Was just thinking about making my track car mid engine RWD.....

The engines got to come out anyway (piston damage) and I thought about chucking it in the back when its sorted. The shell isnt valuable/rare, so I dont really care about chopping it up, I see it as the perfect chance to learn a hell of alot more about fabricating, and I like doing stuff myself.

Now there's probably LOADS of different ways to actually do this, so has anyone got any pictures/links to cars that have been done?

The main problem I can see is the gear linkage, the clutch is hydro, the throttle cable can be extended but the gears are the main problem, though they are cable so might that be easier?

I was thinking in (very) basic terms, cut a hole in the floor and sling a spare subframe in the back, using all the front sus (welding some strut tops in the back also) but how would I keep the wheels from turning? rear wheel steering.... LOL

Any help would be cool, car is a fiat bravo with the 20v turbo engine from the coupe (another reason for doing it, AFAIK not been done before)

 

i would do it prety much as you have said use inner wings/front end of another car and weld them in ive seen a few rst's done this way did think about doing this to my old escort as for the stering make up some bars and tie them in to the body to lock it off.
if the gear linkage is cable then all you realy have to do is extend these
not realy as simple as that but with a bit of thought in to it the right tools and somewhere decent to work just a matter of doing bit by bit

 

Main problem is trying to get the fooooker to handle again, Chip could proberly tell you more, involves a lot of messing about and making adjustable parts.

 

fookin BUMPy round here aint it

Wheres chip??

 

thing id say having been out in chips is its a fun car, but depends how serious you want to get as its a serious handful and could easily lose it. chip done very well handling his but he'll admit it prob scared him a few times. when going round bends it feels it wants to punish you lol, id turn the engine around in the front personally steve mate

 

Yep, engine in the front, drive wheels at the back, the proper way business should be done.

 

If you've got the funds - it WILL cost more than you think, and you're prepared to spend a lot of time getting the handling sorted then do it.

The Redline Yaris was a great idea and putting the engine in the back was 'easy'. Making it work properly was a very different matter.

 

https://passionford.com/forum/restorations-rebuilds-and-projects/193007-mid-engined-cossie-d-rwd-renault-5-update-27-5-15-a.html
do it m8

 

Here's mine:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8O-Eoaprw

Cant stop giggling when you drive it, lol


It actually handles better than that video hints at, as in that video the rear tyres were SHITE

 

as above, get longer gearchange cables made up and it isn't to difficult
as for the rear steering, what you want to do is track rod ends onto threaded bars solid/rose jointed to the body, that way its fixed but adjustable to help set up geaometry
cambers easy but its castor that will take a bit of fidling to get right

i used to work with rotor racing, and we made a few cars using front wheel drive engines mounted in the rear
as said above getting the engine in and working isn't always the hard bit, making it work well usualy takes longer than the conversion

 

Chip, is your radiator in the front still? And if so, do you rely on the engines own water pump to get the water to/from it?
And I take it you have a chargecooler? Thats the route I think id be taking.

Also, if it handled a bit lairy then thats part 2 of the challenge, making it work better! But I know its not easy, might never handle right, but I really want to try!

 

I have two large radiators for the engine mounted up front, fed by the standard vauxhall water pump which manages just fine with the task.

Also got 2 rads up there for the charge cooler, run by a subaru charge cooler pump

1 Rad in the middle of the car for the turbo water cooling

1 oil cooler (not yet fitted, only just finished running it in and not used it in anger yet so hasnt been needed) going into the rear bumper.

So 6 rads in total.

Heavy car now, lol

 

Thats alot of rads chip!!

I was thinking normal rad up front, with chargecooler rad (about the same size, if not bigger!) with it, oil cooler either in rear bumper or next to a vent in side of car?

Not thought about turbo cooler as yet, the engine would be around 300bhp.

 

ive got a huge alloy rad upfront for the engine, and again a huge alloy rad for the charge coolers,
i run the std cossie waterpump
but i have 2 charge coolers, 2 pumps and 2 sets of hoses going into the same rad but with 2 entry and exit points.

also have the std cossie oil modine but want to change that at some point, would like a turbo cooler and a gearbox oil cooler to but they will have to wait.

 

This might seem a silly question then, but do you get problems with cooling? You both have very beefy cooling systems!
And stu I fucking love your car!!!

 

Also, what front hubs are you guys using? It just occured to me that my wheels will fall off without driveshafts in

 

Ive got standard front hubs, and just got the outer CV's in them with no shafts.

Only reason I had to have a seperate cooling system for the turbo, was cause of where I choose to mount it, its higher than the normal header tanks and would have airlocked otherwise.

 

You can just about see where the turbo is on this pic:

 

Nice one chip

Have you got any more pics of the underside or the fitting process?

And are the rear top mounts one off? I was thinking of butchering a scrap shell for mine but might get some fab'd up if they dont have to fit too snugly? ie they are flat (unless shaped on the underside or shimmed)

Cheers

 

wikid idea

 

Sorry mate, im lousy at remembering to take pics, so not really got a lot.

Strut tops are some random ones I had lieing about, and I knocked up some adaptors to take the shocks im using.

 

No worries on pics.

Thinking about the strut tops/turrets, if I can get hold of some generic ones or have some tops laser cut, I could box the shocks in and save having to find another shell to chop bits out of

 

Wheres that plenum from?

 

Rs200 iirc

 

Yeah my plenum is an original RS200 one

 

shame no one has made a copy of it yet?

 

I can probably get hold of the contact details for the guy I got mine off, he had a few.

What happened was I was round steveboyslim off here's garage and I spotted one of these plenums on the worktop, and I thought it would be perfect for my nova, so I asked him what car it was off, so I could go down the scrapyard and fetch one, until he told me it was an RS200 one, at which point obviously I realised it woul be a little harder to find than I first thought

But I got a tipoff from a user on here who replied to a wanted ad, telling me someone who had a few of them, who it turned out was someone steve knew, so I got in contact with him and bought it.