Mx-5 Donor - SSC

[Bonzo]

You have certainly been a busy bunny Andy, looks like you have made some great progress.

Must say, that new bonnet is looking very funky indeed .... Methink's that would look great in Red

Tis great to see Saturn taking the time & effort to preserve the future of the Roaster

[skov]

Looking good Andy! Love that bonnet
Eagerly awaiting the plans, I'm going to need them soon!

[Blacktop]

Hey, newbie here so be kind

Decided to take the plunge and get myself a kit and I am really interested in Saturn's haynes roadster using the MX-5 doner and have a couple of questions.

Will there be any cost difference in the kit price compared to the Sierra doner kit?

Will the rear track be any narrower using the MX-5 doner?

When roughly is the kit expected to be ready for purchase (1 month, 6 months, 1 year)?

[HandyAndy]

Hi Blacktop...a warm welcome to the forum

Andy ( Owner of Saturn Sports Cars ) is busy in a meeting at the mo ( its regarding the Foster Parenting that he does )....

So I,m sure he,ll be online later this evening & will reply to your request for info on the MX5 kit package .

Not trying to interfere, just so you know he,s offline at the mo.

cheers
andy

[leroybrown911]

Just a question incase I ever finish this one and build another, gulp!

Somebody said MK1 MX5 is the donor, am I right that this came with a 1.6 or 1.8 engine?

How easy would it be to put the later engine and box in? Or just mate the later engine to the MK1 box? Later MX5s had 2.0l engines.

Forgive me if I am mistaken, not so sure on MX5s

[skov]

Originally Posted by leroybrown911

Just a question incase I ever finish this one and build another, gulp!

Somebody said MK1 MX5 is the donor, am I right that this came with a 1.6 or 1.8 engine?

How easy would it be to put the later engine and box in? Or just mate the later engine to the MK1 box? Later MX5s had 2.0l engines.

Forgive me if I am mistaken, not so sure on MX5s

Yep, Mk1's were 1.6l and ~120bhp, and 1.8 and ~130bhp. They also did a detuned 1.6 that only put out about 90bhp.

I'm pretty sure you could drop an early Mk2 engine in without any bother, not sure about later ones though.
The 2l didn't appear till the 3rd gen, and I know bugger all about them!

[spud69]

Hello Blacktop and Leroy,

Apologies but just got back online, the chassis and the suspension design is nearly complete for the MX5 as a donor. There are a few other things to finalise but it is almost finished from which we will be putting all the items from chassis packs upto complete kits up for sale via the Saturn Stores, there will also be detailed cad drawings and build guides, similar to the Haynes guide, published via the website for builders that would like to use the revised design but still want to build their own car from scratch. Keeping the Haynes self build philosophy alive.

Prices are expected to be very similar to the Sierra as a donor with no significant extra work to do to modify the design for Mx5 donor. The wishbones are a bit more complicated, however, the use of the donor rear uprights negates the need to fabricate new ones. The aim is to have a completed car ready to show at Stoneleigh, shouldn't be a problem but there is a lot of other work to aswell. Speaking of other, the car for the Northern Race Series cup is coming on nice, thanks to Paul and a few others, and will be on for track testing end of this month with a second to follow.

The Mk1 Mx5 is an ideal donor and we are using the 130bhp 1.8l engine and there are loads of tuning mods available for this engine. The standard 1.8 will have plenty of boot to give some big grins.

Hope this helps......Andrew

[Blacktop]

Cheers Andrew, looking forward to it being on sale

[Davidbolam]

I dropped into saturn last week and was very impressed by the friendly welcome and the product. Nice to meet Handy Andy as well.

[Antnicuk]

hi, excellent work there. Blacktop asked what i also wanted to know and that was, is the mx5 rear track any narrower than the sierra one? I am considering converting my live axle Stylus to IRS and i am looking for a suitable donor. If the MX5 is slightly narrower than the sierra meaning i dont have to use shortened shafts, it would be very handy, especially if the mx5 uprights can be used as you say.

Its a shame you are not going down the rotary engine route yet. I have built an RX7 powered stylus and my cousin and i built an RX8 powered tiger avon. The rotary engine is perfect for lightweight kit cars, especially the rx8, on a stock 2nd hand engine, we made 251 bhp at the fly with nothing but a decent exhaust and airfilter. The 6 speed box is great and you have a very linear power band and 9500 rpm to play with, so all in all a great combination.

good luck with the project, anything that keeps the kit car industry going has got to be good.