I recently realized I don't particularly care for low-polar-moment cars. Yes, they're easy to snake through autocross courses, but I'm not into that any more. On the highway and at track events, they're nervous and tend to have very quick transitions from understeer to oversteer unless heavily biased by the chassis setup. Track events don't require that level of chassis response, and looking back over cars I've owned, the ones I enjoyed the most were the ones with the higher polar moments of inertia. The various German-made Mercury Capris I used to have, for example.
The other day the squirrels in my head presented a new idea: flip an Audi Quattro 4wd driveline around and put one of the aluminum Buicks in the back. Careful positioning of moveable bits to the front of the car could get the weight distribution reasonably close to 50/50, not that it's a big deal, particularly with 4wd. And I learned how to drive on dirt and ice; oversteer never scared me... and with a very high polar moment, transitions would be slow and easy to catch.
So, what kind of body to drop over it? The VW Karmann Ghia suggested itself. A quick check on one of the lists I subscribe to, and I found a guy who'd already done one. It's tight, but it will fit.
A quick check of eBay showed several Ghia parts cars within one-day driving distance for $400 to $1000. A complete Audi Quattro driveline is a few hundred in the local junkyard. I have several aluminum V8s on hand, and the tools and know-how to stick it all together.
I installed a 215 Olds, 4bbl in a '66 Karmann Ghia quite a few years back and drove for some time. I no longer have the car but still have the engine, beefed –up VW trans, adapter, flywheel, etc. (I disassembled the car to chop the top, install a fiberglass front end, and other things, and then got sidetracked on other projects). Unfortunately, I can't find any old pictures.
The only cutting I did was for air in and out of the radiator and in modifying the engine lid. The radiator with fan was up front where the spare tire normally goes. I opened up the stock vents in the nose and also cut the back of the spare tire area to exhaust the hot air. I ran pipes for water along the bottom of the center tunnel and along the rear trans horns and also used the water pipes to support the engine from the stock 215 mounting points. In addition, I installed a set of the padded trans straps (after I broke the trans nose cone off from dumping the clutch once too often).
At the very back end where the stock deck lid slopes down, the distributor sits pretty high as does the end of the valve covers, so you have to modify the lid a fair bit and pretty much remove the rear cowl in the middle to clear the crank pulley. I ended up running for a while without a lid until I finished making one up. I pressed the flange on the water pump in as far as possible and trimmed the pump shaft, then swapped pulleys to get the belts to align. You could likely run an electric pump to get some more clearance. I had an Edlebrock scoop-shaped air cleaner than stuck through the lid. I ran the exhaust forward under the firewall and then looped back to dual turbo mufflers. Since the bottom half of the 215 is much narrower than a VW, you have plenty of room for mufflers.
I lowered the front end and ran other shocks, but did little else to the suspension other than adjust height. The car was a blast to drive. You had to slide the rear out in the corners if you came in too fast because it would tend to push the front, but the oversteer was predictable and controllable (usually). I was running the Offy intake and a healthy cam with a lower ring and pinion and close-ratio gears. The gearing changes were probably not necessary, but it was what I was used to from building Volkswagen drag cars.
If you want to keep the rear looking stock (though the air cleaner will probably still stick up), you will have to move the trans forward and down and modify the firewall and the torsion bar housing. I've done that with my current project of a '57 Porsche Speedster replica body with Porsche 911 engine/trans/suspension. It's been quite a bit of work, but since I built a tube chassis, I had more options. I started to fit the 215, but came across the 911 running gear.
DeTomaso Panteras shoved the engine back a few inches to get some extra cockpit room; the centerline of the differential housing is a couple inches behind the rear wheel centerline, so the axles are swept forward. Sounds really strange, but the axles don't care what plane they're swept in, and most IRS axles droop at least that much at normal ride height anyway. So I could shove the transaxle and engine forward to get more room, and shift the mess forward a bit.
Distributor clearance would best be dealt with by dispensing with the distributor. Most of the aftermarket EFI systems support distributorless ignition with coil packs nowadays.
I have a pair of 2.2 Chrysler turbos that would be perfect on a 215-sized motor; the stock cast iron manifolds would work fine. And I have a couple of 215s, and some 300 heads, and a Rover "box of trumpets" intake, and other bits.
The Audi transaxle would have to turn backwards from its normal FWD orientation. In some transaxles you can reassemble the innards to flip the ring gear on the other side from the pinion gear, reversing the rotation. Others, you just flip the whole transaxle upside-down. One or the other would work with the Audi box. Up front, flipping the diff housing is no big deal.
If the transaxle had to be flipped, it might require a new or modified adapter plate. Tedious, but not all that big of a deal.
Finally, reverse rotation cams for the 215 exist. They were used in Corvair swaps back in the say, and in marine applications (a pair of engines, one left hand, one right hand).
My mind's eye shows a very stock-looking Ghia, right down to the upholstery. Some light color, with ran or gray interior. 15 inch high performance tires still exist in some sizes, though selection is getting thin. Basically, I visualize a cherry stock 1959 Karmann Ghia, except it has four wheel drive, a twin-turbo V8, Bosch ABS, and frigid air conditioning.
A couple of people have questioned the 215 vs the newer LS1. The LS1 is 135 inches larger right off the bat, and could probably make as much power normally aspirated (tweaked) as the 215 with the turbos. The 215 is over a hundred pounds lighter, I have a couple on hand, and I just like the idea of using an engine that's closing in on half a century old. The 215s ran from 1961 to 1963.