Vini – the Powerflex V8 Mini
Discussion
Jazoli said:
Cadillac Elderado Northstar was one.
And the Oldsmobile Toronado, the first series with a 7.0 or 7.5 litre V8 driving the front wheels!XOcette said:
Jazoli said:
Cadillac Elderado Northstar was one.
And the Oldsmobile Toronado, the first series with a 7.0 or 7.5 litre V8 driving the front wheels!
Apologies if this is a bit wordy at the beginning but I thought it was important to understand the thought processes and the problems in the early stages
There was nothing from the base car we needed to keep.
The wiring loom would be more difficult to modify than manufacture specially. The suspension, steering, hubs, wishbones all had to be discarded.
The glass was removed and kept but these were the only bits apart from the shell that we needed.
I now had to start giving some guidance to EDM as to the direction to go and what I wanted from the car.
They had to clearly understand my goals. And I had to invent some sharpish!
Many moons ago at Power Engineering we had a customer who wanted the ultimate EVO 6 track car. Money no object. A full race car suitable for trackdays.
It had everything possible.
At the time these were very rare and expensive and it was before the days of insane power figures.
So from a brand new road car we removed all trim, fitted a cage, and fitted all the bits needed for an impressive road legal trackday car. Some considerable time into the build, the customer started talking about the hifi he was going to have fitted when we had finished.
I realised we really had no clue what this chap wanted from the car and it became very difficult to finish, simply because we didn’t understand what he was trying to achieve.
I wanted EDM and I to be on the same wavelength so if decisions had to be made and I couldn’t be reached, Eliot would instinctively know what to do.
The car had to be road legal.
No bonnet bulges
No modified external panels
No big wheel arches
No crazy exhaust
Powerflex is predominantly aftermarket and performance, with a fair percentage of our parts being fitted to race cars. It had to be something along those lines to reflect what my company does.
Road, Track, Performance and Race.
So I wanted the biggest possible juxtaposition between the inside of the car and the outside. The outside was to be subtle, stylish and to 95% of people seeing the car, standard.
The other 5% I want to be curious. “What is it? It’s not standard but what have they done?” On trackdays I would like to people to wonder why on earth a Mini is making that noise.
The inside, however would be touring car, but with two seats. As neat and beautifully put together as it is possible to be. This is where EDM excel. The quality of their prep is superb.
Oh and finally it had to be suitable to race. If there is a race series willing to take it then it had to have the cage, fuel system and all safety systems built so that it would be legal.
An awful lot of this was going to have to disappear.
There was nothing from the base car we needed to keep.
The wiring loom would be more difficult to modify than manufacture specially. The suspension, steering, hubs, wishbones all had to be discarded.
The glass was removed and kept but these were the only bits apart from the shell that we needed.
I now had to start giving some guidance to EDM as to the direction to go and what I wanted from the car.
They had to clearly understand my goals. And I had to invent some sharpish!
Many moons ago at Power Engineering we had a customer who wanted the ultimate EVO 6 track car. Money no object. A full race car suitable for trackdays.
It had everything possible.
At the time these were very rare and expensive and it was before the days of insane power figures.
So from a brand new road car we removed all trim, fitted a cage, and fitted all the bits needed for an impressive road legal trackday car. Some considerable time into the build, the customer started talking about the hifi he was going to have fitted when we had finished.
I realised we really had no clue what this chap wanted from the car and it became very difficult to finish, simply because we didn’t understand what he was trying to achieve.
I wanted EDM and I to be on the same wavelength so if decisions had to be made and I couldn’t be reached, Eliot would instinctively know what to do.
The car had to be road legal.
No bonnet bulges
No modified external panels
No big wheel arches
No crazy exhaust
Powerflex is predominantly aftermarket and performance, with a fair percentage of our parts being fitted to race cars. It had to be something along those lines to reflect what my company does.
Road, Track, Performance and Race.
So I wanted the biggest possible juxtaposition between the inside of the car and the outside. The outside was to be subtle, stylish and to 95% of people seeing the car, standard.
The other 5% I want to be curious. “What is it? It’s not standard but what have they done?” On trackdays I would like to people to wonder why on earth a Mini is making that noise.
The inside, however would be touring car, but with two seats. As neat and beautifully put together as it is possible to be. This is where EDM excel. The quality of their prep is superb.
Oh and finally it had to be suitable to race. If there is a race series willing to take it then it had to have the cage, fuel system and all safety systems built so that it would be legal.
An awful lot of this was going to have to disappear.
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