19 replies to this topic

[YoungUn]

these are my plans.... here goes

Mini saloon base car

rip out subframes, fabricate a whole under chassis the runs the length of the car with wishbone sups. with coilovers.

onto this subframe a lightweight engine will be put in and a big tunnel through the interior for the drivetrain and gearbox to rear wheels will be constructed. The front end i hope will only need lengthening a little bit,so that it will still look like a mini front(ish)

the whole body will be widened by about 10-12 inches, down the centre for two reasons: 1) to give enough room inside for the tunnel 2)to give it a "phat" look

for the steering i will get an even quicker lock to lock rack, giving even better go kart handling

As for the body, as well as the body widening, it will undergo a roof chop and deseaming

For the front lights, i will use VW lupo ones , i will find from a breakers yard.

the rear lights will be the hardest - in the rear pillars, i will have lights like those seen on fiat puntos ( not the same style, just refferring to the position) these will be custom made.

the bootlid smoothed, and reg. plate relocated to under the rear valance , which will be smoothed over. at both sides of the rear there will be big exhausts.
The arches will be very wide like the Fortech ones, to house 18" wheels. The side skirts: smooth, linking the front to rear, bulging from bottom of door in a smooth radius towards the floor.

As for the front bumper, a total never been seen before bumber will be custom made.

Inside: there wont be much room hehe i wonder why (rhetorical question. lol.)

A custom dash to be clad in a tan suede, the shapes being "bubbly, and curvy" housing essential guages and head unit and speakers, the tunnel will have foam on so that it can be leant on - rather like a TVR cerbera's tunnel. either side of the tunnel in the rear there wont be enough space for seats, not even bucket seats.so i will have two subwoofers, either side. but behind them, spanning across the tunnel, will be a custom petrol tank (will make sure its 100% safe) the boot firewall will be moved into the cabin a bit, so that the 18" spare can be upright at the back of the boot, and enough room for a couple of bags of shopping ( maybe just the one bag)


If theres any aspect i haven't covered, i will have it all in my head so feel free to ask.

also feel free to make any suggestion about this plan LOL

[Woody]

Well i will say this ,.... You have ambition ! :grin:
you are to be encouraged ,
but i would start with something a little easier to start with if i were you , and build up to building "the ultimate Mini"
You have to ask yourself , do i have the nessasary skills/tools/time to complete this task ?

[YoungUn]

You have to ask yourself , do i have the nessasary skills/tools/time to complete this task ?

well, if this has never been done before, alot of calculations are going to be needed to answer if i have the skills/tools/time, as i dont know that part... but from my guessing, i have all the time i want, the tools i can borrow from the well equipped mechanics behind my house and the skills: what i dnt know i can be taught.

because im never going to get anywhere if i only dream and dnt give it a go

[Madmax]

there was an 18inch wheeled mini created with a honda vtec type r lump in it

it looked awful...and those wheels slowed it down no end

[YoungUn]

was it in any mini magazine? how did it slow it down?

plus.. as put in another one of my posts...I thought that the physics of 18" wheels, the circumfrence is larger therefore travveling more distance in the same revolutions of the axle. And you can get nicer designs in that size.

[Andyc]

I admire the ideas and the ambition but, Just one major flaw.
18"s wont improve anything at all, 13"s on a mini are bad enough from a driving point of view. 18"s would just be crazy! i wount go into all the details, in theory it should work but it dosnt!
i myself dont like big bodykits etc but everyones mini is their own, n thats what makes it so great!
as long as you know exactly what youre going to do, and thought of each of the consequences, go for it. should be one hell of a car!

[P91MER]

Basically it takes ALOT more engine power to turn a wheel with a diameter of 18", then a wheel that is 12" if you did have the correct power you would get higher topend, but very sluggish acceleration.

A friend of mine who has just fitted 18"s on his escort cannot physically get his car into 5th gear, as it doesn't have the torque in 5th gear to turn the 18 inches, his car just slows down when he goes into 5th!

I think the last space frammed mini i seen in the mag last year, the bloke had spent £24,000 on it! and it wasn't iced out at all, and was a Vtec conversion.

If i were you i would start an easier project. I bought a van 5 years ago, and have only just got to the welding stage due to lack of skills and funds. I have all the tools required thanks to my dads old business and this won't be finished for a good 2 years.

Miniman5 has got the best idea, bought a mini when he was 15?!?, and he has got it looking stunning now, and will be even better when he is old enough to drive it.
bucket seats
alloy
6 x 9s.


Rich

[P91MER]

Is this the sort of image you have in your head??

If you want big wheels, they are the sort of arches you would need.

[miniman5]

Miniman5 has got the best idea, bought a mini when he was 15?!?, and he has got it looking stunning now, and will be even better when he is old enough to drive it.
bucket seats
alloy

haha thanks!

just stick to a normal mini mate none of the hybrid nonsence i still am 15! but the mini dont looks to fag as the a pannels bent after the acsident but we are getting it sorted out!

having all that fancy suspension will effect the handerling imencely incase you overlooked that...

just ge ta cheap mini and give it lots of tlc and itle b esome thing to be proud of! TRUST ME! :cheese:

ps: we are sticking to 6X12 wheels to get beter all round use and putting spacers on to make them stick out alot more so i can have group 5's or what ever arches :grin:

[YoungUn]

that yellow mini is alright because its unique... but i was hoping for something different, is there a website where that mini is on?

the plans above for my mini are for the ultimate... i will have a normal mini that will have all the tlc it wants, but that will be my everday one, my ultimate will be a show car i think...

[Dan]

Well it's certainly ambitious!

car with wishbone sups. with coilovers

Mini's already effectively have twin wishbone suspension at the front and converting to coilovers is easily done using the readily available kits. And if you want any kind of boot at all then you don't want to be fitting wishbones at the rear, several Mini spaceframe racers have had this type of suspension over the years and it eats up all the boot space. But then I suppose since you are planning to make the car a foot wider there will be more space to begin with.

Essentially you are scratch building your own car here and just giving it a Mini-ish silhouette. You'd need an SVA and probably an engineers report and it's a hell of a lot of work, but why not? Sounds like it'll be a lot of fun to do. Can't be sure how it'll handle though, might be good might not.

Just one thing, if you are doing any of this just because it hasn't been done before then don't bother. People have been doing things to Mini's for forty years and almost everything has been tried somewhere by someone. It would be galling to get 75% of the way through it and then see someone driving one about already built. You'd probably give up and never finish it which would be a shame. But if you are doing it just for the challenge and fun then give it a go.

[YoungUn]

Dan has quite inspired me! lol , and the sillouhette part is quite correct!! but i dnt particularly want a MINI GT5 racer... i was more looking to build a NEW mini, using old ones... and making those old ones fit in with everything else...... All i can say is, In my head, there are WEIRD visions of minis... and to create this car would be to satisfy those visions etc... if you understand LOL :fear:

[BlAck0ut]

good luck,

you'll need it!

[Madmax]

that yellow mini is the one i was on about, i think it looks damn wierd, and i bet it handles like a pig

i like the ambition, just hope you have the moolah and technical abilitys to do it, its not going to be a walk in the park

[TimS]

i bet it handels well and i bet its extreemly quick for what it was intended for TRACK


Youngun, why dont u design the body shell too and use bits from different cars and weld it yourself? then ud have something compltly indervidual to u?