Just to add more fuel to this fantasy. He could just take the whole front end from an Olds Toranado or Buick Regal. Then you have a longitudinal V-8 anywhere from 305-455 cu.in. depending on the year, and with the trans is already front wheel drive. And you’ll have a very unique Chrysler Coronado. Lol Sometimes I crack myself up.
I remember back in the early 2000s when cars with the lackluster 2.7L engine were still being sold, and discussing the idea of putting the Chrysler/Mitsubishi 3.0L engine into such a car, which was a FWD engine. Those engines were available dirt-cheap at the time, and could be purchased with a matching transmission and all necessary accessories.
Even that proved to be too much work, and that is just replacing one FWD engine with another. Attempting to turn a FWD car into a RWD car? Good luck.
1 Like
Leno, actually his mechanics, turn
Ed a first generation Toronado into rear wheel drive.
This Oldsmobile Toronado is a custom car built by Leno’s Big Dog Garage. In 1966, the Toronado was quite advanced for its time: It was the first front-wheel drive car to be mass produced after WWI, and it was the only front-wheel-drive car of its size then Leno injected modern 21st-Century technology to the 1960s car. With full support from the high-perfomance parts department at General Motors called ‘GM Perfomance’, the car went through a complete transformation.
The new engine was based on a new LS6 design (a Corvette powerplant), but this one came with twin-turbochargers, and as a result, power was increased to an incredible 1055HP. To handle all this extra mph the transmission from the Corvette C5 was incorporated, and then the drive the system was convert to rear-wheel drive. The Corvette transaxle, automatic transmission, and suspensión were all adjusted to match the wheelbase of the Toronado.
Given the fact that you did not even know that your front wheel drive car had a longitudinal engine, I would say you are light years away from being able to do this. It would be possible to put in a front drive Caddy V* engine and transmission but it would require designing and fabricating a lot of parts and it might even require widening the car.
This was Paul Jameson’s The beast which Leno bought. He mistakenly called it a Merlin, noted how much oil it consumed, said he had to tow a Jiffy lube around.
Dayum, they even have AC in the lancia v8 car. The compressor looks huge. I thought it was a supercharger at first. But it’s more like the motor is actually quite compact and makes the ac look big. So, now I know. V8/fwd/manual trans. Check.
Once you heavily modify it, it will no longer be grandpa’s car. If you want to honor your grandfather, leave the Concorde stock and buy yourself a Challenger Hellcat.
1 Like
Post # 46 states that they decided to crash the car instead of modifying it.
Don’t forget the 3rd gen Honda/Acura Vigor. It had a longitudinally-mounted engine driving the front wheels. And just to make it more weird, it was an I-5.
1 Like
Allegedly. Funny how his “friend” crashed his very sentimentally important car when it was explained that his cunning plan wasn’t exactly practical and his lack of basic automotive knowledge was put on display. Despite him having “6 other cars” in his garage (including an M3), but he just got into cars a year ago mind you.
Watch your step, the BS is pretty deep in this thread.
7 Likes
Audi pretty much pioneered that configuration. I-5 north-south FWD. And stuck with north-south on all their larger cars. (A4 and up)
I-5’s are odd-ducks, not sure why Acura would copy the engine. I really like the north-south configuration for FWD, though, as it makes AWD much easier and torque steer is much more manageable. Subaru certainly has stuck with it with flat 4s and 6’s
Similar to a poster about a year ago that swears he had a turbo installed on his Impala… Posted for a while to defend it and then disappeared when asked for pictures.
1 Like
The OP kind of had me following along until the bit about friends modding the car in 3 days and an ensuing crash; along with the hokum “6 more cars in the garage” BS.
Not likely to garner an answer, but I might ask the OP to provide some pics of this “beast”. Being wrecked does not mean it’s immune to photographs of the mods… 
1 Like
I got my grandfathers olds dynamic 88, He had a spinal tumor and was paralyzed, He said If I knew you were going to get it I would have bought a better car. I am sure he would have been happy if I modded it.
Sure, you just need to line up the Intrepid, Nimitiz,Vinson, Lincoln, Stennis, Roosevelt,and Ford, stern to prow, throw in some extra deck plating to cover the gaps, and there it is.
2 Likes
nothing money can’t fix, but why?
Well you could launch the Concorde with just the Intrepid. It’s only 100,000 pounds heavier than a Skywarrior, so the cat could move it. Just not as fast. But @Purebred never said anything about being able to use the plane again after you fling it off the deck.
Yes I pictured the Concorde SST, in reality I was getting at the close relationship of the Chrysler Concorde and the Dodge Intrepid.