Trunk Space - Part 1

The silver car pictured here is your typical Classic Mini, which you'd probably find 90% of the time full of junk thrown back there being the only space to have storage in the vehicle. On the driver side, you'll see the 8 gallon tank, centered (in a well) is the spare, and working to the far right side, you'll see the battery is in a pocketed area as well.

The red car shown is more suited to my thoughts on wanting to balance the car a little more, while also keeping things straight forward in terms of function. What I would do along with the fuel cell would be to add a race battery in order to cut down on the space needed, as well as keeping in tune with not adding too much additional weight.

These cars also use a typical front and rear subframe to hold all of the suspension componentry. My rear subframe is in serious need of a replacement due to rust/deterioration. I started giving this a little more thought, and am starting to research alternative options to the rear suspension rather than just buying a new frame and utilizing old technology. I'm starting to reference F1 technology/engineering on how they compact the suspension into the smallest of spaces while maintaining firm ride control.

More updates and photos to explain what I'm talking about to come later...

Exterior Options

So up until now, I was under the impression of doing a 'raced-out' mini that I could drive on the street everyday, and tear up near anything I come across if I so pleased.

In thinking about color options for this thing, I'm beginning to lean away from bold racing colors, and thinking that a more subtle approach to the thing might be the way to go.

I'm beginning to reference Cadillac a little bit, and what they're doing in the direction of Pearl White. I've gone through the PPG books, looking for color combinations, and look to be settling on Fiat "Bianco Perla Mica" with possible a Peugeot "Gris Futura Metallic" silver compliment color for the top/stripes/etc.. These two colors in some angles are very close to one another, then when "flopped" the contrast makes the two pop pretty nicely. I think that by doing this, I'll be able to have some fun with graphics if I choose to, but not be overwhelmed with them after a month. This treatment could be looked at as something like 'ghost-flames' on a hot-rod...

I'm thinking about first visualizing this in Photoshop first to plan what the cars going to look like, when I do so, I'll be sure to post something along...

Special Delivery!

Well, last week I received the call from MiniTec that my order was complete. So I went over and picked up the unit, brought it home, and set is aside for when final assembly finally gets here.

Currently the car is without any part attached to the main bodyshell. I'm due to bring the shell in to be media blasted next weekend to remove any rust/paint/undercoating/etc... once this process is done, I'll use a Catalyzed Primer to seal the body which I do surface work to get ready for paint.

The Honda motor comes with the JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) valve cover (Red cover only available in Japan). I'm having some internal debate at the moment of having a small side project in order to make a custom cover just for this motor.

From this...

To something like this...