MINI Cooper S rear wheel drive conversion

[motaica]

I was wondering if converting a new MINI Cooper S from front wheel drive to rear wheel drive would be hard. Does the car's chassis have space for the driveshaft to go to the back.

Also, does anybody know if you could buy directly from BMW only the chassis with the interior, paint, doors and windows, but without the engine transmission suspension, or wheels?

Any feedback on both subjects would be appreciated

thank you
motaica

[Restyle]

Have you ever thought of getting a 3-Series?

[dco43054]

Quote:

Originally posted by motaica
I was wondering if converting a new MINI Cooper S from front wheel drive to rear wheel drive would be hard. Does the car's chassis have space for the driveshaft to go to the back.

Also, does anybody know if you could buy directly from BMW only the chassis with the interior, paint, doors and windows, but without the engine transmission suspension, or wheels?

Interesting question, and the answers are Yes, No & No.

Yes, it would be hard,

No, the pan of the unibody chassis has no space whatsoever for a driveshaft from front to back, and no space in the engine compartment for a longitudinally placed engine. This is not to say this can't be done, just that it would be a job for someone that is into serious custom cars and conversions.

And No, I don't know if MINI would be willing to sell a non-rolling shell, but I suspect not to a casual customer. Never hurts to ask.

I thought where your thread was going was in the direction of creating an all wheel drive MINI, like a Group rally car or something. But it seems not.

Have fun,

Dave

[Dom]

It HAS been done... but that was with an M3 engine conversion for a racing car so I doubt if it was street legal or cheap!

[motaica]

when i was asking for the rear wheel drive conversion, i was actually heading in the 4 wheel drive direction, what i wanted to know is if it could be converted to 4 wheel drive, but since the car has no space for a driveshaft, then 4 wheel drive would be out of the question. Forget about the space for the engine, i already have a solution for that, but if you could remove the muffler and all that piping, would there be space for a driveshaft?

A 4 wheel drive MINI would have really good handling, and connected to a good engine would be the best car to drive. I just want feedback if it can be done, and if it would be expensive.

thanks,
motaica

[GordonD]

The MINI dealers have those fibre glass MINIs on display. Buy one of those and put it on whatever car you really want (a la Funny Car) and you are away to the races - as they say.

Not meaning to be insulting but i am confused by your two posts. Why would anyone buy a front wheel drive car and immediately look for ways to make it into a) 4wd or b) RWD???

Buy a Subaru if you want 4WD and you have tons of choice if you want RWD

[Mini1380]

Quote:

Originally posted by motaica
Also, does anybody know if you could buy directly from BMW only the chassis with the interior, paint, doors and windows, but without the engine transmission suspension, or wheels?

I had heard a story that in the mid 90's, someone made an agreement with Rover to buy classic Mini's but minus the engine's. Actually they bought the engines, but they were not installed in the car. the reason seems to be that they were buying them to ship to the USA. It seems that due to the U.S. regulations, they could ship the car body since it matched parts from 25 years ago, so it was ship[ped as parts, and the engine matched parts from 25 years ago, so it could be shipped as parts as well. They just couldn't be shipped together. This didn't last for long because then engine got changed when it went to fuel injection, and then body got changed when the radiator got moved to the front. Then neither could be shipped as parts anymore. This is an interesting story if it is indeed true.

There are also some other car manufacturers that strike up agreements with limited customizers where they supply partial cars to them for special editions. Some manufacturers do this, and others just sell them the whole car and force the customizer to throw away the parts they don't want or use.

[cooper4us]

The MINI has never been a RWD car and, hopefully, will never be. If you heart desires for RWD and in line 6 cylinder engine, then the BMW 3 series is right up your alley for about $10K more. Or, you can wait for the upcoming BMW series 1 which will be RWD cars a tad or 2 bigger than the current MINI for under $25K.

Actually, "The other guys" (VW) are the ones that need to worry about making their so called "New Beetle" RWD with an air cooled engine like the original one was. See, the Beetle was never meant to be a FWD car.

It cuts both ways.

[skobylenski]

I don't know what it's like with the Mini, but with most front wheel drives, on the holeshot the rear squats, thus lifting the front wheels of the ground enough to make them loose traction at times. With rear wheel drive, the squatting is a help, not a hinder. Then you put a set of traction bars on that thing and all that squat is transformed into down pressure on the rear wheels - thus no tire spin whatsoever. I'd prefer all-wheel-drive myself, as it handles the best of all 3 configs. - look at Subaru and Audi Quattro and how well they've done in the AWD market. I've been street racing with Cummins powered Dodge pickups for a few years now and the rear wheel drive is nice, but slipping it into 4WD at a stoplight is the key to leaving a Ford or Chevy in the dust at a stoplight The looks you get from people who see a 7000+lb. truck launch from a stoplight at AMAZING Especially when you get a huge cloud of soot billowing from the 5" chrome exhaust tip

Hope this clears things up a little as to why rear wheel drive/AWD is something to be considered.

Scott

[GordonD]

Quote:

Originally posted by skobylenski
I've been street racing with Cummins powered Dodge pickups for a few years now and the rear wheel drive is nice, but slipping it into 4WD at a stoplight is the key to

Hope this clears things up a little as to why rear wheel drive/AWD is something to be considered.

Scott

interesting that you signature mentions you are considering a MINI D - I suspect the launch on your truck is as much to do with the great torque on a diesel as it is the 4wd

[skobylenski]

You bet GodronD - 400lb. ft. of torque to the wheels is stock for the '92's. And it's amazing what that torque can to with a 10,000lb. stock trailer

Scott

[meth07]

where are you getting your car converted to a rear wheel drive i've been looking for somewhere for the last two months to get my focus st converted to rear wheel drive but cant find anywhere it would be a great help