After selling my cossie powered pug 205 it hasn't taken me long to start thinking about a new project. I know this has got sod all to do with a ford but there seems like a large audience on this site that might be interested in this project. I always seem to have a strange tendancy to go for cars that are light and stick an engine from another manufacturer in. I had a good think and discussed it with my mate whos going to be helping and the outline for the project was

• keep the cost as low as possible and use as many parts from either of the 2 donor cars. What I don't use sell and put back into th budget.
• Had to be turbo as std so it would be easy to upgrade.
• Preferably have a LSD as std.
• The finished car has to be light and RWD

After some consideration I decided to go for a Saxo VTR or VTS and put the running gear from a MR2 Turbo into the back of the saxo. Obviously this should make the conversion pretty straight forward as there will be no need to get special drive shafts made etc. Also there is no need to worry about trying to make the gear linkage work as that will have already been worked out and come straight from the donor vehicle. All I need to get started are 2 donor vehicles and after some searching and waiting I have bought these 2 cars.



























We have started removing the Interior from the rear of the saxo but cant pull the engine out until I find a buyer for it. I think the next step will be to start stripping the MR2 Turbo down. Unfortunately the MR2 has got a head gasket gone and has been partly stripped so I havent heard it running yet but there were so many goodies on it and the price was right it was worth taking a chance on. It'll give me a excuse to rebuild it before it goes in and also means the project can get under way properly.

 

Going to be an interesting one

whats going to be done suspension wise? did you not find that such short wheel base rear engined rwd cars have a lot of understeer to to such a light front end.

 

also have you got pictures of the old puegot for us to see

 

I think thats something I will have to play with once the engine is in and running etc. I know the poundage of the springs will have to be played with and probably go for coil overs all round. I may end up needed to alter the geometry of the suspension etc but I am not really going to know until its driving and take it from there. The fuel tank and battery will probably be mounted up front aswell. There are conversions for mini's using Vtec engines in the rear and they must have shorter wheel base than a saxo but they do a complete front and rear frame.

Heres my project page for my old pug.
https://passionford.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3537615

 

We have fairly recently gone through all the effort etc of building a RWD Yaris with the same engine etc etc as you.

My advice is dont bother.

 

This will be good to watch, after a 205 Cossie this is interesting, why the MR2 lump specifically?

 

Best transverse 2wd engine+box combo there is TBH.

IIRC stock crank and rods are good for 700bhp.

 

try the z cars website out for ideas mate they have done a rear wheel drive saxo amongst other things and are bloody bob on

 

can you expand on that. have you got a build diary for it and what problems have you come across that you dislike about it.

 

yes already looked at there stuff and is inspiration for doing it.

 

because its probably the best 2L turbo engine as std that lives in the back of a car rather than trying make gear linkages and everything else fit like suspension etc it can come from one donor vehicle which should help keep the costs down initally.

I think its just a fun thing to do I don't expect it to be the best or fastest car out there but should be good fun for what it costs the biggest part is finding the time to do it all.

 

yes must agrea Zcars do sell some very good kits to do projects with

shame about the price thou

 

good luck dude, looks an interesting project.

Post this in the saxosportsclub.com forum as well if u get a chance, im sure a lot of people would be interested!
Also be able to flog your bits, vtr engine, rear disc beam is worth a bit too.

 

well have to agree on pricing issues but z czrs is about a minute from my house and i know the owner and tell you what i,m having a roll cage and other bits done because there work is hell of alot better than alot of these well known companies are producing believe me

 

Yes I will start a thread soon as I get some time.

I will be selling those bits on but I need to get the MR2 stripped and sold before stripping any more of the saxo.

 

Its nice if something like that is on your door step and can afford to pay for it but hopefully the plan with this, will be to make as much as possible myself to try and see what sort of quality we can produce on a budget. I certainly don't want it to look like something from a scrap yard so preperation is important rather than trying to chuck it together.

 

As much as i hate Saxos, this project is going to rock!

Keep the updates comming.

 

Cool project! Love to see how this will turn out

 

A little update, done a fair bit of chopping now, engine is out and most of the rear suspension has been removed. Won't be long before the car will be cut into 2 but might aswell do most of the major trimming 1st while its at a nice height to work on it.

 

Will keep an eye on this one

 

intresting

 

never knew this was here


cool little project,

that saxo looks mint though , ya mad

 

interesting project

 

best of luck with this

 

i got to post something so i can watch it lol


but luck is not needed just hard grafting

 

or you could have just click WATCH on the bottom left

 

lol opppps didnt know

 

does it have air con ?

mate needs a aircon rad for his mr2

rabbkit killed the old one

 

good luck, it'll be mental

 

Thats going to be mental mate good luck with it


I sell air con mate so if ur mate wants a condenser for his mr2 pm me matey

 

What a great project mate, should be fun when its finished.

Will be keeping an eye on this one so keep the pics coming

 

this looks like its gonna be a good build

 

Mad project.

As an MR2 turbo owner, this should be pretty crazy when done!

 

No sorry mine doesn't.

Thanks for the comments some more pics coming soon as the cars now in 2 and the main part we need to keep is off the car.

 

Are you building a custom sub-frame/suspension or are you using the rear of the MR2 and putting it in the saxo?

 

planning on using the Mr2 suspension and subframe.

 

excellent stuff so far

 

well the mr2 has now gone and am just left with the rear chassis and turrets and some room in my garage at last. That'll be short lived though once I get the saxo back here but thats probably going to be in a couple of weeks. Next on the to do list is take the engine apart and give it a once over to make sure its all ok.

 

update?

 

Not much to update unfotunately as we've been busy getting a friends porsche 968 ready to race. Heres a couple of better pics of the rear end that'll be going into the back off the saxo. Fingers crossed we should get back into working on it in a couple of weeks.