerr]

yeah, i am bringing an old thread from the dead. project looks nice, does anyone know if it was finished and made it down the track? updates at all?
sorry, just searching through some stuff for info, stumbled apon this log.

 

[twack]

Vassil whats the word? Hows this thing coming along?

 

[ryanman]

I'm also kinda curious about it...

 

[Slippi84]

Here are some more pictures

Yeah I just looked at that doesn't look like the greatest idea ever. Having the timing belt exposed like that is asking for a problem. Other than that looks beast and I too am curious what the status is on this thing.

 

[viperlp01]

he hasn't been on in 2 months ...

 

[AshTsi]

Well, i hope he got somewhere with it. it would be such a shame to do so much work and not finish it... What a waist that would be.

 

[twack]

Come on vassil i see you viewing this

 

[tunethis]

That's great work! I wish I had the time and skills.

 

[erald01]

Man soo much room in your engine bay you could fit a small block.

 

[vassil]

The car hasn't changed in over a year. I bought a house and then decided to build a garage. I am almost done with the garage and then I will get back to working on it probably in the next month or two. Here are a few pics: Inside-1, Inside-2, Outside-Finished. It is almost for sure that it won't be ready this year because of the money situation, so I am hoping for next year.

 

[Rob10_99]

Perfect, insulated and huge, plenty of room to make a mess with car parts.