Auto-fusion mk1 cavalier/manta

[Liam.]

I have never bothered starting a project thread on here because i have only had s body's in the past but i think this deserves some attention.

First of i will explain the background of the car . The mk1 cavaleir was bought a few years ago buy the guys at Autofusion in leigh. Im sure any users of the retro ride forums will be familier with Dave and ghraham.

The original plan was to turn it in to a drag car for under £1k .

That is how it ended up being fitted with the 3 litre turbo engine and box from a Z31 .

The car has been fitted with manta twin headlamps and has a replica 400 bonnet .


Now for the last year or so it has been sat waiting paitiently under a tarp in the yard and as soon as i heard about it it has been playing on my mind . So after attending a few drift days with me and a few friends they both decided that it was destined to become a driftcar .

So far the plans are

: 2 door the shell moving the B pillar back to accomadate manta doors.

Full weld in cage and seam welded shell.

Manta tarmac set up ( for now)

scimiter rear axle to take the extra power

the front track is already about 40mm wider due to work carried out by ghraham lastyear.


now some pictures as it is now!














And some inspiration !

[Crusader]

Very interesting project and will follow with interest but personally I'd leave it Cavalier looking as it would be a real sleeper.

Top work

[Liam.]

To be honest nothing is set in stone as of yet , I think they want to do it to make it a complete one off and also i thought it may help stiffen the shell further. All the fabrication work will be carried out by Autofusion and the mechanical/electrical work will be carried out by me and my friend James (redgti) on here. We have mooved in to the unit next door to make things easier .


The engine choice is still up in the air. I think it would be easy to use the one thats already in there as the mounts ect have already been fabricated.

other options we have talked about are sr20 , 13b , or even a c20xe on carbs .


More pictures will be added soon

[Si-Sideways]

Love the old opel manta's, stick a c20let in it!

[Liam.]

Love the old opel manta's, stick a c20let in it!

I have considered that to build a strong reliable let would cost loads I think .


Engine is coming out today and stripping the shell completely . I have got a front and rear subframe from an rx7 fd here so we are going to offer it up and see how realistic it would be to use them
Instead of the cav stuff .


Pathfinder inlet will be fitted to the engine which should allow it to breath better and hopefully lower the overall hight of the engine .

[Liam.]

Small update


The plan has changed slightly now , I have decided to go with my SR20 just because its sat here in a stripped shell .
I was going to sell it but i think its going to be a hell of a lot easier to get it in and up and running . We are also going to use the dash from the 14 as it will have the clocks .


Also we have decided to use both front and rear subframes from the s14 again , just to keep it fairly straight forward and enabling me to use pretty much all the nisan buts i have .



















We have not managed to do to much as of yet appart from remove the vg30 but i will be finished moving in this week and once i have cleared some space its going upside down so we can start mocking up .