I must be losing the plot here.....Andy why are you taking a Ginetta apart to make a seven..........:confused:

Morning Mark,

It is being done by a bloke called Jim who runs the TeamTrain racing team in Newcastle. He has been running 2 G20's in the G20 cup but since they have combined the G20 and G40 cups together he has got a bit fed up with the series. So he has decided to put all the running gear from the G20's into roadster chassis and body and enter them into the Northern Race Series cup instead. We have supplied full kit for him to do this at more or less cost price. For this its going to be 2 SSC stickered cars and we will be involved with the team. Paul, Flyerncle, is also heavily involved with transferring the 2 and getting the roadster on the road. The first car will be track tested and setup at Teesside autodrome over March with the 2nd one being built once they are happy with that. They are aiming for the first round of the Northern cup at Croft in April.

He also involves kids form the local colleges in the cars and racing for which they get a lot out of it and enthusiasm for the cars.

Hope that explains it........Andrew ;)

Cor blimey batman and yeah makes sense now...Monday morning head on sorry:o

Going racing will help sell cars so hope it works out for you matey:)

WoW, thats a great looking Race Truck / awning set up that Team Train have :cool:

a couple of their Race cars in Saturn colours, that will look really smart .

Well done to you & Paul, & Team Train, sounds like a great team to be involved with,

Looking forward to the first race :cool:

cheers
andy

Cheers Andy / Mark,

Let's hope it makes all the graft worthwhile.....:o

Regards...Andrew

Shoot me for this but,the Ginetta is not half the car the Teamtrain/Saturn Roadster Race car will be and with no special mods or anything fancy execpt an Omex ecu to replace the Pectel thats fitted to the Ginetta for the race series as it cannot be tuned.

Hope this now makes a little more sense.;)

"The Tent " That setup used to belong to a well known m/cycle team Handy Andy

And,the engine/injection system is brand new as is the Quaife close ratio box and Quaife lsd.

Building something of this spec would be costly and having a car to hand that was not going to be raced in the Ginetta cup made more sense to remove the vitals and fit them to the proposed Teamtrain/Saturn Roadster race car.

For instance, Diff £1300,Engine £1312.00,Gearbox £1312.00 all regulated and sealed,this is only my point of view but unless large amount's of money are put into the Ginetta series by ourselves we would be also rans,hence a change of race series.

Cool project
 

That looks & sounds like a very intersting project to be involved in :cool:

Going to help to put the Roadster on the map, thats for sure.

Well done guys, i'll follow your progress with great interest :):)

That's what it's always about Ronnie, obviously fun factor and commercial too, but putting the roadster on the map. It's going to be an awesome pair of cars thanks mainly to Jim and Paul for getting the project started.

There may also be some free track time at Teesside during March for roadsters and local people, fingers crossed, see how i goes.

Roll on Summer, going to be a good one.....:D

Andrew

Got the tranny tunnel and front geometry / wishbones finished for the Mx5 chassis now. Also completed the bonnet molding for the new bonent to go on the car, also available with standard roadster kit.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturns...th/5398246449/

i've attached a picture of the suspension geometry calculation, good software cheers Fabby for the link, gives a good SAL value for a balance between track and road use. First road test drive soonish will be the ultimate test. I've added adjusters to the front lower wishbones so that castor and track width can be adjusted for the car as well as camber and toe in elsewhere. The adjusters can be turned individually to adjust the castor. I have stuck with the poly bushes for the front, rather than rose joints, for ride comfort and there is plenty of adjustment / play on the bracket bolts to get 4 to 5 degrees of castor adjustment. Also by using these in conjunction of the upper adjusters you can adjust the track width to suit.

Just need to trial fit the engine, fab the engine mounts and fully weld the chassis and it can all be cadded and parts put up on the website including pre cut chassis packs by HandyAndy. Plus the build plans available on the website.

Shouldn't be long now......Andrew

Looking cool Andy
 

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

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

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

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

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)?

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

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!

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

Cheers Andrew, looking forward to it being on sale :D

saturn sportscars
 

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

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.

mx5 emissions
 

what is the most recent mx5 donor you can use without having problems with emmissions ie cat etc?

You will require a Pre 1995 engine to avoid cat emissions.
All mx-5's run with a cat as standard so I would be less concerned so long as you take the stock fuel injection system and wiring - as they do with the westfield mx5.

HTH BV.

I hope you're right, as mine's a '94 :cool:

my build commences
 

Hello spud I hope the mx5 donor build is going well. Is there any chance of some more photos on the link. I have just made my first purchase. The uprights! I found a company in rowlands Gill who supply mx5 parts to mnr. All they do is break and race mx5s!

Hello David,

My camera is at home at the moment but i shall bring it in tomorrow and put a load more pics up on the site. There is just the steering column to fit now from the mx5 and all will be ready to cad up.

Cheers.....Andrew

Can't wait, been thinking of building a locost for years but was always put off by the sierra donor car. MX5 is so much more available these days and as has been said the engine and box are more refined. Looking to the future, any idea anyone what sort of power and torque the MX5 box can put up with?:)

Ooo! Better start learning to weld!

I can't remember the torque figure but i've had an MX5 running just over 300 bhp on standard gearbox and differential.

I've added some more pics of the front suspension and steering rack:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturns...7625932340212/

The only thing left to complete now is the support frame for the steering column using the stock mx5 one, then the chassis and suspension can be cadded and cutting lists put out. Time is restrictive at the moment but just to get things moving on a bit, HandyAndy is coming over tomorrow to start putting together some cutting lists for the diff area of the chassis. Hopefully will be getting it all cadded soon.

Andrew

Can't wait Spud, I'm itching to get started on my rear end!

I've decided not to use my MX5 now (it's too good to break), but if all goes well I should be purchasing another MX5 for my donor tomorrow :cool:
It's a 1991 1.6, so hopefully I'll be able to confirm that that fits too (it is a 1.8 you're using isn't it?)

:D ...that made me laugh :D sorry ...long day n all that :p

as Spud has said, I,m going over to the unit tomorrow & will have all the rear diff cage/ tub frame etc dimensions confirmed by the end of the day :)

cheers
andy

Its the same car and gearbox skov just the smaller engine so all should be the same including engine mountings.

Andrew

Got my eye on a local mx5 donor too, raised some cash this morning for it's purchase. Good to know the gearbox is strong. I have really never looked twice at mx5's before so have a lot of research to do. Hoping to inspire and involve my 7 year old in the build over the coming years, really want him to have a good engineering mind, although at the moment he just wants to be a racing driver! Don't we all!!:D Great pictures on your Saturn Site, I shall show the young'un tonight.

Can you tell me what other parts are required (if any) from other vehicles. Is an escort mk1 steering rack still required?

I spent the afternoon at Saturns unit, the "rear end" has now been finalised for its dimensions, I,ll email you this evening Skov with part I.D. codes & dimensions of each piece.

I,d just like to say that Spud has done a fantastic job putting this chassis together, the work put into getting it spot on takes quite a bit ( alot ) of time, but the time & effort Spud has put into this will help lots of builders using the MX5 as a donor & will ensure the Roadster will have a long future indeed.

Well done Spud :cool:

cheers
andy

Another £50 in the post !!!!!!!:p

Well its all done, steering column fixings and brackets finished this evening. Have put up some latest pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturns...7625932340212/

Next stage is to cad it all up, create a build guide and plans, put together a chassis cutting list, chassis plate list, fully weld the chassis and get the engine and rolling chassis complete next week. Parts, where applicable, and all the plans / guides should be ready within 1 or 2 weeks now that all the hard work is done. Soon be time to sleep.......;)

Then when all this is done start again for a version of a single seater now we have the bodywork molds to......:o

Thanks for the support to all so far..........Andrew

Hi Andy,

quick question - any reason for not using the MX5 rack? Reason I ask is I've a complete front subframe inc PAS and thought if you were maintaining the MX5 geometry (?) it would've been logical to use the rack, apparently easily modded to get rid of PAS system...

The MX5 rack is about 140mm too long. In order for the rack to function correctly with respect the steering geometry the pivot points need to all align. Put a rubber band between the center of the bolt holes on the top and bottom suspension mounts the pivots on the rack also need to fall on this line.

Matt

Cheers Matt, you beat me to it.

Just to keep the steering geometry the same, and its easier to get semi quick and quick racks for the escort.


Andrew

So the geometry is based on the existing Sierra setup in terms of wishbone lengths, pivot positions etc ( albeit using MX5 uprights) rather than lifting the complete MX5 geometry?

What problems would doing the latter involve? Is it more a case of the brackets on the chassis would be in an awkward place? I only ask as having a complete front end in the garage would have thought the simplest way not to mess about with geometry would be to copy it with more aesthetic wishbones etc?
I know the rack pivots need to align with the wishbone pivots (rubber band analogy) but from a single donor/budget perspective wondered why not go with what you (I)'ve got.

Um, doesn't the original version use a sierra donor, yet an escort rack...?

The MX5 rack's wider, which would mean the wishbone mounts would need to come out, meaning a wider front end (I think!)

I really like Spud's approach of keeping the MX5 chassis as close as possible to the original. It's making my life easier building it, as most of the book, parts, and the knowledge on this forum still applies.