Rear engine RWD, front engine RWD or front Engine FWD

[MW52KER]

I am in the process of building a road legal car from scratch. Very similar to the super 7 but im adapting mine slightly to look more like the Ariel Atom.

My issue is do i go Rear engine RWD or Front Engine RWD or FWD

Also the car will only weight around 900kg so do i go smallish engine and tune it to the max or big engine and scare the poo out off my wife every time i take her out lol

 

[obi_waynne]

It depends a lot on what you want. Low cc high revving engines are fun, they have no low down power though so lack the get off the line grunt a larger engine would.

Having the engine over the rear driven wheels will aid traction but it will make cornering harder with the light front tending towards understeer. A front engine RWD is my preferred setup, the oversteer is great fun and cornering feels more natural.

A turbocharged 1.4 would be a good compromise between light and small and powerful.

Have you looked into bike engine's other than the driveshaft/gearbox it is quite easy to setup and pretty reliable?

 

[MW52KER]

I have looked into a bike engine the only issue is with wanting it road legal I'd preferably need a reverse which means adding a reverse box.

As for small engine I'd considered a smart four two engine mainly for cost wise as I could use a majority of the car as a donor car but also I want paddle shift and the smart four two is rear engine rwd with paddle shift
My only issue with this is tune ability of the engine as its only a 1 litre but you can get a brabus spec with turbo
My other thought was an mr2 donor but these are hard to come by

 

[obi_waynne]

I saw a Smart with an MR2 engine conversion, that was pretty crazy.

Have you looked into Beetle chassis/Porsche engine options? Should be pretty simple to setup. I'm sure the breakers yards are full of 911 engines and Beetle chassis.

 

[MW52KER]

I'm fabricating the chassis myself so chassis isn't really an issue as I will be able to position the mounts to accommodate virtually any engine the main issue is height.

A smart with an mr2 engine Jesus Im Surprised it didn't shake all its plastic bits off lol

 

[SLEEPER]

I saw a Smart with an MR2 engine conversion, that was pretty crazy.

Have you looked into Beetle chassis/Porsche engine options? Should be pretty simple to setup. I'm sure the breakers yards are full of 911 engines and Beetle chassis.

Dont think you will find any 911 engines in breakers anymore and if you do they will cost way more than the project will all in .

 

[MW52KER]

Yeah I was thinking that too. 911s will be hard to come by nowadays I think I'm swaying more to the mr2 turbo and look at a bit of adaption and trying to mount it rear to mid to try help with the balance. Then maybe add alittle ballast front end

 

[MW52KER]

Been looking a bit more into the bike engine idea as reverse boxes are pretty easy to get hold of plus the big plus side is the power to weight ratio would make the project with a nicely tuned bike engine have awesome bhp per ton. My only issue is I can't find anywhere that explains how the gear change would work

 

[MW52KER]

Another possibility I've looked into is using a Lexus is200 as a donor as they are front engined rwd what's peoples thoughts on this and how tuneable is the Lexus engine. If I remember right these have either a 2ltr 4 cylinder or a straight 6 Toyota engine in so should be fairly tuneable

 

[T9 man]

Now don't quote me on this, but I seem to remember reading somewhere a few years ago that the Lexus ECU does not respond to tuning/remapping and if you wanted to go down that route, you would have to factor in an after market programmable ECU. I am sure one of my esteemed colleagues on here will know the true facts about this though

 

[MW52KER]

Yeah i've looked into it and it would have to be an aftermarket ECU. but i'm seriously liking the idea of a Lexus donor now if i up it to the IS300 they have the 2JZ-GE engine which is a non turbo version of the 2JZ-GTE which can be found in Toyota Supra's apart from not having turbos alot of the engine is the same so should be quite tuneable i seen posts and other readings the 2JZ-GTE can be tuned to +1000bhp and the 2JZ-GE can produce +500bhp which for the weight of my build should be plenty i think 1000+bhp in a car that weights around 5-600 kgs would send me sideways in a ball of fire through the pearly gates although knowing my luck it would probably be the burning gates of hell i end up lol

 

[MW52KER]

AAARRRRGGGHHHH getting stressed now. After talking to different people and doing more research i really cant decide Car or Bike engine