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1st step - build a space frame! Pickups are just 2 frame rails with a motor, cab, and bed plopped on top. You WILL need some sort of space frame to achieve the torsional rigidity nescessary for drifting. If you don't have torsional rigidity it won't matter what kind of suspension you have becasue your wheels will be flopping all over the place.
2nd step - do a mid-mount: Get a pickup with an extended cab, build a firewall just behind the front seats and across the top (like a lot of people build speaker boxes). put a hard cover on the bed and cut out the bottom rear panel of the cab. You now have an engine bay in the dead center of the truck. Most motors should fit under a hard top without trouble, but your best bet would be a Mazda rotary, Subaru EJ20 or 2.5RS motor (because of the horizontally opposed design and low-low profile) hooked directly to a differential and no AWD half-shafts up front or the slip sensors removed.
3rd step - suspension: you'll have to have the suspension in mind while designing your space frame and placing the motor, but there a lot of possibilities for suspension. You could just use some Macphearson struts from another car and call it a day, which would save needing to place upper control arms. However, that wouldn't match the beauty of a double-wishbone system. For this, you could fint a wrecked or motor-less CRX and transplant the upper and lower control arms as well as the shocks and steering system. The steering rack on a CRX is aft of the spindles, which may even mount to the stock engine mounts of your truck, although you will need longer arms on it unless you want a narrow wheelbase up front. If you want to be really Le Mans abuot it, you could fabricate suspension mounting points on the rear differential and have the shocks be push-rod activated like on F1 cars and have the (fabricated) control arms attached to fnalges in the differential. Still, you would need some spindles both front and rear since strut and leaf-spring equipped cars use those suspensions to locate the half-shafts.
4th step - odds and ends: Put a fuel cell in the former-engine bay, use inboard brakes (rotors attached to where the half-shafts meet the differential and calipers bolted to the housing like the suspension is - this is similar to a Jaguar type rear end), replace your tail gate with a grille and whatever tail lights you want, mount the radiator and fan a few inches in front of the gate with a duct coming through the bed topper for good airflow along with other vents for intake and intercooler if any.
5th step - DRIFT-O-MANIA!!!
It won't have the servicability of a bed, which doesn't really seem to be what you're after. It would be one hell of a truck with excellent weight distrobution and polar moment of inertia. This is similar to what Toyota did for the Pikes Peak Tocoma, but if you refuse to do a body drop on to a new platform you may end up with more bracing and adapters than truck. I too have considered this project and it is indeed extreme, but if you want to do it, I believe that this is the best way!
Good luck and SEND LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!!!!!
-MR
2nd step - do a mid-mount: Get a pickup with an extended cab, build a firewall just behind the front seats and across the top (like a lot of people build speaker boxes). put a hard cover on the bed and cut out the bottom rear panel of the cab. You now have an engine bay in the dead center of the truck. Most motors should fit under a hard top without trouble, but your best bet would be a Mazda rotary, Subaru EJ20 or 2.5RS motor (because of the horizontally opposed design and low-low profile) hooked directly to a differential and no AWD half-shafts up front or the slip sensors removed.
3rd step - suspension: you'll have to have the suspension in mind while designing your space frame and placing the motor, but there a lot of possibilities for suspension. You could just use some Macphearson struts from another car and call it a day, which would save needing to place upper control arms. However, that wouldn't match the beauty of a double-wishbone system. For this, you could fint a wrecked or motor-less CRX and transplant the upper and lower control arms as well as the shocks and steering system. The steering rack on a CRX is aft of the spindles, which may even mount to the stock engine mounts of your truck, although you will need longer arms on it unless you want a narrow wheelbase up front. If you want to be really Le Mans abuot it, you could fabricate suspension mounting points on the rear differential and have the shocks be push-rod activated like on F1 cars and have the (fabricated) control arms attached to fnalges in the differential. Still, you would need some spindles both front and rear since strut and leaf-spring equipped cars use those suspensions to locate the half-shafts.
4th step - odds and ends: Put a fuel cell in the former-engine bay, use inboard brakes (rotors attached to where the half-shafts meet the differential and calipers bolted to the housing like the suspension is - this is similar to a Jaguar type rear end), replace your tail gate with a grille and whatever tail lights you want, mount the radiator and fan a few inches in front of the gate with a duct coming through the bed topper for good airflow along with other vents for intake and intercooler if any.
5th step - DRIFT-O-MANIA!!!
It won't have the servicability of a bed, which doesn't really seem to be what you're after. It would be one hell of a truck with excellent weight distrobution and polar moment of inertia. This is similar to what Toyota did for the Pikes Peak Tocoma, but if you refuse to do a body drop on to a new platform you may end up with more bracing and adapters than truck. I too have considered this project and it is indeed extreme, but if you want to do it, I believe that this is the best way!
Good luck and SEND LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!!!!!
-MR
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