Does anyone know of a mid/rear engined car built from a front wheel drive vehicle (apart from a Mini - I have read the mail).
I have a mechanically sound Golf 1 in my garden that has a badly rusted body due to the high humidity and salt air here in Richards Bay, South Africa.
and it seems a shame not to make use of it.
Marty, welcome to the online residential facility for the automotively depraved. 
If you look down through some of the Mid Engine posts, you'll come across such characters as AlanB, sgrabber, kb58 and others (sorry guys, I
can't remember all the names without browsing...doesn't mean you're any less important!).
They have used transverse front wheel drive engines in the "right" location.
From a driveline aspect, the Golf would be a good donorand the engines can be quite respectable too.
Marty, If you think you can build a mid-engine sports car out of an old Golf, you are crazy.
Welcome to the club! The Bolwell Ikara was an early 80's middy built using the Golf as a donor. Dominic, who is building a middy in Australia has
the following page with more information. http://members.optushome.com.au/gecko/ikara.html It was a great little car that was just a bit ugly (IMHO).
So I guess the key thought here is that you should start stripping that donor ASAP. 
Graber
PS - click on my www button below to visit my site.
take a look at the sylva mojo, fwd drivetrain at the back.. www.sylva.co.uk i think..
Ned.
Marty,
You are one sick and twisted individual.
WELCOME
<manly group hug>
If I were to build a middy there are a few engine choices I would go with, my main choice is a honda b16 or b18, mainly due to the aftermarket
support. Right behind that is Ford's Zetec (I've dyno'd mine at 266 Hp at the wheels with 12 psi on a stock engine, good fuel
management is the key to a long engine life. Along side Ford's Zetec is Toyota's ZZTTII (?) (from the new model Celica, also used in various
other Toyota 4 Cyl's), I just love the new technology they put in it.
Anyway The Golf engine is a good compromise between all of them. The stock internals are fairly stout, and will hold their own in a heavy use
environment, the aftermarket support is abundant (not sure about SA, but here in the US it is), it has been proven as a winner time and time again in
SCCA competition, and at the time it was a fairly advanced (technologically) engine. Overall it's a good engine right down the middle.
Marty,
Welcome to the insanity Thanks Steve, for pointing Marty to my Ikara page. It reminded me that I need to shift that page from my old Optus web
space to my new host. At the same time I should restore all of the scanned magazine pages that used to be linked from that page before I ran out of
space.
As Ned points out, the Sylva Mojo is a perfect example of what you're proposing. Neither the engineering or styling of the Mojo really do it for
me but, each to their own.
Other examples include the GTM Libra & Spyder (here) and the Car Craft Cyclone (sadly gone now).
Best of luck,
Dominic
I'm actually considering throwing my G60turbo in the back of my golf. just so I have better traction at the track.
and if i get really stupid I could add a matching engine in the front.
Dubsport did a couple of twin engined Golfs a while back. Got some fantastic write ups in mags.
link - http://www.dubsport.com
The problem with Golf engine feeding rear wheels is finding or mating suitable gearbox to it. Not impossible just needs sussing out. 1.8 16V was
always a good competitor to VX XE. VR6 is known to be a bit heavy though, was always a bit of a problem in a Mk1, dubsport had a novel way of
overcoming this. If you manage to get some internal pics you will see the gear linkage - could be interesting.
A guy round the corner from me is building Mojo2 with Honda 2.0 Vtec (and moddified with throttle bodies!!!). Gear linkage was a nightmare but the
managed it inhome garage. Had to the link under the engine right to back of car and then into gearbox. Shafts work through bearing blocks.
HTH
Darren.
quote:
Originally posted by DarrenW
Had to the link under the engine right to back of car and then into gearbox. Shafts work through bearing blocks.
Shifter mechanism.
You need to take a good read of Kurt Bilinskis Mid-Engine Mini page. http://www.kimini.com/Diaries/Pre2003/index.html
Follow that link and look about 2/3 way down the page. October 2002 through November 2002 dedicated to solving the shifter issue. But he did a great
job and one worth copying I think. (Hope that's ok Kurt!)
I'll be using the stock g60 cableshift box.
but if you wanted to go longitudaly mounted you could use a Fox tranny or another Audi variant.(fox box will do, but you'll need to baby it)
the 5000T box would be perfect, except it has a larger bellhousing pattern (same pattern but larger)
quote:
Originally posted by sgraber
Shifter mechanism.
You need to take a good read of Kurt Bilinskis Mid-Engine Mini page. http://www.kimini.com/Diaries/Pre2003/index.html
Follow that link and look about 2/3 way down the page. October 2002 through November 2002 dedicated to solving the shifter issue. But he did a great job and one worth copying I think. (Hope that's ok Kurt!)
), but is satisfied with the final result. I must thank everyone who replied to my suggestions that I might be able to turn my rusting Golf 1 into an interesting mid engined car.
Everyone's humour greatly appeals to me!
I am nervous about such a project as I know how much work is involved. Although I have been retired for a couple of years I still don't know
where the time goes and how I ever found time to go to work for almost fifty years I don't know.
The web site is so large that it takes hours on line to read even parts of it.Where should I look to find a basic space frame design?
quote:
Originally posted by Rorty
BTW, why does nobody call them "Aurora joints"? I think Aurora are the world's leading spherical joint manufacturer.
quote:
Originally posted by MrFluffy
... the Rose company was the main importer/distributer of spherical joints in england and it became a generic term ...
He usually keeps it covered though.
Rescued attachment phil the greek.jpg
quote:
Originally posted by Rorty
...
Kurt, if you read this, what brand of cables did you use? You mentioned Cable Craft at the start of the sequence, but I suspect that was like calling spherical rod ends "Heim joints" or "Rose joints".
quote:
Originally posted by kb58
"Cablecraft" is the name of the company, they're in Los Angeles, California.
.... the inner actual cable and cover rides inside the outer covering. So there is a bit of clearence between the two. With the assembly bent, it allows the inside sub-assembly to move sideways, that is the source of the backlash.
HI Marty
If you fancy going the VW route then it could be worth considering a newer Golf. Mk2 Golfs used an engine mounting subframe which of course could
simply be bolted to your chassis, Mk3 Golfs used a very similar arrangement and some models used a cable change gearbox, making the gear linkage a bit
easier. Mk3's are also about 3" wider (wider track) if that suits you, as an alternative you could also consider the Passat with the
transverse engine as it was basically a "big Golf" in mechanical terms
I think our friend already has an MKI golf that he wants to use as a donor.
In SA we have a huge following for the Golf and performance parts are plentyfull.
I have the same idea for my next car ...so has anybody done it?