But when you figure the Pacer was never supposed to HAVE the Jeep engine,
the lack of interchangability makes a lot more sense.
It was *supposed* to get the fancy, new, rotary engine in *front wheel
drive* -- a configuration, I might add, that does not exist domestically
even to this day.
Remember, too, that the 40Mil included not just the initial work, but all
the re-tooling and re-engineering to PUT that I-6 in there -- ain't cheap.
They couldn't even use a 4cyl, the car was too heavy! Even with the 6, it's
a relative dog, but the cornering is wonderful (for the time) and the ride
is nice so the straight-line laziness was kinda easy to overlook.
I had always wanted to do the FWD thing to a Pacer and if I could find a
decent coupe body (I have a wagon), I'd carve FWD into it (perhaps a 3.8 gm
setup). In the doing, I'd carve out the huge tunnel, too, front seat AND
back. It would be very cool, IMO, and be slackjaw impressive to any other
Pacer owner -- it'd look like it was always supposed to have looked ;-)
Flat floors, and wide open spaces.
Or, I might ditch these Pacers altogether. There's an old farmer with an
old fastback Marlin (67 or so?) about 4 miles from me. I might see if he's
emotionally attached to that thing. It didn't look all that bad, really.
Might drop a 460 in it just to be different.
L.
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