xlemming

I know a few people in the mini business. If you guys want one, just ask.

chairchild

Mini's don't use a conventional "frame" and "panels" setup. You have the main shell (a brand new heritage shell can be bought for around £4000) and then the engine/suspension/bits are supported on the front subframe, whilst the rear wheels and suspension are held in place by the rear subframe (these are just bolted on). It would also be pretty hard to mount a rotary to the original gearbox, since the gearbox is almost half of the engine - so you'd have most of the rotary sticking out of the bonnet!!


One other thing, the only difference between a cooper and a standard mini, is that the engine is tuned, and it has a different colour-scheme. So if you're chucking the engine, just get a normal mini, then put some cooper stripes and a white roof on it. (that's what most people over here do)

MikeLMR

"Conventional " what century are you living in ... 99% of modern cars use a monocoque chassis

The proper mini coopers also have different brakes, which isn't really a concern anyway as you'll want to ditch them pretty soon if you put a decent output engine in it.

Mike

Kick

Cooper S had differnet brakes even yet.

xlemming

There is no way you will be able to mate a standard mini gearbox to a rotary engine. If you did fit them together the rotary engine would turn the mini gearbox into butter. The stock mini gearbox is worthless for anything above about 120 hp, if you bought a straight cut gearbox, you might be able to take an engine up to 180 hp. Anything over 200 hp would turn the gearbox into butter.

Chairchild is right on target with the mini frame system, the shell uses two subframe for the front and the rear. He is also right in that a cooper and a standard mini share the same body but there are differences in the engine and the brakes, the cooper came with 7" disc brakes while the standard only came with drums. The Cooper S came with 7.5" disc brakes and a twin carbed 1275 cc engine. Later minis ('80's and '90's) had 8.4" discs, but needed 12' wheels (vs the old 10") to fit the discs under.

MikeLMR

we used to smash geaboxes with half that power they are pretty weak. You can get uprated ones that were fitted to turbocharged Metro's but they aren't much better.

Best by far (but VERY expensive) is a jack knight 5 speed box)

chairchild

well if he wanted a rear wheel drive mini, the gearbox wouldn't matter. Go to the thread i started a while ago on the same subject as this to see how I'd get round this http
://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=198978

xlemming

If you did something like what you are suggesting and using the rx-7 tranny, it won't fit in the mini. Since a picture is worth 1000 words, lets let this picture do the talking:


Try dealing with the heat and niose from that, not to mention where are you going to sit.

chairchild

firstly - I WANT THAT CAR!!! For that one, all you do is put some 2mm mild steel over it. There shouldn't be much heat, cos that would all be at the front and wherever you put the rad. Sod the noise, make it a road-rally screamer! (noise deadening only adds weight!). And lightweight bucket seats would fit with a squeeze. But why is the engine so high up? it's at least 5" higher than normal!!

liquidferrum

i too want that car!

xlemming

I don't believe that car was ever finished. Somewhere I have pictures of an AWD rotary engined mini that is a complete car. My point is that this kind of conversion in neither cheap, nor easy. You would need to do all the work yourself and there is not much to go off of. I know that one guy has an AWD honda powered mini, if you used that chassis you might have a start, but grafting the rx7 and the mini together won't work.

chairchild

from what I've seen of this mini;
http://www.btinternet.com/~honda.min...ids/Others.htm

all he needs to do is shorten the driveshaft to get it to fit! It seems like he couldn't get it far enough forwards, so he raised it to take up the extra length. There should be places where they can friction-weld the driveshaft to make it shorter. If not, put the honda fibreglass front on (its about 90mm longer)

Kick

Now that is a wast of a good Cooper S.
That car will never be worth what it could be now. I have seen Mk1 Cooper S's go for 30k, it really gets to me that he would use a cooper s out of all the minis he could pick from. grr

Louis M

But i bet its cheap in the UK

Kick

Real mk1 mini coopers are not cheap in the UK.
Any older mini cooper and S's will cost you a little bit of money.

MikeLMR

MK1 Mini coopers are about £7'000 or $11'000 in the UK

Still why would you want one if you were going to modify it ? you may as well buy any early mini and start from there (the early mini's have thicker steel in the shell and they are straighter than the late cars !

Kick

I didn't say anything about modifying a cooper s.
I was just saying they are not cheap, and why mod one. They are a cooper s, worth more, and looks better un moded

chairchild

Since when did we start using dollars over here? I've seen a restored mk1 cooper up for sale at £3,500 (it was a minter!)

xlemming

A banged up mk1 can go for as little as 300p-400p

chairchild

Another thought on my project, how easily would the VW Bug axle fit into the mini? since it would be easier than trying to fit the entire RX7 drivetrain into a mini

Kyrasis6

I'm from the little town of Hartford :-D Live in Va now, can't wait to get the hell out of here and move back up there, phreaken rednecks and commonwealth. I might move to Pewaukee <sp?> I miss home.

liquidferrum

give me a hollar on AOL istant messenger Kyrasis6, SN is liquidferrum, would be nice to meet a fellow board member

Saru

I think that if a mini fan found out you wanted to cut up a cooper to stick a rotor into you'd be hung, drawn and quartered. If you did it to a real cooper S then they'd probably just shoot you on sight

A cooper was the sort-of special edition of the regular mini. It'd be like taking a s5 efini and dropping a v8 into it - there are cars that look the same that aren't as special.

Methinks you need to do a little more homework on minis.

chairchild

HELLO!! MINI NUTTER HERE!!! I'm doing this myself to my mini. I was into mini's long before my rotaries

It's just not worth chopping a cooper (if he did cut up an "S", I'd go round his house and hit him with a kitchen spatula!) these babies are worth LOADS, get something like an 85 mini-mayfair, it's almost exactly the same - but a lot more common! (mines a 1979 austin)