V8 5spd Ranger prototype

[stmitch]

As a Lightning owner, I can only say "Man would I love to have this vehicle". Imagine a Lightning motor in a vehicle considerably lighter!

It's a cool truck, but I don't honestly think it would be good at much more than burnouts. The lightning engine weighs about 585lbs. That's a ton of weight to hang on the nose of an otherwise 2800-3000lb truck. It would have an even worse F/R weight balance than the 57/43 ratio that a stock lightning has. A stock Regular cab 98+Ranger has a 55/45 F/R bias with a 4 banger. Adding adding 300lbs of engine to the front results in 62/38 F/R weight ratio. It's definitely not going to be a corner carver with numbers like that. And I'm not even adding in the added weight for the Lightning Trans, axle, brakes, and front suspension.

And even with the widened rear wheels I'm not sure there's enough weight in the rear to get decent traction to lay down respectable drag times for the power. I'm sure it's a hoot to drive, and it's got to make some great noises but I really doubt it would actually be competitive in any kind of race with a vehicle of similar power/weight ratio. They did all of that work to install that giant engine, and it ran the 1/4 "in the 13.6 range", which is slower than a stock 03 Camaro SS (which was a heavier car, with less hp)

 

[cbxer55]

Yeah, I know about the weight imbalance. To make matters worse, on my Lightning, I removed the trailer hitch and the spare tire. Also, since I re-located my passenger side rear shock to the rear of the axle, I was able to trash the 16 pound bracket that allows the shock to be in front of the axle.

I do have traction bars, as well as drag radials. Seems to work well enough to me, given the ten pounds of boost I limit myself to.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

It's a cool truck, but I don't honestly think it would be good at much more than burnouts. The lightning engine weighs about 585lbs. That's a ton of weight to hang on the nose of an otherwise 2800-3000lb truck. It would have an even worse F/R weight balance than the 57/43 ratio that a stock lightning has. A stock Regular cab 98+Ranger has a 55/45 F/R bias with a 4 banger. Adding adding 300lbs of engine to the front results in 62/38 F/R weight ratio. It's definitely not going to be a corner carver with numbers like that. And I'm not even adding in the added weight for the Lightning Trans, axle, brakes, and front suspension.

And even with the widened rear wheels I'm not sure there's enough weight in the rear to get decent traction to lay down respectable drag times for the power. I'm sure it's a hoot to drive, and it's got to make some great noises but I really doubt it would actually be competitive in any kind of race with a vehicle of similar power/weight ratio. They did all of that work to install that giant engine, and it ran the 1/4 "in the 13.6 range", which is slower than a stock 03 Camaro SS (which was a heavier car, with less hp)

It plain and simple is too much for a production vehicle.

People drop built big blocks (that weigh more) in small trucks all the time and not for the thrill of being beaten by a stock 14yo Camaro.

But to build it right you would get too many complaints.

The tires suck in the rain.
Tires don't wear well
Rides too rough
Gets hot pulling the boat
Why only one seat?
The cage makes it hard to get into
The fit and finish of the fiberglass from bodywork is subpar
Where is rest of the interior?
Why fuel yardarge and not fuel mileage?
It would go on and on.

Only potential from a production standpoint that would do it justice would have been a stripped Ranger Cobra Jet type offering I think.

 

[stmitch]

I'm not against the "big engine in a small wrapper" approach. I just mentioned what I did because cbxer55 mentioned in another post how his Lightning was only good in a straight line, but he enjoyed how nimble his smaller Ranger was in corners. In this case, I'm not sure that this truck would do either of those things any better than what he's already got.

It got tons of attention, with mostly parts bin stuff, and I think it's cool that they even did it. I wouldn't mind owning it. But if I owned it I doubt it would get driven as much as my white truck with a puny 3.0. And if my 3.0 ever bites the dust, then I'd strongly consider a turbo Duratec 2.3L just for the performance gain from the increased lightness.

 

[cbxer55]

I just liked the whole idea of that huge blown engine, in a small package. I know it wouldn't handle for shit. I know, it would suffer huge traction problems in the back. My Lighting, with only 10 pounds of boost, will smoke a set of Nitto NT555R's until you don't want to anymore. I've gone across a whole parking lot, fishtailing the entire time. It's huge, if not expensive, fun.

My Ranger handles well because I use street sport tires of a suitably low profile. And I put a Hellwig Anti-sway bar on the back years ago, Makes a huge difference in handling the curves.

But both my front and rear anti-sway bars are in dire need of new end links. Assuming I can figure out this damn intermittent crank-but-no-start issue soon, that and a front end rebuild are in the works for this year.

If I cannot figure out what's ailing it, I'm calling a wrecker and they can tow it, for free, to the nearest junkyard. It's supposed to be my daily driver, so I can leave the Lightning in the garage. Had to drive it to work the last two days, and it's looking like I drove it to work the last two days.

 

[Lanciadave]

"Why fuel yardarge and not fuel mileage?"

LOL. I love that one. As I wonder why I can't get the 302 mileage near the old 2.3...