Converting a hot hatch to RWD
Discussion
I love little lightweight hot hatches. However, I also love rear wheel drive and I find it regrettable that you cannot have a fun little hot hatch, that weighs about a tonne, that is still relatively modern ie built over the last 10 years but has rwd. That got me thinking about rear wheel drive conversions, I know many people will say that I should just get old 325/Escort (Volvo, eek), but could the conversion of a front wheel drive car ever make sense? People who will convert a 205 are relatively easy to find but those who might have experience converting much else are probably less easy to find. I've only ever come across one specialist in this:
I don't think sense is the point of this... it's a bonkers thing to do and, IMO, will probably lead to very odd results.
I'm no engineer, but there must be a lot more to making this work than simply transferring the power to the rear wheels. Chassis and suspension setup, for instance, should be taken into consideration and if you get any of it wrong, you could end up with something far worse than you started.
But as said... if you're rich and have money to burn, why not?
I'm no engineer, but there must be a lot more to making this work than simply transferring the power to the rear wheels. Chassis and suspension setup, for instance, should be taken into consideration and if you get any of it wrong, you could end up with something far worse than you started.
But as said... if you're rich and have money to burn, why not?
Square peg, round hole. The car will be so butchered by the time you've cut enough metal away to swing the engine around and make a transmission tunnel that it will be far from the original hot hatch you started with. You'll also be starting from scratch with regards to setting up the handling and with a short wheel base and the weight all shifted to one side like in that photo above you might have some trouble.
RobM83 said:
I don't think sense is the point of this... it's a bonkers thing to do and, IMO, will probably lead to very odd results.
I'm no engineer, but there must be a lot more to making this work than simply transferring the power to the rear wheels. Chassis and suspension setup, for instance, should be taken into consideration and if you get any of it wrong, you could end up with something far worse than you started.
But as said... if you're rich and have money to burn, why not?
wuss.I'm no engineer, but there must be a lot more to making this work than simply transferring the power to the rear wheels. Chassis and suspension setup, for instance, should be taken into consideration and if you get any of it wrong, you could end up with something far worse than you started.
But as said... if you're rich and have money to burn, why not?
plenty of people switch old polos and golfs to rwd. it wont end the world, the results aren't surprising tbh and it usually works well.
Taskedo said:
Burrito said:
130i?
Ideal but...a bit heavy isn't it to be a true 'flickable' hot hatch? V6, I like them it worries me that the dynamics weren't so good - the 182 was almost as fast around a circuit and had quite a bit less power. Hmmmm, potentially a huge can of worms.
It has been done, I remember reading about a chap who'd converted a MK1 Fiesta to RWD some years back (think it was in Classic Ford magazine). IIRC he basically shortened a Sierra V6 floor pan and grafted the body of his Fiesta on - this would have to be the 'easiest' way of doing this as it'd avoid messing around with driveshafts & tranmission tunnels etc.
As other posters have said, changing the fundamental balance of a car by swapping the engine from a transverse to longtidudinal nounting (the very least of your problems) would be ill-advised to say the least, not to mention the problems you'd encounter with suspension.
Besides, a short wheel based RWD car will swap ends rather quickly at the limit - I've heard that the Lotus Talbot Horizons were legendary for this.
But to pay someone to do it? Jesus, hope you've won the lotto!!
Simple bit of advice: buy a RWD car mate!
It has been done, I remember reading about a chap who'd converted a MK1 Fiesta to RWD some years back (think it was in Classic Ford magazine). IIRC he basically shortened a Sierra V6 floor pan and grafted the body of his Fiesta on - this would have to be the 'easiest' way of doing this as it'd avoid messing around with driveshafts & tranmission tunnels etc.
As other posters have said, changing the fundamental balance of a car by swapping the engine from a transverse to longtidudinal nounting (the very least of your problems) would be ill-advised to say the least, not to mention the problems you'd encounter with suspension.
Besides, a short wheel based RWD car will swap ends rather quickly at the limit - I've heard that the Lotus Talbot Horizons were legendary for this.
But to pay someone to do it? Jesus, hope you've won the lotto!!
Simple bit of advice: buy a RWD car mate!
This sort of thing used to be popular in club rallying circles, hence the Gartac RWD MK3 Escort, various Metro conversions (not to be confused with proper 6R4s) etc.
Also there are genuine RWD hatches, as somebody already mentioned there is the old Starlet and there were the Vauxhall Chevette and Talbot Sunbeam. Obviously there were factory spec hot Chevettes and Sunbeams but plenty of people converted base models into genuine fast cars. The snag with these is that they are all seriously long in the tooth and slowly gaining in value.
In short anything is possible if you have the time, money and nous!
Also there are genuine RWD hatches, as somebody already mentioned there is the old Starlet and there were the Vauxhall Chevette and Talbot Sunbeam. Obviously there were factory spec hot Chevettes and Sunbeams but plenty of people converted base models into genuine fast cars. The snag with these is that they are all seriously long in the tooth and slowly gaining in value.
In short anything is possible if you have the time, money and nous!
Taskedo said:
Burrito said:
130i?
Ideal but...a bit heavy isn't it to be a true 'flickable' hot hatch? V6, I like them it worries me that the dynamics weren't so good - the 182 was almost as fast around a circuit and had quite a bit less power. 
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