MR2 Donor?

[Renrut]

It's been a while since I've shown my face on here, my roadster plans fell by the wayside when I got distracted by a cute 21yr old.

After a wonderful 6 month affair, a looming MOT and a bit of investigation has shown the 21yr old to be very very rusty and economically not worth saving - the repair panels alone are worth more than the car.

The 21yr old in question is a 1987 MR2 mk1 1.6. My question is, with a bit of ingenuity could I turn the roadster chassis into a midengine one using the MR2 mechicals?

Are there likely to be any pitfalls in doing this? Would it simply be a case of lengthening the rear end to accomodate the engine? Or would it be better to build something from scratch based on the MR2 wheelbase?

I think fitting the drivetrain into a Roadster would certainly be possible, as you say you'd have to extend the rear of the chassis to take the engine. I'm not familar with the suspension set up on the MR2, does it have a sub frame carrying the engine and suspension?

Cheers

Chris

[Renrut]

The engine and gearbox in the MR2 is mounted transversely as a unit to the monocoque chassis via 4 engine mounts, in the big rectangular box that is the engine bay. If I remember correctly, it's 2 on the engine and 3 on the gearbox. The engine sits forward of the diff so it gives true mid engined positioning.

Suspension on the MR2 is fully camber/caster/toe adjustable mac struts all round, again mounted directly onto the chassis. I'd love to be able to use them to save costs but I imagine that would be quite a task compared to a double wishbone setup. Has anyone tried converting the roadster to use mac struts in some fashion?

Edit to add in picture shamelessly linked from the MR2 online parts catalogue ran by the owners club. The picture shows the mount locations, 2 on the engine high up near the top right, 3 on gearbox low down on left side.
http://opc.mr2oc.com/online_parts_ca...e%20mounts.GIF

[les g]

hi renrut
take a look at the MEV Rocket you you might be able to combine some of that design with some of the roadster
cheers
les g

[Renrut]

Very Ariel Atom but distictive and I think I prefer it. Maybe borrowing the rear end chassis from that MEV Rocket and the front and middle being Roadster based but with variations to take account of the lengthened rear end, e.g. shorter front.

In my hunt for MR2 mk1 based kit cars I came across this: http://www.grabercars.com/

The fully built price is a bit scary ($25K) and the kit isnt even fully designed/written up yet. Lots of credit to the guy though as it looks well thought out. It gives me something to work from but I think the shape of the body is dull.

I'll draw up what I'd like for the body work and post it up so you can see what I'm thinking bodyshell wise although I suspect it would be far too heavy/time consuming/impractical/aerodynamically dangerous to make.

[3GE Components]

At todays exchange rate that's only £12500, not that expensive when you consider a lot of people spend about that building a locost.

Steve spends a lot of time here, www.locostbuilders.co.uk , I think his whole build is detailed on the site. From the amount of track time he's put in i'd say the design is quite well proven.

ATB

John