34 replies to this topic

[Mini Type R]

Can I be cheeky and ask how hard was it fit?

Not as easy as it looked on the DVD!! The frame went in ok, although it's touching the roof, but I had a bit of trouble getting the door bars to fit but with the help of a few G-Clamps, ratchet straps and a drill it only took a couple of hours. I'm guessing the problems encountered are down to the number of repairs carried out on the shell.

[Dog]

Bit of a twisted shell is it?

Is there a DVD out about the Type R kit?
Sorry to keeo asking, I'm just curioues...

[Mini Type R]

Bit of a twisted shell is it?

Is there a DVD out about the Type R kit?
Sorry to keeo asking, I'm just curioues...

I thought the shell was straight, but it was very rusty so I probably didn't have accurate reference dimensions.

Z-Cars did an upated build DVD that included additional sections on the end about fitting the vtec kit and the tubular front subframe.

[Dog]

Ahh I see.
Sorry to be bugging you tonight, but if you had to build this again, would you ever change anything?
Such as going FWD or making your own frame?

[Mini Type R]

No, I'd definately do the same again. The quality of the kit is really good and I want something a bit different.

[Dog]

Ta very much
Another question...

are you using Mini or Honda geometary?

[Mini Type R]

The suspension is all Z-Cars design, but I guess it's close to Mini.

[Dog]

Thanks very much for letting me bug you.
I'll leave you in peace now

[E.L.M.O]

Thats gorgeous! I hope to follow in your foot steps one day!

Can I be cheekier than dog and ask how much you managed to grab the type R engine for? I would love to get involved with something like this but the over all price terrifies me some what! I know you can reduce costs by doing a lot of the work yourself but I have heard of projects like this doubling their builder initial budget. Would love to know a running total on spend but I know thats perhaps a little too cheeky to ask!

[Mini Type R]

Thats gorgeous! I hope to follow in your foot steps one day!

Can I be cheekier than dog and ask how much you managed to grab the type R engine for? I would love to get involved with something like this but the over all price terrifies me some what! I know you can reduce costs by doing a lot of the work yourself but I have heard of projects like this doubling their builder initial budget. Would love to know a running total on spend but I know thats perhaps a little too cheeky to ask!

I got the engine through Z-Cars, I think it was £2350. I did look at alternatives but they often sell the engine and gearbox seperately, you also need to make sure you get all the bits needed, I think Z-Cars would need the drive shafts to modify so I thought it was easier to get them to supply it as they seemed as cheap and they will also fit it into the frame for you.

To be honest I don't know what the total cost is, I seem to remember it was about £9.5k for the kit, engine, ECU and exhaust. Then there are all of the other bits, brakes, wheels, carbon fibre bits, digidash, interior, lights, wiring etc. As with my previous car I tried to work out a budget for all of the large items but didn't think about all of the small bits and they add up very quickly. Also, the only bits I'm using from the original Mini are the shell, steering column and front hubs, everything else is being replaced. Including paint I'm sure it'll be over £15k but I don't know by how much, maybe one day I'll be brave enough to find out!!

You could probably save money by buying a decent car and selling off the bits you don't need as you could probably cover a lot of the cost and you then wouldn't have any bodywork or a respray to do but I couldn't bring myself to cut up a car that someone else had cherished, at least mine would only have gone to a scrap yard if I hadn't bought it.

[E.L.M.O]

Ok thats great. Thanks. Its a lot of money but I have to keep reminding myself exactly what your left with by the time your have finished. It essence, it is a supercar!

Have you made any more progress? If so can we see more piccys?! Really looking forward to seeing this car complete! Best of luck!

[Mini Type R]

Spent most of Christmas visiting relatives or being ill so there was no progress on the car until yesterday.

Anyway, trial fitted the handbrake cable and found that it was too short, I couldn't actually get the cable attached to the calipers and the hand break lever, even going in a straight line between the 2. Having worked out the best position for the seats I decided it would be better to have the handbrake set back by about 150mm which was actually the only place it could go with the short cable, which was lucky. I then came up with a design for the seat subframe as I'll be pretty much the only person to drive the car I'm not that bothered about easy adjustment so I'm going to make a bracket that can be bolted to the seat and attached to an aluminium extrusion frame, this means by undoing 4 bolts I could slide the seat forwards if necessary and the aluminium frame will reinforce the floor. Does anyone know if this ok or will it fail an MOT for not being locked in position?

Also desided to get a lowering bracket for the steering column, I was going to fit a Maestro column to drop the height and angle of the column to positon it better but having tried the seat the drop bracket will be ok.

I've not got any photos but once the seats are bolted in I'll get some more.

Richard

[maph2]

interesting build. have a look in the Bh2n section on the forum and look for camp freddy - see what happened to it on the ring. this was a chequebook zcars build and suffered a 50mph crash on the ring (i was the passenger at the time, 8 stitches and broken rinb, driver = broken wrist and collar bone )

a few thoughts for you from what we found out:-

a) size of petrol tank - if its the standard zcars one, get a bigger one
b) suspension set up - make sure its set up properly and explore the limits of the cars - breakway points etc. once they go, they go
c) rear wheel and tyre choice - is you are planning on running 175/50/13, choose a wider tyre as theres not enough flex in the tyre wall as the 175 is stretched
d) front rear weight distribution and overall weight of the engine - a lot of weight in the back for such a short wheel base. bike engines are nice and light - car engines make it "interesting"

[Mini Type R]

I haven't quite got the hang of updating this regularly. Anyway since my last update I've managed to do the rest of the bodywork including fitting the front end. The front end was a pain as it didn't fit very well and required a lots of fettling to get it to look right, I'm very pleased with the end result though. I've also got the radiator, fuel tank, brake, fuel and clutch lines, gear linkage and coolant pipes fitted.

I'd recently been thinking of fitting throttle bodies but decided I couldn't justify the cost at the moment. Anyway, I had a problem getting the wiring to fit the engine and when I spoke to Z-Cars it turned out I had the loom for throttle bodies instead of standard injection and I would have to send the loom back to be modified. Instead of sending it back I bought a second hand set of throttle bodies from Z-Cars, apparently I should be able to get 260bhp now.

The only jobs left to do before stripping it back down for paint are the bulkhead, arches and wiring. I'm hoping to get the wiring done next week before taking it to Z-Cars on Friday to have the suspension setup. Then I can get the Arches and bulkhead fitted.

The planned completion date has slipped again, everything always seems to take twice as long as expected, hopefully it will now finished by May.

Here are a few of the latest photos:

 Front.jpg   70.89K   81 downloads
 Front_left.jpg   73.54K   101 downloads
 Back.jpg   71.99K   90 downloads
 Interior.jpg   55.33K   209 downloads

Richard

[E.L.M.O]

Any more progress?