Opinions??

[1quickgt]

Ok well I had a older gentleman come into my shop the other day. Well he happens to have a 93 Ford Probe GT for sale in perfect condition other than it needs a clutch. He said he bought the car new but gave it to his daughter about a yr ago. Well she has gone though a few clutch's and no longer wants the car.
So my brain storm this morning on my way here to the shop was like this.
Thinking I can gut it and cut & weld enough to make it hold either a 9" or 8.8 drop my 351(soon to be 418) & a C4 into it and have me one hell of a light race car. Although I would make it extremely streetable.
I have always had a thing for those little cars just not the little motors that Ford put in them.

So would you do this?

[Timebomb]

Sounds like way to much work and fabrication to me to try and stick a 351 into a probe. I'd be willing to bet you are looking at building a tube chasis for the front of the car in order to get the 351 between the frame rails....this doesn't even consider the rear end, transmission, exhaust, hood clearance and other problems you are going to have to deal with. It can be done, but it may be better to start with a better platform IMO.

[1quickgt]

Sounds like way to much work and fabrication to me to try and stick a 351 into a probe. I'd be willing to bet you are looking at building a tube chasis for the front of the car in order to get the 351 between the frame rails....this doesn't even consider the rear end, transmission, exhaust, hood clearance and other problems you are going to have to deal with. It can be done, but it may be better to start with a better platform IMO.

Well the idea is to use mainly just the shell and build the rest from scrach. This would be a long term project. Nothing that I would try and rush together.
Yes I would be building a full tube chassis for it. The rest would just be sheet metal. I would figure out how to use the Factory dash though.

[Timebomb]

The only person that can answer that is you. If it is what you want, and you don't mind the work then do it. Everyone has their own way of thinking about what looks good and what doesn't, personally I don't care for the Probe.

My next project car will be a 63 Falcon, but that is down the road a ways!

[1quickgt]

The only person that can answer that is you. If it is what you want, and you don't mind the work then do it. Everyone has their own way of thinking about what looks good and what doesn't, personally I don't care for the Probe.

My next project car will be a 63 Falcon, but that is down the road a ways!
See thats where the toss up comes into play. I would LOVE to build a pro-street car preferably a 66-67 fastback.
So I guess I need to decide what I want to dump a couple yrs worth of extra time into.
Thanks Brent.

[89 coupe]

Really depends on what you want to do with the car. Building a car like that would be awesome for Pro Street type road/carshow events, showing it off, etc.
If you wanted to race it, then you will have problems finding a place where it will fit the rules. It can be bracket raced anywhere but at most heads up events, I don't believe it would be legal. Even the high dollar Outlaw classes require a stock firewall and stock front frame rails.
For me, no I wouldn't build a car like that. I love racing and would never put in that amount of time and money on a car where I could not race it in heads up events locally. You might have completely different plans for this car so you will need to figure out if this is what you really want.

[quik96]

Mike, not too different from doin what I did and put the LS1 into the Coupe.... :thumb:

[ieatz28]

I would do it if I had the time and expertise. Like you said an extremely light platform.

[rxracer]

Mike, not too different from doin what I did and put the LS1 into the Coupe.... :thumb:
you weren't converting a FWD to RWD either.