has any one tried 340/440 as a doner car? i have been wandering around the scrap yard today seem to b lots there rear wheel drive 5speed and even a choice off carb/turbo and injection one with only 40k on clock.

440 are fwd drive , so no go there .

340 are rwd and have a rear gearbox , come with 1.4 or 1.7 renault either can be turrboed , or the 360 which also has a torque tube , can be fitted with the 2.3 litre which s exactly what im doing . the 1.7 turbo can be had upto 175hp quite easily with an ecu tweak , which is quite good hp for no money , its only prob is fitting the intercooler .

so ideas are flowing in my hjead now 340 axle prop and box renault5 turbo engine will keep in touch folkes back to the scrapyard for a measureup

couple of things to look for , R5 turbo engines have a different head than the volvo one , the front bellhousing bearing can be knackered , the splines on the prop can be worn away , since they arent conventional props , youll have to engineer that with some flanges to mate to a normal prop (the volvo one is ally) , also unless you got a wide chassis - your left cheek will be sitting on the gearbox , cos its at the back .

The de dion tube is awsomely heavy , and trying to get the hubs out is a real PIA , so thats enough for you to go on for the mo .

If you went 2/7 series though , conventional box/engine that can be turboed very easy to 250 hp , without problems - they will go to 350 - 400 hp on std internals