What is a good small-block V8 that can take a lot of abuse?

[Ultima]

After some more thinking, I was thinking of just taking an existing car and stripping it down to the frame, then changing the suspension and adding larger wheels, along with a roll bar and whatever other mods we wanted to do to it. What car would be a good base car for this? I know VW bug is RWD, and rear-engine as well, but my friend is obsessed with V8 power
The northstar V8 idea seems good too.. take the whole assembly and stick it on the back of the frame But it'd be less work to take an existing car cause then we won't have to do any welding, we already have a frame and the engine is already mounted.

 

[geno]

Here's a cool Dune Buggy setup

 

[Howard]

A good 4banger would run you 100+mph, cause you have no weight

Weight has nothing to do with top speed.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: geno
Here's a cool Dune Buggy setup

I am not seeing that. I am not seeing that. A turbo charged, intercooled SHO engine. Wow.

I only see one bad thing. Those are some puny, and I mean puny, 1/2 shafts. They are screaming, " Watch me turn into scrapnel as throttle and flex reach their limits! "

Must have reverse cut gears in whatever differential the transaxle has to get reverse rotation like that. Interesting.

 

[Colt45]

Originally posted by: Ultima
After some more thinking, I was thinking of just taking an existing car and stripping it down to the frame, then changing the suspension and adding larger wheels, along with a roll bar and whatever other mods we wanted to do to it. What car would be a good base car for this? I know VW bug is RWD, and rear-engine as well, but my friend is obsessed with V8 power
The northstar V8 idea seems good too.. take the whole assembly and stick it on the back of the frame But it'd be less work to take an existing car cause then we won't have to do any welding, we already have a frame and the engine is already mounted.

1) heavy
2) front engine is a no-no
3) if its rear engine, you got a choice between a bug and a fiero pretty well.
4) stock suspension is sh1t, so you're going to have to do some welding and modification. maybe change the wheel wells, etc (unless you like bottoming out all the time.)

 

[Evadman]

as colt said, rear engine = better.

also, you are going to have to weld this thing up from scratch. You may be able to use some parts from the frame, but using too much will make the vehicle to heavy.