Weekly Question: Simple Version

Caution: Smug hybrid drivers may become rabid and foam at the mouth upon hearing a V8.

 
Last week, we asked our readers what drivetrain they'd put in a crapcan hybrid. Thirty-six percent of our readers would get all 'merican and shoehorn a Mustang or Camaro V8 into the car and convert it to rear-wheel drive. How hard could it be to give the Prius some grunt and some go-fast? It would certainly prompt looks of horror from the actual hybrid crowd, but perhaps not as much as our second-place finisher with 31 percent of the votes, which was simply a "smoky diesel." It could be a little Isuzu four-cylinder, an Olds LF7, or any "non-clean" diesel. The black smoke pouring from the exhaust would quickly prompt some hybrid owners to shift from Smug Mode to Apoplexic Rant Mode.



From there, the percentages dip; 10 percent of our readers would take a different tact to make it competitive in crapcan racing: Keep the stock drivetrain, replacing any parts that need to be fixed, and drop in a maximum-size fuel cell. Even if the driver is pushing so hard that the battery power seldom kicks in, the fuel-sipping engines in the first-generation Prius and Insight should allow extremely long stints if the driver's up to it. If not, that still facilitates quick driver changes with fueling occurring only ever other stop. Rounding out the voting was a tie at 5 percent between the oil-sieve GM Iron Duke and the idea of keeping it in the family with the Toyota 4AGE or Honda D-series. Additionally, 10 percent of you selected the "Other" button but neglected to tell us in the original post's comments what you'd do instead.

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The options are out there, so get to work building your crapcan hybrid. With this Weekly Question, we're going to keep it as simple as we possible can:

In how many crapcan races have you driven?

That's it. Just that. Look to the top of the right-hand column for the choices and click the appropriate one.