drop in mid engine rwd space frame, who would buy it??

Hi Guys,

I've been thinking for a while of doing something different with my golf, I design fabricated performance parts for race and drag cars, so thought about making the car mid engined, rear wheel drive .

I've seen similar thing done with other cars mainly minis, but nothing for Golfs, other than the odd one (not including that polo or bike engines).

I'm thinking of using a 1.8 20v or R32 engine as both are easy to get hold of and are very tuneable.

It should pretty much be a roll in space frame with built in roll bar, for which ever engine/ gearbox and have fully independent rear suspension.

I should be able to tune the engine to whatever power I want, the suspension should be easy to set up and it will definitely need a diff.

I know a few fabricators through work so knocking up the frame shouldn't be a problem.

The big thing is, to make it cost effective I'll probably have to build a few frames, so would anyone else be interested. A mate of mine want to try it out in the back of his mk2 so we'll be able to fit it into either mark.

The real reason I ask is I've been thinking of setting up on my own, so if enough people were interested I'd think about doing it full time, designing custom parts and building these space frames.

I'd be able building and fit them through a friends garage as he already employs mechanics and I now a few fabricators interested.

Let me know what you think, I'll get some pics up once it's started.

G

what would it cost?

What advantage would this setup have over, say, going to a wrecker and buying a mk3 vr subframe and making bolting points to the mk1 chassis, using the mk3 front suspension in the rear, replacing the steering rack with fixed control rods, and only really fabricating the front motor mounting point?
Just out of curiosity. How much fabrication would need to be done to build mounting points for the frame?

ive built one of these for a mini during my time at a company called nandezcreations… that was for a bike engine however



I was also thinking about doing something like this as my next project, but not to sell, just as a personal thing… Advantages id say would be independant rear w2ishbone suspension, full cage / rear cage dependant on design, so stiffer cahssis…

fabrication wise youd be looking at pulling most of the back end out of the golf and replace with said chassis.

Are you still thinking of doing this? If so i would be seriously SERIOUSLY interested. Ive been researching for a mk1 rwd for a bit now. I just dont have the fabrication skills. Your space frame would also allow independent rear suspension wouldnt it? That would be amazing.

sounds good, for all the work involved why not make it 4wd to?