A mate and I jokingly talked about building a mental car on the cheap to have a laugh in, those jokes turned into serious conversations and this was born.....

To avoid having to fabricate or butcher some front engine RWD suspension, steering rack etc we set about finding a chassis with it all done so we can drop a Ka body on top, along with a complete Scimitar we picked up a separate chassis which was near enough the same wheelbase as the Ka

We found the scimitar is actually mid-engined, the engine sits behind the front suspension which will keep the running gear weight towards the middle of the car





We then bought a ka for the donor shell


.. then set about stripping it


and cutting it to pieces








We kept the A and B pillar for a good strong cabin and to retain the front glass and original door apertures


The front wings and headlights will be bolted to tabs to keep the weight down and the rear will be a clamshell which we'll be able to remove to work on the car if necessary


The entire cabin floor is now removed






Dashboard test fitted to see bulkhead/engine clearance


You can see the wheelbase is very similar


During the build my mate Screech has been designing the cage which is very very important to us as we're planning for a maximum of 650kg and somewhere in excess of 400bhp for the first cut, this is the mk1 model/design which has had pretty much everything changed





Even though Screech is running some FEA analysis it still held up to a real test albeit to scale




And now the pičce de résistance, a couple of weeks ago we picked up a BMW 4.0 v8 engine as found in a 740, produces 290bhp out of the box and should take a few pounds of boost to get us going!








The engine choice came down to space and weight, we did size up the 302 ford but its about 6" longer than the bmw lump pretty much excluding its use, it would sit the centre of the engine under the front of the windscreen and remember there either carbed or serious money, so the carb would require a cut out in the actual windscreen.
the fuel injected versions have much higher sump to top heigh and would need cut outs in the glass for the cam covers.
either way there would be no wipers and a bulk head mid way down the car meaning the driver would be situated behind the b pillar and thus the car becomes illegal again.

Then theres the weight, the in order to get the ford block light enough we would need alu head (cast standard) at about Ł400 a pair! then there's the issue of the ford block still having a steel g box and block.

Fritz on the other hand builds 300hp 4 litre motors that are fuel injected, so have inlets at the front of the v, are 6" shorter than the ford block and are only 24" heigh, meaning we have enough room to fit the motor in and still keep the floor to roof height under 1.5m (4.9 foot in old money and possibly lower as its at that now with no load on the sus).

The BMW block was one of the first engines to use CAD to produce a smaller lighter package, it really is quite small for what it is, and complete with gearbox it weighs what the ford block dose on its own.

There's also a serious lack of ford small blocks in this country, we spent the entire time since the conception of the project looking at the ford small block, and a good amount of time looking for one, bottom line, if you can find a fuel injected ford engine with good bores, alu heads, and a manual box in this country for the price we paid for the bmw engine then ill happily give you double that for it.

This engine choice has been in the works for 6 months (thing have been considered that you wouldnt believe, from pajero 3.0 engines to jag 4.0 diesel v8s, at one point it nearly ended up with a twin turbo 3.0 v6, the key goal was the package space and the power output) and is in many ways a serious compromise due to the factors listed above, put simply the ford block would have been nice, but in order to do that we would have had to compromise the total package of the car just for an engine, and that was something we were not prepared to do.

We have a lot of work ahead of us but we should make some good progress in the next couple of months

 

Quality!

Look forward to seeing this one unfold!

 

that is freaklin mad good luck fella keep the pics coming will be intresting to see how this turns out

 

Fair play!

Hows the V6 turbo one coming along?

 

That turd lol

I'm doing the fuel supply i.e. swirl pot, bigger lines, pumps and injectors then fit Autronic then I'll be ready to give you a call if you still want to map it

 

looking good so far! Im still waiting to see the V6 one all done.

Did you get a manual box with the v8? Theyre like hens teeth

 

Yes mate I do, sounds like a lot of fun

 

740 would be auto.

The manual box only came in 530 v8's and M5's afaik.

 

aint gonna be no slouch

 

fucking mental lol ,


shows whats achiveable when u aint afraid to break a few eggs so to speak ~!!!


what done lads ,

 

Indeed, if we can't get a manual box we'll try chopping the bell housing from a knackered auto box onto a manual 325 box, the 325 boxes have been used in 400bhp+ 6 pot builds

 

yeah, theres a 600bhp sevenesque in scandinavia running one and Ill be running one off the back of my T5 engine. Getrag 260.

The v8 box is the same afaik but the bellhousing is upright where the ones for the inline engines are inclined.

 

all it shows so far is they can cut stuff up, lol

 

what a great project

 

Lol, that's the fun part!

The engine is going in the bay on the weekend so we can finalise the bulkhead, and motor mounts, we'll hopefully pin the shell down too

 

even so chip ,

most folk would talk themselves out the idea before it ever got to buying a shell , let alone two , a chassis and a motor ,



so i still say fair play ,


beef

 

very intrested in this. i have run bmw v8`s for years. cracking motors

will keep an eye on this

dave

 

will be watching this

 

aint them Scimitars worth a few quid now?

 

Good luck with it, be impressive if you can finish it

 

good luck i think you will need it lol be fun if finished

 

crazy!

 

best thing about these pica are the NEW ROCKS!!!!! RARRRRR lol great project thou

 

Cool,

I love the little model. What is it made of?

Also you are not shy in chopping stuff up!

 

this is gonna be abit crazy

 

My god, you really arn't wired up right are ya?
And i love it! Some quality KA's occuring!

 

jesus, guna be pretty mad if its all done..

 

not true. they definately made 540i manuals and pretty certain they did 740s too

 

fooking hell thats going to fly if you get it done,good luck hope you see it through

 

good lad nice build,hope u get in finished soon what a beast your nuts !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

this is a completely and utterly BONKERS....















































I HATE IT






























































only kidding


looks like its gonna be an amazing project will defo keep an eye on this thread...get some more pics up!!!

 

keeping an eye on this pal

 

Thanks for all the messages!

 

Not in the state ours was! They do go for 3k+ for a good one though

 

It's made from dowel and batten from B&Q, I'm not sure the hot glue gun assembly mimics welding though lol

 

I found the part number for the 540 manual gearbox, RealOEM puts it in the 530, 540, 740 and 840

If anyone knows for a manual v8 gearbox or a knackered auto (for the bell housing) please let me know!

 

Are the bellhousings not the same? just the inclination angle is different?

So if you get a 6 pot box and cut the bellhousing off, rotate it and weld it back on....

 

Cool project!

 

It's worth a look, my mate has a 320 so should be able to check it out!

 

if it is, I have the flange section off a getrag 260 325 box lying you can have to mate to yours. Just if you need a little more metal for getting them milled flat.