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Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:35 pm
by Amateur
GTU spoiler turned out great! Yeah, good call on a swap. I think an N-body only swap is the best bet. Seeing how i don't have a the gobs of low end torque that a 2.8/3.1 gives me, I figure to be somewhat decent on autoX, i would need to keep it with low rotational mass (F-body with mandatory 17"s are looking heavy) to get my wheels up to speed quicker. I've been eyeing the neon rear disc swap for awhile, not so much for the stopping power, because its not like the rears do much anyways in terms of stopping a car (drums do that alone just fine), but purely for the "look". I'm going for the Addco sway bar, really because I used to own a '92 Isuzu Impulse XS and on those cars, the handling was contracted to Lotus to tune. All in all, It was a tail happy FWD machine. It was cheap, only had a 1.8L DOHC engine, handled great, was lightweight (2411lbs) and easy to toss around. I guess I'm trying to replicate its characteristics with my beretta. I mean the beretta base at 2756lbs is already 233lbs lighter than a Z26 tipping the scales @ 2989lbs, so thats a start.

My Impulse before her death

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The badge That lotus put everywhere on the car_

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Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:52 pm
by Money pit Beretta
So it was a Geo Storm body? Or the other way around?

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:47 pm
by Wanako
yeah I think it would be best to stick with n body hardware to keep your rotational weight down. it'll all look awesome once your done.

Money pit Beretta wrote:So it was a Geo Storm body? Or the other way around?
all Geo cars were japanese I believe. isuzu, daihatsu, toyota I think

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 12:28 am
by Amateur
all Geo cars were japanese I believe. isuzu, daihatsu, toyota I think
Yep, Isuzu was owned by GM until they ran it to the dirt and killed the brand in the U.S. last year (late 80's to early 90's used the impulse for the Geo storms, and the tranny for a slew of GM cars). The Geo Prizm was a rebadged toyota corolla (agreement with toyota and in return, toyota sold the cavalier in Japan rebadged as the Toyota Cavalier), and the third was actually Suzuki for the tracker and the metro (rebadged suzuki sidekick/swift).

In short, Geo was just whored out Japanese cars created to....compete..against.....imports..? what the hell GM-

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:17 am
by Wanako
that's the last one I was thinking. Suzuki Swift! I was thinking Daihatsu for some reason.

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 4:33 pm
by Cliff8928
Amateur wrote:I used to own a '92 Isuzu Impulse XS and on those cars, the handling was contracted to Lotus to tune. All in all, It was a tail happy FWD machine. It was cheap, only had a 1.8L DOHC engine, handled great, was lightweight (2411lbs) and easy to toss around.
I knew someone who has (had?) a Impulse RS for a race car, the thing is nuts!

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 7:35 pm
by Amateur
I knew someone who has (had?) a Impulse RS for a race car, the thing is nuts!]

No arguments here about that, its pretty underrated as a car. It had what, DOHC 1.6L Turbo AWD stock, putting out 160HP with 150 lb ft of torque. With a 0-60 time of 7.6s and the quarter @ 15.6 and a when new starting price of $14,849; it was in the leagues of beretta GTZ territory.

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:29 pm
by Money pit Beretta
Sounds like a fun car.

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 4:08 pm
by Amateur
After much deliberation, I've finally figured out what my beretta summer project will be. Call me crazy, but I'm going to put an entire Corsica front end on my Beretta, AKA the "Corsetta!" <----Not exactly the manliest of names, but it's a working title for the mean time.

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It's a pretty craptacular pic, what do you expect for 2 minutes worth of work. The Corsetta will not have the Indy ground effects, just the stock ones. It will retain the GTU spoiler and mirrors that are already on the car though.

Everything looks like an easy plug and play minus the bottom part of the fender closest to th door where the corsica's is creased while the beretta is smooth. Nothing some fiberglass and bondo can't take care off.

On top of that, I've yet to decide whether to make the beretta's wheel wells match the Corsica's or vice versa. Some metal fabrication looks like its in order.
All in all, should be a good way to occupy my summer and escape from the horrible realities of life. :good:

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 5:19 pm
by 3X00-Modified
IIRC the whole thing will mount up if you use the splash guards and all since the under part of the frame is 100% the same, but as noted the crease on the TOP of the fender that goes just above the tire... That wont line up to anything on the beretta so you'll have to smooth it out and remove it.

I've also never found the Corsica front end to be agressive at all, but then again they did come with a factory mini 1/4 cowl hood... LOL

take the corsica down to this and use everything you pull off...

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Everything below the sheet metal should look the same on both cars.

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:12 pm
by snowblindburd
If you match the wheel wells to the Corsica, it will look like a little Lumina =P. Sounds like it would be more work to do that than to try and make the fenders in front match the Beretta, though.

Should be an interesting conversion. I hope it turns out how you're hoping =).

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:33 pm
by 2.2H8TA
WHY?!

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 10:05 pm
by Amateur
take the corsica down to this and use everything you pull off...
yeah, you said it all right there, it's just THAT easy to do. It's just the whole wheel well mismatch "situation" that's going to be the hard part that has to get done right so the car doesn't look retarded. This is all happening late may, early june so I'll deal with that when i get around to it.

WHY?!
Come on now, you make it sound like I'm doing the most horrible, sacrilegious thing and violating everything about the Beretta. I'm not ricing out the car with some "dank" eccentric spoiler, or a "hella tight" loudbox muffler, or some weird tribal decals, R-type badges and some plastic chrome trim everywhere. I'm just taking the clean, suttle front end of it's sister car and putting it on the beretta. In all reality, someone who doesn't "know" berettas, will even know the difference, It all looks the same to them anyways. 8)

(DISCLAIMER: not my cars on bottom and if your Beretta HAS some "dank" eccentric spoiler, or a "hella tight" loudbox muffler, or some weird tribal decals, R-type badges and some plastic chrome trim everywhere...no offense, but I'm at a loss for words if this describes YOUR car, lolz)

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Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 10:43 pm
by Wanako
Do it! I think the corsi fenders dont have flares like our cars so you may want to mold some in while youre at it.

Re: My Beretta

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 10:56 pm
by DOHC_tuner
I like front end swaps like these but if you plan to keep the corsica front end stock....then it will look ugly. Corsicas are ugly....sorry but I had to say it.

Maybe if you add a nice front lip then maybe.