1948 Studebaker Starlight coupe project

[Stilettoman]

I always thought of "Pro Touring" as just another category of American car, built for drag racing but streetable. But my fabricator and long time collaborator, Sean (registered here as "esrinfo" informs me that my Studebaker is definitely a pro touring car, according to the definition given here, and indeed my two previous projects likewise. We built a 1984 Mazda RX-7 with a Ford 302 and big brakes upgrade,which I drove for 9 years and then sold. We then built another 84 RX-7 with a Nissan Skyline turbo motor and big brakes, which is my current daily driver. I bought a complete front clip, brought it home, hooked up fuel and battery and ran it before taking the engine out of the clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d6e6gP2oAM

This motor is a 2.0 liter in line six with 215 hp, gets me about 27 mpg all around, 30 on the highway. It replaced the 100 hp rotary which got 20 mpg. The RX-7 gained 100 pounds, now weighs 2500 pounds.

I like this motor so much I bought another front clip, this one with only 35,000 miles on it. I have never done an American car, other than my custom Ford truck, and after considering many different options I bought a 1948 Studebaker Champion Starlight coupe. It ran down the road well enough, but the handling was atrocious, and the brakes were just plain dangerous. Sean suggested he could build a tube chassis from firewall forward, but I said "Why not graft the whole front clip to the firewall?" Well, he said that would be a lot of work, but I pointed out that, once done, he would not have to worry about engine mount, suspension mounts and location, brakes, sway bar, and steering except we would need to use a left hand drive rack. He took a few measurements and decided it would all fit under the Studebaker sheet metal and maybe it was not a bad idea. We made a video of the car running and driving, to help sell the drive train and other parts we don't need, then started tearing it down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-NGjLi6eGs

The Studebaker Champion of that era was pretty light, this one just under 2700 pounds, and pretty short in the front, so we knew this would be a tight fit. It had a flat head six, 169 cu inches, 80 hp, three speed with overdrive. The Nissan motor is an RB20DET, which translates as RB series engine (straight six built from 1985 to 2002) 2.0 liters , Dual overhead cams, Electronic fuel injection, Turbocharged.

We also bought a complete Skyline rear suspension, with viscous LSD, big disc brakes, all built into a cradle which attaches with four bolts using rubber isolators. This is good for at least 400 hp.

I will post progress photos and provide technical details as we go. It is already pretty far along. We have seen many examples for years of hot rodders doing what they call "front clips", but they are only talking about the frame rails. Have any of you seen a complete unibody front clip grafted to an older car, either unibody or body-on-frame?