Well, my car isn't ready for her debut, she needs tires, paint, and the engine area is so ugly that I wouldn't polute this website with it. Never-the-less, I feel guilty not having something here for her. I have been gathering parts for my main assault, and I am going to start collecting them onto this page. Then, when I start to put them all together, they will merge before your eyes. No particular order, just as I get to them. Actually I needed a place to put a picture or two to display on the BBS, so beginning a page was as good a way as any.

I have another idea for side lites, but it will take some fabrication time, may go this way instead. These lenses have a central bulge, and a lower flange, so they might easily flush mount in the body. Just need to decide on red and amber, or clear, with colored LED's.

LEDs I have quite a few LED's. I bought 10mm ones that I was going to use for the taillights and turn signals, but I found different lights. These are similar to the kind  that they us 6 of in those trucklights you see and in traffic signals, except they are bigger and brighter, not easy to find and not particularly cheap. The red ones are 18,599 mcd each in brightness, while the yellow are 16,895, that is very bright. My thought now is, that maybe I'll use them in a third brake light, either in a long thin row at the top of the rear window, or in a grill on the back panel, or perhaps in the head clearance bubble on the roof, or even on the rear edge of a wing type spoirer. I occasionally sell a batch of these LEDs on ebay, when I get the notion, at 1/4th the going rate, they sell easily, I got a good deal on them.

Going to drop the floor pan and try to get head room if that fails, I'll bubble the roof also. The bubbles will not be like the Gurney bubble or the bubbles on Jeff Leaver's car, they would look more like small hood scoops.

The lights I am using are conventional incandescent lamps with faceted relectors.

I created this animation to show Lance a variant of his light scheme poll on the BBS.

Below are closeups of the lights. A lot of what I am planning on the car is updating to current trends, by the time I am finished, faceted lights may be out of style!
	My License plate.

I can't really see past the engine that well so . . .

Originally, I was going to put a Fiero engine and transmission in the car. It is a 2.8 liter v6, with 140 horsepower.   I have 2 transaxles, a four speed and a five speed for this engine. The 5 speed is the lighter of the two I believe.
Some people put small block chevies on these transaxles in Fieros, if it works in those, it should work in a lighter Avenger. The small block chevy is a heavy engine though. and I feel the rearward weight bias would be more than I wanted, and even though there are many of these running around out there, I think the tranny is a bit weak for this motor. Here is a picture of a small block in a Fiero based kit car:		Not really likeing the heavy chevy, I really wanted a Northstar, an all aluminum 32 valve double overhead cam engine with sequential fuel injection. However, I didn't have the budget for it. Then I discovered that there was an easier engine swap. Cadillac made a pushrod engine with an Aluminum block, and cast iron heads. They came in 4.1, 4.5, and 4.9 liter versions. The cool thing about these motors, is they weigh about the same as the 2.8 V6 that I was planning to use. The bigger ones are better, having worked out some of the shortcomings of the earlier smaller engines. The is another cool thing about the engine, the bellhousing matches the Fiero transaxle! So, I bought one, a 4.9 liter version. Above is a 4.9 caddy V8 on a Fiero transaxle, neat compact package, isn't it? These have about 200 horsepower, and almost 300 ft lbs of torque. To put things in perspective, this engine has more torque at idle, than the original VW does at it's peak.
		So, I bought a 2.8 V6, it had 30,000 miles on it, then I bought the 4.9 V8 with 44,000 mile on it. I am an eBayoholic, and eventually, I ran across a Cadillac Northstar motor, the one I really wanted anyway, with a transaxle and most of the accesories, at a price I could afford, I won the auction at $1500, motor has 21,000 miles on it. The transaxle is a four speed automatic. While it is almost blasphemy to put an automatic in a GT, my knees are not what they used to be, and I would rather drive an automatic, that let a car sit because I cannot use a clutch. Besides, the  automatic is actually strong enough for the engine, which makes me feel better. It is one thing to have a V8, but if you cannot use it because you are afraid of breaking things, what is the point? The Northstar is a very handsome motor, will look good under the rear window. The motor I bought, has 275 horsepower and  295 ft/lbs of torque. The one in the picture, has a "hemi look", with the spark plug wires as they are. Mine is a later engine, with an ignition coil on each plug, so it looks more like the cover on the one left and below. I have a couple of turbos that I may install on it -. cheap horsepower! If so, I will run low boost, except for one trip to the dragstrip to attempt a run in the high 10's, but will most likely end up mid 11's. Plenty fast anyway. The Turbos, though functional, would really be more about image and bragging rights.
O.K. I admit it, I am going to keep buying stuff, and never do anything. Now I have acquired a 6-speed transaxle, that can be used with any of the 3 engines above - my knees have been better, so a manual starts to sound good again, a car like this doesn't really need a 6-speed, but again, it is about image and bragging rights. 2006 F40 (MT2) Type: transverse front wheel drive, six speed manual transaxle Engine range: 3.9L Maximum engine torque: 245 lb-ft ( 333 Nm ) Maximum gearbox torque: 295 lb-ft ( 400 Nm ) Maximum validated gross vehicle weight: 3527 lb ( 1600 kg ) Case material: aluminum Center distance: 197 mm Fluid type: Castrol BOT 0063 Transmission weight: 56 kg ( 123.5 lb ) Fluid capacity (approximate): 3.1L / 3.27 qt ( dry ) Power take off: no Applications: Pontiac G6
		Gear ratios: MT2 First: 3.77 Second: 2.04 Third: 1.32 Fourth: 0.95 Fifth: 0.76 Sixth: 0.62 Reverse: 3.54 Final Drive 3.55
	Now, if somebody wants to do me one better, there is another Northstar, which looks more impressive and produces more power -  the supercharged version to the left. If you have the right connection, talk GM out of their experimental 12 cylinder version to the right, sigh, back to reality.

Now, these engines us a computer for many things, including fuel injection control and transmission shift characteristics, even ride control. I am not going to use it though. For fuel injection, I am using a Megasquirt , like the one to the right. It is a programmable fuel injection controller that you build yourself, and program the fuel mixture characteristics and curves with a PC..
If I end up using the automatic transaxle, I will probably use a PCS transmission controller. This give you total command of the automatic, the shiftpoints and firmness, even allow pushbutton shifting if you like.
	If you want to have pushbutton shifting, you need pushbuttons, I'd kind of like the steering wheel to the left for that! Of course, people in Hell would like ice water.

That is all for now, I hope that you enjoyed dreaming with me. Perhaps you got some ideas you want to incorporate, ot have some ideas of your own. Consider sending them in when on BBS (forum). I included links to some of the products above, in case you want to learn more.

10/09/2006 Well, I was cleaning out the garage today, and ran across an instrument cluster, that I may try to use in my Avenger, took a pic of it for you to see: If anyone knows exactly what it is, i would appreciate knowing. I believe it to be from some kind of Porsche. By the way, if anyone has the pinout schematics for these, please let me know.

10/24/2006

Having a V8 amidship, will mean having a rearward weight bias. I like that, and the rear wheel traction, but I would rather have a little more weight forward. I will be mounting the battery as far forward as I can, and as low in the chassis as I can. My first choice, would be to have two optima batteries:

Hopefully, I will begin the process sometime in 2011 or 2012. Even though we have moved to the desert and have more space, space is still a bit tight, but money is thighter. I wish I had a real workshop, on maybe an 8 car garage. Things around here, always take longer than I plan. - Terry

Well - it is not an Avenger - but you can see my daily driver here.