This isn’t Eric’s first major project involving a Chevy Beretta. Eric’s been through a few, and after taking his first car, swapped with a 3.4-liter and a 5-speed, to a local autocross track, he was hooked on the platform. For a fairly basic, front-wheel drive car, he had plenty of fun with this modestly tuned machine. It managed 13-second runs in the quarter-mile, it took him around town in comfort, and it looked pretty snazzy for your typical econocar.
Then it came time to move on to a new car, and he didn’t stray too far. Another Beretta this time, but this time, it’d have a few major changes to help make it more a miniature Camaro, rather than an econocar with agility as its greatest asset. This time, however, he’d get a little more ambitious than he had with the gray autocrosser. After pulling this new one from a junkyard, he started implanting the new motor and gearbox he’d scored for nothing. The LR4 motor came straight out of a low-miles truck with a drive-by-cable assembly and the harness to go with it. He tuned the motor for free with his phone from LS-Droid.
The motor was then coupled to a five-speed from a NV3500, which, while not too strong, would be sturdy enough for a lightweight car with a motor of small displacement sitting on small tires.
To make the most of this power, he grabbed an LSD from a Ford Explorer with an 8.8” housing and 3.73 gearing. A differential for a rear wheel drive vehicle? What did he have in mind for this V8-swapped econocar? More than most hobbyist builders do—that’s for sure.
There was a lot of fab work to be done, but he’d never been daunted by an ambitious project before. If it went well, he’d pull off the goal of finishing a rear-driven Beretta powered by a V8. It’d be cheap, small, agile, and reasonably rough—trying to build an immaculate Camaro had soured him on chasing perfection.
This quick and dirty build began with him taking a few measurements. To make the truck LS fit under the hood, Eric had to use an F-body pan and intake. To squeeze the LS2 manifold in its new home, he had to use an F-body water pump, too. To prevent starvation during hard cornering, he put together a set of baffles for the LS1 oil pan.
Also, though it was designed to be a build which disregarded appearances, he got around to coating the engine with a rattle can once or twice. Form follows function here, but spraypaint costs next to nothing.
He’ll retain the basic Beretta suspension in front, though he aims to convert from the ‘standard rear-steer arrangement with a rack on the firewall to a front-steer with an F-body rack under the front of the pan. In addition, he’ll swap strut sides and use the steering arm on the struts as swaybar link mounts.
The rear wouldn’t be so simple. The plan is to fabricate a torque arm with adjustable lower control arms that run from the Beretta rear torsion beam mounts to mounts he’ll weld on the Ford rear end. Since Woody has to fabricate engine mounts and a transmission crossmember, he’ll add a torque arm mount on the crossmember. For rear coils, he wants to move them forward from the ‘95-96 location to the ‘88-94 Beretta location and weld a bucket on the rear axle. With this setup, it’s likely the Beretta shock can be retained.
The biggest problem in fabricating all this is fitting exhaust. To do that neatly, Eric plans on cutting the whole floor out, running some tubes down the rockers for a little rigidity, and raise the floor about three inches. There’s room for the seats by changing the weird Beretta slide rails to traditional sliders, and there should be room for the driveshaft and torque arm in the original exhaust tunnel.
There’s a great deal left in store for this beautiful build. To keep an eye on its progress, visit his thread or his YouTube channel.
