Well Gang,
The old swaparoo subject again. We put an MGB 1800/MGA gearbox into a '64
Sprite back in 1967 for the exact same reason - more grunt. Kids with no
brains and a hammer and a torch. We took a perfectly good yellow car and
turned it into a death trap!
It looked alright with its Speedwell nose and the radiused rear wheel
arches and 14" MGB chrome wire wheels on the back and 13" stockers on the
front. We even changed it to RHD with a junkyard Morris Minor steering
rack. - put in a big padded roll bar that we were lucky that we never
needed. The shifter ended up behind the seats so a lever that came forward
and shifted up and down rather than straight out of the floor. It was so
unfun and scary to drive that it didn't get much use and was later traded
for a pop-up camping trailer that was too heavy to pull with my 948 Minor.
A guy up the street had a Bugeye with a 283 Chevy/powerglide and stock 4:22
rear end - all it would do was smoke the stock rear tyres and spin in
circles. The powerglide took up most of the floor so there was barely
enough room for the two pedals.
Best swap is a Datsun 14-1500/5-speed from a 210/B210 but these are also
getting rare and will not give you the balls of fire that you desire. Have
you looked into the Ford 302V8/Mazda Miata conversion. REAL FAST, not so
crazy and will not ruin a decent sports car.
Cheers,
Rick Feibusch
Venice Beach, CA
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