Converting 360 to MR2 - ultimate sleeper car!
Discussion
Absolutely bloody mental! 
OP, I think the issue here is that there's no way you'll be able to just take the wings etc. off and just fit fettled mr2 panels. There will without doubt be chopping of the monocoque, which is death for the car.
It's not ever going to be reversable, will likely need to pass an SVA approval which I think it would struggle with, and just throw away the value of the car - for what seems to be a whim.
I admire the thinking, but it should remain just that!
OP, I think the issue here is that there's no way you'll be able to just take the wings etc. off and just fit fettled mr2 panels. There will without doubt be chopping of the monocoque, which is death for the car.
It's not ever going to be reversable, will likely need to pass an SVA approval which I think it would struggle with, and just throw away the value of the car - for what seems to be a whim.
I admire the thinking, but it should remain just that!
forzaminardi said:
Ambrosia Light custard? Light f*cking custard?!? Are you some sort of nancy or something? If you can't hack the full fat hard stuff then I don't think you have the balls to convert a Ferrari sh*tbox into a Toyota MRTooAwesome. Light custard?!?!? What's the World coming too? F*cking Light custard!
A good point well made! - edited to add more Light custards.
king light custard! forzaminardi said:
Ambrosia Light custard? Light f*cking custard?!? Are you some sort of nancy or something? If you can't hack the full fat hard stuff then I don't think you have the balls to convert a Ferrari sh*tbox into a Toyota MRTooAwesome. Light custard?!?!? What's the World coming too? F*cking Light custard!
- edited to add more Light custards.
RossoItaliano said:
I'm thinking of converting the 360 into an ultimate sleeper car...
Why? What's your reasons..Cheap, easy conversion - uh-uh
Will convince all but the most ardent petrolheads - not likely
Will massively increase value and/or performance - not a chance
Fun to do - nah
Will earn you huge respect and adulation - that'll be a 'No!'
Lets hear 'em!
I'm going to take this thread at face value because that's much more fun than being another person whingeing about school holidays or whatever. It's an interesting thought experiment.
I like to think I am somewhat uniquely placed to comment, knee-deep as I am in the mystical world of making things look like other things, with a speciality understanding of MR2s.
Let's start with the basics here.
The goal: You want to, for a laugh, make your 360 look like something unassuming - preferably an MR2, in an amusing reversal of the kit cars.
We will also assume that you are someone wealthy enough that hacking up a car worth north of 40k is not really a concern to you (grow up, the lot of you. Cars are only bits of metal. This is a series production vehicle, not an irreplaceable historical artifact. It's a CAR. A nice, expensive, desireable one certainly. But if you ever make enough money to buy one, there'll be plenty more to choose from).
The MR2 kits are NOT Ferrari panels bolted on to an MR2. They are new custom-made panels that bolt or bond onto an MR2 chassis and happen to resemble a Ferrari. Thus you won't be able to do the reverse and just bolt some MR2 bits onto the 360.
Primarily, the proportions and measurements are totally wrong. The 360 has much more attractive base proportions than the Toyota, and this is what the kit-car guys have to work so hard to overcome. Unfortunately this works against you too, since I'm pretty sure whatever you do to that 360, it will still have that supercar silhouette and stance - it's just because of the proportions; the width, the height of the shoulder line, the roof height, etc.
If you want something that looks like an MR2 but performs like a 360, as others have said the best route is to chuck a massive turbo on an MR2. But that's missing the point for you I suspect. Second best option would be grafting the 360 drivetrain under an MR2. Much more complex, irreversible and I suspect still missing the point.
If you want to keep the 360 relatively intact underneath (so that perhaps you could keep the panels in the shed and go back at some point), your best option would be some kind of custom kit of panels that bolts on to your 360 and makes it resemble an MR2 - the exact opposite of the Ferrari kits. This will cost in the realm of £5k before painting. Aesthetically speaking you'd have some kind of mutant super-MR2 on your hands, with MR2 features but 360 proportions (because you can't do much about those without chopping up the serious bits). This could be pretty exciting as a design prospect but it certainly wouldn't be a sleeper in any shape or form.
Last option, and my recommendation, is an idea that I've been toying with for a while: make a "poverty spec" supercar. You know how when Vauxhall or Ford launches a new saloon, they show the press pictures of the super-duper range topping model with the 28" wheels and the full Sport kit etc - but then when you see them on the road, they're mostly the entry-level spec cars, in a plain colour with 14" steel wheels with hubcaps and non-sport bumpers? Do that process in reverse. Fit the smallest wheels that will clear the brakes, preferably nice skinny steels that are sunken into the arches a fair bit. Get the bumpers and mirrors wrapped in matt black to simulate non-painted bumpers - or perhaps just add some rub strips to them. If you fancy the extra spend just for the comedy, get someone like Powerflow to make up a single-exit exhaust that produces the quietest noise they possibly can. I see you've got a Spider - maybe you could wrap the engine cover glass in matte black, or to match the paint? Poverty spec would never have anything as flashy as a glass engine cover. If you've got a Challenge mesh rear grill, swap it for the standard 360 Modena solid painted one.
If you want to follow up with this plan in more detail, please feel free to PM me, I'd love to help, something that's been on my ideas list for a while now
I like to think I am somewhat uniquely placed to comment, knee-deep as I am in the mystical world of making things look like other things, with a speciality understanding of MR2s.
Let's start with the basics here.
The goal: You want to, for a laugh, make your 360 look like something unassuming - preferably an MR2, in an amusing reversal of the kit cars.
We will also assume that you are someone wealthy enough that hacking up a car worth north of 40k is not really a concern to you (grow up, the lot of you. Cars are only bits of metal. This is a series production vehicle, not an irreplaceable historical artifact. It's a CAR. A nice, expensive, desireable one certainly. But if you ever make enough money to buy one, there'll be plenty more to choose from).
The MR2 kits are NOT Ferrari panels bolted on to an MR2. They are new custom-made panels that bolt or bond onto an MR2 chassis and happen to resemble a Ferrari. Thus you won't be able to do the reverse and just bolt some MR2 bits onto the 360.
Primarily, the proportions and measurements are totally wrong. The 360 has much more attractive base proportions than the Toyota, and this is what the kit-car guys have to work so hard to overcome. Unfortunately this works against you too, since I'm pretty sure whatever you do to that 360, it will still have that supercar silhouette and stance - it's just because of the proportions; the width, the height of the shoulder line, the roof height, etc.
If you want something that looks like an MR2 but performs like a 360, as others have said the best route is to chuck a massive turbo on an MR2. But that's missing the point for you I suspect. Second best option would be grafting the 360 drivetrain under an MR2. Much more complex, irreversible and I suspect still missing the point.
If you want to keep the 360 relatively intact underneath (so that perhaps you could keep the panels in the shed and go back at some point), your best option would be some kind of custom kit of panels that bolts on to your 360 and makes it resemble an MR2 - the exact opposite of the Ferrari kits. This will cost in the realm of £5k before painting. Aesthetically speaking you'd have some kind of mutant super-MR2 on your hands, with MR2 features but 360 proportions (because you can't do much about those without chopping up the serious bits). This could be pretty exciting as a design prospect but it certainly wouldn't be a sleeper in any shape or form.
Last option, and my recommendation, is an idea that I've been toying with for a while: make a "poverty spec" supercar. You know how when Vauxhall or Ford launches a new saloon, they show the press pictures of the super-duper range topping model with the 28" wheels and the full Sport kit etc - but then when you see them on the road, they're mostly the entry-level spec cars, in a plain colour with 14" steel wheels with hubcaps and non-sport bumpers? Do that process in reverse. Fit the smallest wheels that will clear the brakes, preferably nice skinny steels that are sunken into the arches a fair bit. Get the bumpers and mirrors wrapped in matt black to simulate non-painted bumpers - or perhaps just add some rub strips to them. If you fancy the extra spend just for the comedy, get someone like Powerflow to make up a single-exit exhaust that produces the quietest noise they possibly can. I see you've got a Spider - maybe you could wrap the engine cover glass in matte black, or to match the paint? Poverty spec would never have anything as flashy as a glass engine cover. If you've got a Challenge mesh rear grill, swap it for the standard 360 Modena solid painted one.
If you want to follow up with this plan in more detail, please feel free to PM me, I'd love to help, something that's been on my ideas list for a while now
so called said:
OP, I'm perhaps the best body and interior fitter in England.
Might I suggest that you give me the 360and let me do the work for you.
The end result will look so much like an MR2 that your really wont be able to tell its not a real MR2.
PS - please let me know before April 2nd.
Cheers.
Errrmmm,,, I'AM THE BEST BODY AND INTERIOR FITTER IN THE UK>>>>Might I suggest that you give me the 360and let me do the work for you.
The end result will look so much like an MR2 that your really wont be able to tell its not a real MR2.
PS - please let me know before April 2nd.
Cheers.
I will take on this work for you
007 VXR said:
so called said:
OP, I'm perhaps the best body and interior fitter in England.
Might I suggest that you give me the 360and let me do the work for you.
The end result will look so much like an MR2 that your really wont be able to tell its not a real MR2.
PS - please let me know before April 2nd.
Cheers.
Errrmmm,,, I'AM THE BEST BODY AND INTERIOR FITTER IN THE UK>>>>Might I suggest that you give me the 360and let me do the work for you.
The end result will look so much like an MR2 that your really wont be able to tell its not a real MR2.
PS - please let me know before April 2nd.
Cheers.
I will take on this work for you
(I'm double bluffing his 1st April thread).As mad as this thread is, I've got to admit some affinity with the original sentiment. For a while now I've been plotting a reverse tuned hatch.
The concept being "as close to a rallycross car as possible whilst looking as visually indistinguishable from a poverty spec 1.0 hatch as possible".
I've always centered around a clio as it has the greatest juxtaposition of tuning part availability vs basic look of the boggo 1.0 - the problem being that modern hatches don't have enough of a disparity across the range anymore.
...then I saw the new Focus RS and figured that might be the simple solution to my needs. ...Buy one, have the povery spec bodywork screwed on. Downsize the alloys. I'd probably need to downspec the interior too, if I was going to stick to the original plan.
I can't be the only one - surely???
The concept being "as close to a rallycross car as possible whilst looking as visually indistinguishable from a poverty spec 1.0 hatch as possible".
I've always centered around a clio as it has the greatest juxtaposition of tuning part availability vs basic look of the boggo 1.0 - the problem being that modern hatches don't have enough of a disparity across the range anymore.
...then I saw the new Focus RS and figured that might be the simple solution to my needs. ...Buy one, have the povery spec bodywork screwed on. Downsize the alloys. I'd probably need to downspec the interior too, if I was going to stick to the original plan.
I can't be the only one - surely???
PBDirector said:
As mad as this thread is, I've got to admit some affinity with the original sentiment. For a while now I've been plotting a reverse tuned hatch.
The concept being "as close to a rallycross car as possible whilst looking as visually indistinguishable from a poverty spec 1.0 hatch as possible".
I've always centered around a clio as it has the greatest juxtaposition of tuning part availability vs basic look of the boggo 1.0 - the problem being that modern hatches don't have enough of a disparity across the range anymore.
...then I saw the new Focus RS and figured that might be the simple solution to my needs. ...Buy one, have the povery spec bodywork screwed on. Downsize the alloys. I'd probably need to downspec the interior too, if I was going to stick to the original plan.
I can't be the only one - surely???
Better off with an E36 M3 Evo saloon. Convert it to look like a 316i.The concept being "as close to a rallycross car as possible whilst looking as visually indistinguishable from a poverty spec 1.0 hatch as possible".
I've always centered around a clio as it has the greatest juxtaposition of tuning part availability vs basic look of the boggo 1.0 - the problem being that modern hatches don't have enough of a disparity across the range anymore.
...then I saw the new Focus RS and figured that might be the simple solution to my needs. ...Buy one, have the povery spec bodywork screwed on. Downsize the alloys. I'd probably need to downspec the interior too, if I was going to stick to the original plan.
I can't be the only one - surely???
RossoItaliano said:
J4CKO said:
You have to have the car open, not just find a Ferrari and place some Custard on it, I could do that, we have Stratstones a Dog walk away so I could prove ownership of an FF, a 458 or any other model, Aston, Bentley, Mclaren, Porsche and others not far away as well, all you have proven is ownership of a pot of Ambrosia ready made Custard, not the full on majesty of a pot of Birds Custard Power, the stuff that is more or less white when dry but magically turns vivid orange on contact with milk.
OK, so I had to go back and put a brick through the guy's window to get access, but here...Grateful if we could stop the joking now gents and talk sensibly about this!
As for stopping joking and talking sensibly, to be fair, you are talking about cutting up a perfectly good Ferrari to make it look like an MR2 but we do need a bit of mad in the world, Victorians used to build Follys, so why cant modern car owners.
I think that maybe the MR2 is a bit dinky to scale down onto a 360, maybe there are some reversible mods that could be used to fool the armchair experts (i.e. most of PH, including me) that it was once a Toyota ?
Sadly it's time... Happy April 1st gents! Thanks everyone for being such good sports! 
To confirm, I love the top-end-Golf-MR2-alike and promise I won’t be taking an angle grinder to it. In fact this afternoon, once I’ve changed out of my school uniform and had some Ambrosia Light, I’m gonna treat her to a good clean and polish by way of apology for bricking open the window yesterday.
(thinking about it, the weight of all that dirt must currently be reducing its BHP??)
Have a great day everyone!
To confirm, I love the top-end-Golf-MR2-alike and promise I won’t be taking an angle grinder to it. In fact this afternoon, once I’ve changed out of my school uniform and had some Ambrosia Light, I’m gonna treat her to a good clean and polish by way of apology for bricking open the window yesterday.
(thinking about it, the weight of all that dirt must currently be reducing its BHP??)
Have a great day everyone!
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff