35 replies to this topic

[16vminiman]

Helloooo.... i'm a newbie to this forum, just thought i'd let u know about my current project......


it is (was) a 1997 sportpack, all the usual rust areas (a-panels, sills, windscreen rail etc) were starting to go (or have gone), so it was taken off the road in late march this year.

plans are:

16v non a-series engine: vauxhall XE was my first choice, but looking into other options, eg bike engines. also looking into turbo'd power :cheese:

i was originally gonna do it front engined with the XE, but have since had a change of mind and i'm pretty certain i'm gonna be doing it as a mid engined RWD layout, possibly with a spaceframe chassis.

Full interior, eg soudproofing, leather buckets, carpets, etc, not stripped out.

i'm making slow progress at the mo, but reading thru f1 mini's turbo'd hayabusa project has sparked the fire in my belly again!!

it's gonna be a long term project, hoping to be finished in...may 2006!! (thats a realistic timescale... it think)

will post some pictures soon......


cheers

Paul

[16vminiman]

update....

here's a before photo, a couple of months before it was taken of the road....

don't she look nice...

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[16vminiman]

and a current(ish) picture...

looking slightly less nice...... :sad:

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[CharlieBrown]

Seems a shame to do that with such a nice mini but it does sound a cool project!!!

Good luck!!

[16vminiman]

looks nice, but rust had already taken hold...


I took off the drivers side sill the other day, it didn't look too bad, but half the inner sill cam with it!! i've now got an 8inch by 1 inch hole in the inner sill! (i think the passenger side will be the same too)

both a-panels are shot, the flitchpanels/front inner wings (both sides) are pretty crusty too, windscreen rail has gone aswell, and the rearmost rear subframe mounts are starting to bubble a bit too.....plus the usual areas round the headlamps and grille, this was the main reason for taking her off the road..!!

from a distance she was fine, but i'm a bit of a perfectionist, so it was either take her off the road for a few weeks to get the a-panels sorted (didn't know about the sills then - they looked fine) or do the full strip down and rebuild. i'm gald i did the strip down now, after seeing the sill crumble away!!

[Dom]

thats a lot of rust for a 97 cooper!!!

sounds like a good project good luck

[Alburglar]

How about a super charged R1 engine (rallysportreplicas) with the 16valve conversion (TTS) on it. good for 300bhp I reckon. Oh, and about 5 grand.

[ben]

what wheels are on the first pic?

[marksmini]

welcome to the forum...

those wheels are mint..

i must say the first pic of the mini does look mint!
be good for you to keep us up dated so we can see how your rebuild goes..

[16vminiman]

Cheers guys, the wheels are 13x7 superlites with gold centres, yoko rubber, they did suit the car well!!


the supercharged R1 souds interesting..... is that 5k for just the engine?? methinks that may be a little out my budget, as i'm on a pay-as-i-build budget!! (ie don't have a wad of cash to throw at the car in one go!)

there's just 1 thing that has put me off a bike engine conversion, that is because that the car aint gonna be a stripped out racer, it will have full soudproofing, full metal bodyshell, leather, decent carpets, a decent ICE, and must be able to do long journeys without blowing my head up with the noise!! (i'd love to do the italian job run once its finished) so my concern is....

...the torque of the bike engine...obviously its torque that accelerates the car rather that bhp, a bike is quite a bit lighter than a mini (especially one with full leather, buckets, soudproofing etc), and the only conversions i've seen are in stripped out lightweight racers. but saying that the supercharger has to add aload more torque.....mmmm :cheese: :cheese:

has anyone seen a non-stripped out bike engined mini???


I'll defo keep you lot updated, next job is to find a decent local supplier of steel to make a jig for building the chassis!

[Alburglar]

must be able to do long journeys without blowing my head up with the noise!! (i'd love to do the italian job run once its finished) so my concern is....


has anyone seen a non-stripped out bike engined mini???

I have been in a R1 engine'd mini, aswell as building one. Also Holeshot racing's Busa turbo mini that now belongs to Huddersfield mini spares.

If you are worried about noise DO NOT USE A BIKE ENGINE!
They are incredibly noisy as they rev so high, which makes them real good fun to drive, but so noisy it is un-believable.
I will be addressing some of these problems and F1 mini reckons that must of the noise comes through the frame so some rubber mountings are needed between engine and frame. But it will still be bloody noisy.

Your best bet would be XE engine or turbo a bike engine as the turbo gets rid of a lot of noise.
Check out my bit in project section for my progress.
Check out Jack Frost's website for the best bike turbo's and engine build's.
www.holeshotracing.co.uk

[Alburglar]

the supercharged R1 souds interesting..... is that 5k for just the engine?? methinks that may be a little out my budget, as i'm on a pay-as-i-build budget!! (ie don't have a wad of cash to throw at the car in one go!)

Expect to pay around £800 to £1000 for a good R1 engine (Carb).
ANd rally sport replicas will supercharge it to 250bhp for about £2500
TTS-performance.com do a 220bhp charger kit for £2250
But you also need to baffle the sump, jet the carbs and buy a descent air filter.

And when I said tts do a 16valve conversion, I was talkin poo as I had just finished a marathon shift at work. R1 engine is already 998cc with 16valves.

[16vminiman]

He He... just been trying to search for some info on turbo's, twin turbo's (Phased and sequential), Bi-turbos, superchargers, and i think my brain has just melted...
:saywhat: :saywhat:

the question of superchargers vs turbos is an unaswerable one, each to their own, as i've found out...

mind you the 'chargers below do look pretty nice...

and a supercharged R1... Now that would be loud!!!

(and hasn't the R1 got 5 valves per cylinder??)

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[16vminiman]

Also one think i like 'bout the bike engines... 6 speed sequential 'box!!


Quaife do a nice 6 speed sequential box... but i nearly fell of my chair when i saw the price!!!

£7,250!

thats more than half what i'll spend on my whole car!

[Dan]

As I understand bike engines, the problem with weight is not one of torque (they have shedloads) or acceleration but of sheer strength. Race bike engines are made of lightweight parts to allow quick acceleration and mental high revs. But this means that the weight of, say a Ford focus or similar would destroy them in short order. And bike engines are designed along a different philosophy to car engines. Or at least those in racing type machines are. They are desgined to do relatively low lifetime mileages or running hours, with VERY regular servicing (a lot shorter interval than a car due to the higher revs and easy access). This makes them ideal for small, light 'toy' cars like the bike engined Caterhams and Westfields or the Mini conversions. But less well suited to long range touring as you seem to have in mind. Look at the bikes designed to do this kind of work (Beemer tourers, Harleys or Goldwings). Their engines are a lot more conventional, and a lot stronger (heavier) and lazier, but therefore a lot less exciting for this type of project.
Now, as I said this is simply the way I believe things to be. Please don't take this as gospel, I may indeed be quite wrong.