Hello, I am wanting to build me a 914 Drag car. I am looking for anyone that uses their 914 for 1/4 mile racing.

What kind of times to you get with your 914?

Are you running a BIG type 4 or 6 or using a V8? What kind of HP?

What tranny are you using? and how do you launch without breaking your tranny?

if you are serious - and will be running slicks - you will need at least a 915 or 930 transaxle. My friend runs 1/8 mile - with a 400hp sbc with a powerglide trans - rear half totally custom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkWVFxbJH7M

Tranny =

Do a search for " Wbergtho " Bill has made several passes with his 914.

Jim Do you have any pics of the rear half, in more detail in the V8 car?
CCL

Please dont take this the wrong way... I am very big on custom things. However, a 914 drag car is going to be a very expensive proposition. I suspect the guy who put that powerglide in the 914 must be running some narrowed straight axle in the back. It would be a lot cheaper to just run a mustang and lighten the piss out of it.

The 915 and the 901 transaxles were never meant to be launched. Blow a couple of well built 915's with LSD's up and you could have purchased a mustang from the cost of the 2 transaxles.

Just my opinion. ... Now going out and having a little fun... not launching the car and easing in the throttle from the lights is a different story but then you would not cut good lights or get out of the hole quick enough.

Do you think there might be enuf room in the 914 for a V8 and an older type Old Toranado transaxle. This would be a fairly indestructable setup with the caveat that some of us can manage to blowup most anything!

take out the rear trunk, and you have the room for about anyhting that you want.

You will need better axles, better CVs, and will want to stiffen the hell out of the car.

Zach

I know (Jim's friend) Glenn too!
His shop, mechanical abilities, and power hungry love of drag
are amazing to see,very impressive to say the least, but converting a 914 into a serious drag machine really requires a touch of insanity too!
Glenn will agree with this.....

Remember all you need to convert it to a "Kurvemiester" is a simple tire upgrade .

this might work : )

Absolutely correct! I blew up an $8,000 915 and upgraded to a 930 box. So far it has been quite reliable and strong but I still get shivers up my spine when I launch my car hard. I have made my car to be a street/roadrace car and I have brought it to the strip just to see how she'll do in the 1/4 mile....for fun only. My car is by no means a purpose built drag car. If I wanted to make it a drag car a whole lot of things would have to be changed. For one, I'd lose the low profile 30 series 295/30/18 Pilot Sports and mount a pair of custom 15X10 or 15X11 cheapo steel wheels with 100% drag rubber. I'd loosen the rear shocks, raise the front ride height, install a line lock, etc etc blah, blah blah. As it stands right now in roadrace form...it'll run 11.4 @ 129 MPH. That is with a not so great 60 foot time of 1.9 sec. With all the correct drag mods, my car might dip into the high 10's...respectable for any drag car. E-mail me at wbergtho@pressenter.com and I'll send you a video of my car at the drag strip.

1. Not to hijkack this thread, but my latest project will likely have this same tire combo (295/30/18) on 10" rims. What eventual backspace did you learn to live with and what fender.

2. My above "older Old toranado transaxle" should have course read "older Oldsmobile Toranado transaxle" . These are pretty tough automatics and I have a article from Hot Rod magazine where a 425 Olds was placed into a 912 as a midengine. I could scan this article and send it to this thread starter.

I would take a look at the toronado setup.

I ran 12.20 @121 MPH a couple of weeks ago, just for fun as well.
I am running a modified 901 box with tall gears, so I took a softer launch to keep it safe, plus the 901 is not exactly a speed shifting car, at least I only had to shift twice.

A 383 with a tornoado transaxle, some stiffening and wide tires would definately make for a fun drag car. If you have a 914 laying around, go for it!
I keep seeing that 911 with the Caddy 500 and Eldorado tranny on ebay set up for mid-engine, looks like it woirks.

Mark

Looks like this should bolt in pretty easily ...



Available in big block (with the THD425) or small block (with the THD325) versions.

Eddie

How 'bout electric? http://cafeelectric.com/

Skip

The toronado setup questions here are,
1.) What is the availability of the tornoado transaxle?
2.) Where is he going to find one??
3.) What would the cost be for a tornoado transaxle?
4.) What kind of HP can the tornoado transaxle take and still be reliable?
5.) What engine would be used to where he can get good HP and not grenade the transaxle?
6.) How hard would it be to put in this V8 eng?/tornoado transaxle combo
7.) What modifications would he need for this conversion???

hmmm... Electric...

20k rpms in 5th = ?!#%mph ?

The Toronado and Eldorado shared the same driveline components so that will broaden your search.

If ya have the MONEY to play....

Weissman makes several transaxles that will hold all day at 700+ HP and the same torque.
Sequential or dog leg. Constant mesh or non constant. With a R&P or spur gears only... (No R&P)

Whatever you can imagine. THEY MAKE IT.

Located in Costa mesa, Ca.

Linky: Weismman Transmissions

Taint cheap..... But bullet proof.

Clayton

Can you say Heavy? with a capital H? Don't go through all the work to put a 300lb transmission in a light weight car like a 914. It defeats the whole purpose of the car. I investigated the Tornado trans and it will take a bunch of torque & HP...but do you really want to bolt a boat anchor into your car? Buy a 930 or G50/50.

the trany is basically a turbo 400 made to work as front drive.
it was used behind some monster torque motors from cadillac and olds [500ftlbs] stock. you could buy an old caddy rust bucket for the tranny and chances are it's still good. the bell housing pattern is unique to buick, olds, pontiac, and cadillac, a sbc will not bolt up with out an adaptor that might be available form advanced adaptors. the height of the combo might be kinda tall for a 914.

Dad Roberts has a Toranado trans in his VW pickup.

Dual Quads... The whole nine yards. His configuration is Mid engine I think.

Somebody here has pics of this setup. And the 400 tranny is bullet proof for a car of your weight. A fella (and friend) named Norm at Costa Mesa AAMCO knows how to build these transmissions for performance usage. If'n ya need.

Located in Kalipornia.

I will hook ya up if needed...

Clayton

Look into Hewland trannies

Here's "Dad's" ride.....

Hewland, Xtrac, Weismann, etc are all capable of holding 650ft-lbs or better, they have sequential shifting, etc They are super light, very compact, put the drive axles above the pinion shaft centerline to lower the engine and tranny in the car, and are easy to regear. But..............




















They start at 25,000$. Most come with no bellhousing. You have to design and cast it yourself. Plus you have to do custom axles, shifter, mounts, etc.

C'mon Brett,

You take all the fun out of this internet dialogue.....

Anyway, I can buy a Weismann tranny with 4 sets of gears that would be perfect for a teener for a hair under 24,999.00. (used)

I also looked at the possibility of a Corvette setup for mid engine.

It's been done. Custom bellhousing with the clutch setup bolted directly to the trans.. PROBLEM.. It's about a foot too long for our application. Oh well.. There goes another bad notion.

I wonder if a mendiola would work as a drag trans. HHHmmmmm

C

Yeah Mendeolla will work, but they are huge. Strong as hell though.

I'll sell you my Mustang for the price of a good 930 transaxle! Just paint it to look like a 914!

Heavy/chevy/schmevy. Get a pik n pull toradno transmission for $500 and you are in business, for far less than the costs of a few blown 915s and 930s. The toranado is simply a Turbo 400 were the rear drive is immediately flipped around to place the drive axles under the engine, As it is automatic it is easily rigged up with electronic shifters and trans brakes to maintain consistant ets When done you will have 300# of automatic on wheels less the weight of the 930 and clutch 160# for a net gain of 140#. When you are able to drop bigblock nitroused detroit iron rat engine in there, the lost 140# begin to look meaningless.


1970 914 original, hardly any rust
1972 914 original, some hell hole rust
1973 914 monterey conversion, 327,930
1985 928 No rust on this one
1980 TR8 mr understeer
2003 expedition family transport
2000 F350 Don't drive it if you can't afford to fill it!
1985 S10 Blazer. Drive me till I puke out an expensive part than put me down.

A huge engine/transaxle combo stickin out of the trunk with a massive air scoop, 300+HP and 600+ lbs right ON TOP of the rear wheels sounds killer! Bugs make better drag projects than 914s becasue the weight is over the wheels, not balanced in the middle. This tornado trans sounds perfect for a monster 914 drag car. I just want to see someone build one. Monster rear tires, skinny fronts, long wheelie bar...awesome

I remember seeing a show where jay leno overhauled a Toronado and ended up making it RWD by having a custom corvette prop shaft made and power tube and all that. the reasoning behind doing it was because the engine uses a CHAIN drive off the crank down to the transmission and he was putting some serious power into the car and figured the chain would snap at the first hard launch.

something to think about

you can see the chain housing in the pic someone posted of the toronado

if you start with a weakness, putting more power on it makes it more weak

But, a Toronado weights alot more than a 914, no matter what engine the 914 has. A 914 won't put nearly the same stress on the tranny that a caddy or olds will.

*edit* deleted for being a negative nancy

here's an idea... Make a tubular frame and put fiberglass fenders on it and build the ass-end however you like for whatever tranny you like. bingo!

it'd weight less...possibly, and it'd look the part

sounds win win...win

Jays car was a twin tubro 1200hp 1000ftlbs 4500lb car.

the front drive tranny was designed to take the torque of LARGE dispacement caddillac and oldsmobile engines that made over 500ftlbs stock and hauled 5000lb landyachts for over 100k miles.

that tranfer chain is over 3" wide. just compare that to the transfer cases of 4x4's that take much more torque thru gear reduction, that front drive tranny will live long time sailor.