Hey gents! Just wanted to say I've lurked LocostUSA for a few years, loved the non-traditional subforum, and finally got around to making an account. Never thought I'd actually have a project worth posting here, but maybe I do. Super, super excited to get started on it!
I'm picking up a '69 Subaru 360 sedan next weekend hopefully, and I have big, big plans for it. I'll have more pictures when I can go back to get it from the farm it's on, my phone died along with a lot of pictures.
If you haven't had the chance to see a Subaru 360 before, they're a tiny Kei car that had a 357cc 2 cylinder, 2 stroke engine that was rear engine'd and generally terrifying to ride in. Very cute, though.
My current goal is actually four or five of my long time goals: owning a Kei car (difficult in California), a rear engine vehicle, a rotary powered car, a WWII Japanese aeronautic themed vehicle (this is either going to be themed as a Nakajima A6M or a Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden), and to have the first Subaru to run Hotrod Magazine's Drag Week.
To break it down, (if it and I fit in the car) I plan to use a Mazda 12A or 13B rotary, mounted to a VW Passat B5's 012 5 speed longitudinal transaxle, with a rear tube chassis setup tying into a NHRA legal 8.50 cage, and a suspension setup that is as of right now undecided. End goal is an eventual turbo 13B and 10.0 quarter mile times, but that's a looooong way away. I have a lot more lurking, reading, and calls to Kennedy Engineering to make before I have everything settled.
The other huge goal is to make this car as much plane as it is car, if that makes sense. I'm a big WWII aviation nerd, and I've always loved the Japanese aircraft of the era and design language. As such, whenever it's feasible or prudent, I'll be trying to incorporate as many aircraft construction techniques and features as possible (hand formed aluminum flares, flush rivets, safety wire, lightening holes, reproduction gauges, appropriate paints/primers, etc), and an interior and exterior themed for whatever aircraft and specific airframe I decide to emulate.
So far, I'm thinking Nakashima Ki-44
Or possibly a Kawanashi N1K-J Shiden Kai, "Violet Lightning"
I'm a welder by vocation, raced three of Hotrod's Drag Week events, and a Datsun fanatic. The goal is Drag Week 2021, roughly 20 months away. I've sold off some project cars for time and space for this, I'm making a build table, I've got a concrete pad in my backyard dedicated for it, and weekends and evenings.
This thread will be updated with the progress, and loads of questions for suspension, as that's my haziest, most unknown portion of this build. Can't wait to post more!