Thought now that progress is starting to be made with my mini I'd start a thread on here. To put it simply, it's not going to be too a normal mini when its done. haha.
So the plan is basicaly, take one 70's Mini Clubman Estate, add a 20 valve turbo passat engine, complete with transaxle to mount it inline in the back, and while I'm at it the floor's being replaced by a flat floor 4" higher than the standard one, and the suspension moved up 5.5" at the front and 4.5" at the back.
The car won't be spaceframed though, I'm not going for a super lightweight build, as it's just not necissary, it should weigh in at under 700kg even fairly over built, and with up to 300+bhp avalible from these engines, if I want it to be quicker, I can just add some power,
.
The repositioning of the suspension, combined with conventional lowering on coilovers mean's the final ride height is going to be about 45/46" from the tarmac to the peak of the roof.
There's going to be a few aerodynamic tweaks the main one being a full under tray leading into a defuser, but also small things, like some deseaming.
I'm hoping to include a fair bit of composite's, including fiberglass doors all around, and a carbon fibre roof.
Looks wise, I'm hoping to keep it as sleeperish as I can, no rear vents, just the sliding rear windows permanently open. Plan's to have it old English white, with a carbon roof and arch's, and everything else satin black.
I wan't to have this finished ASAP, but realistically, I'd love to have the metalwork finished by the end of the summer, as during term time I only have 1 day a week free. After that funds are going to be the main factor, but if I can save well then hopefully it'll be trundling around by the summer of 2011.
Anyway, enough of my rambling this is it so far:
Donor car:
Poor thing
The mini before the chopping started:
And the work so far, basically I've moved the lower subframe and steering rack mounts up to the required suspension height, and added some box section to reiforce it, and provide the required floor height.
To give some idea of height, the bottom of that box sections going to sit 3" from the road when it's done.
That's a 7" drop from standard height. haha.
Anyway, with spring on the way (I can hope can't I, haha) I should be able to make some more progress with it.
Plan of attack's to finish the bulkhead, then I can get the new box section sills in place and chop out of old floor (which in true BL style is impressively rotten.) Once that's done the front subframe will be chopped around to fit the new bulkhead shape, and then I can start work on getting the engine mounted and in a subframe.
So the plan is basicaly, take one 70's Mini Clubman Estate, add a 20 valve turbo passat engine, complete with transaxle to mount it inline in the back, and while I'm at it the floor's being replaced by a flat floor 4" higher than the standard one, and the suspension moved up 5.5" at the front and 4.5" at the back.
The car won't be spaceframed though, I'm not going for a super lightweight build, as it's just not necissary, it should weigh in at under 700kg even fairly over built, and with up to 300+bhp avalible from these engines, if I want it to be quicker, I can just add some power,
.The repositioning of the suspension, combined with conventional lowering on coilovers mean's the final ride height is going to be about 45/46" from the tarmac to the peak of the roof.
There's going to be a few aerodynamic tweaks the main one being a full under tray leading into a defuser, but also small things, like some deseaming.
I'm hoping to include a fair bit of composite's, including fiberglass doors all around, and a carbon fibre roof.
Looks wise, I'm hoping to keep it as sleeperish as I can, no rear vents, just the sliding rear windows permanently open. Plan's to have it old English white, with a carbon roof and arch's, and everything else satin black.
I wan't to have this finished ASAP, but realistically, I'd love to have the metalwork finished by the end of the summer, as during term time I only have 1 day a week free. After that funds are going to be the main factor, but if I can save well then hopefully it'll be trundling around by the summer of 2011.
Anyway, enough of my rambling this is it so far:
Donor car:
Poor thing
The mini before the chopping started:
And the work so far, basically I've moved the lower subframe and steering rack mounts up to the required suspension height, and added some box section to reiforce it, and provide the required floor height.
To give some idea of height, the bottom of that box sections going to sit 3" from the road when it's done.
That's a 7" drop from standard height. haha.Anyway, with spring on the way (I can hope can't I, haha) I should be able to make some more progress with it.
Plan of attack's to finish the bulkhead, then I can get the new box section sills in place and chop out of old floor (which in true BL style is impressively rotten.) Once that's done the front subframe will be chopped around to fit the new bulkhead shape, and then I can start work on getting the engine mounted and in a subframe.
