a ford base for these kits?

has anyone used anything else i know westfield do a mx5 kit.

but i'm a but of a classic person and wan't to use a old running gear maybe an MGB?

would this make modifing the chassis a big job, (building my own chassis from the RC bible).

I think many of us have had ideas of starting with another donor, I certainly did! At the end of the day it is perfectly possible to use any RWD car of similar proportions, I looked at a late midget, however i went for a mixed bag of ford bits at the end of the day, Sierra engine , gearbox and steering column, Capri back axle, Escort rack and with luck a Lotus handbrake and filler cap!

I went this route when I realised that there are a lot of complexities in the build of even a book car and I wanted to get something running reasonably quickly using other people's experience to help solve problems and keep the build budget as low as possible.

Best of luck and don't let me put you off the idea of a different donor, or for that matter let Hellfire convince you that a bike engine is the only answer for power plants!

Caber

Triumph Spitfire has been done a few times and the late Ken Walton (sadly I'll bet very few on here remember/knew him now - a great guy despite his 'robbing ron' associations who would definitely be on my Scrapheap Challenge Dream team and who also had the ability to shoot down automotive bullsh*t from a great height ) built a car round a MGB. There are a couple of threads on here that touch on that car so try a search for either Ken or MGB

could use an old 144,121 , amazon running gear with a B20 engine , wishbone fornt suspension , live axle rear
it has been done , youll fare btter with rimmer bros if you want new parts for a triumph etc .

thanks for your input, looking at a don't laugh morris marina 1.8 this morning going cheap as a donor car.

as for the front suspention i plan to use triumph vitesse as i already have some components. wishbones etc,

Do a search for MX5, you can even buy a book with the plans from Amazon.

Just bear in mind that the more you deviate from the book plans the more complex and therefore more time consuming the build!

I can attest to this!

Cheers,
James

The link below is for a triumph spitfire based car. NTDWM

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Caterham-7-Triumph-Spitfire-Kit-car_W0QQitemZ250024235770QQihZ015QQcategoryZ29750QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

quote:

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Originally posted by martin1973
thanks for your input, looking at a don't laugh morris marina 1.8 this morning going cheap as a donor car.

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Ah, my first car, don't break it they are too rare now!!

It was tail out heaven, until the diff broke!!

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martin1973 - 3/9/06 at 05:26 PM

mine too but i think it's already broke.....

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MikeRJ - 5/9/06 at 04:33 PM

Caterham used to use the Marina rear axle IIRC, though it was always a bit on the weak side.

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