Converting a hot hatch to RWD

[Taskedo]

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:

[Taskedo]

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.

[Taskedo]

Maybe I'm prejudiced against Volvos, this just made me giggle:

[Taskedo]

Superhoop said:

If you fancy a rear wheel drive hatchback, then get yourself over to the Passion Ford forum, and have a look at the restorations and projects forum.....

A couple of Focus' (Focaii??) a Puma and a KA, all converted to RWD with Cossie power

I have looked at and like these a lot. That said, the Pumaspeed 4wd Puma with Cossie power is just mental. The official Ford Focus V8 from a few years back was great - there was a guy in the UK doing an estate version.

[Taskedo]

CDP said:

How about removing the front driveshafts from a Golf 4 Motion?

That's a great idea but I once had a V5 and just hated the way it drove, very understeery and it had a generally disconnected feel to it.

[Taskedo]

I suppose the thing is that hot hatches tick many boxes: they can blend into the background and often don't draw unwanted attention when 'pressing on' (excluding VXRs and a few others), they're practical, often good on fuel and light on consumables like brake pads, the footprint is small and so you have more room on the road. But, as they are often descended from humble mainstream models they suffer from the profit focussing mass manufacturing decisions such as fwd, cheap trim and poor noise insulation. I know of a couple of people who have the funds to buy what they want but still run a hot hatch as part of their fleet as it is often useful in more situations than the supercar/mega estate etc, I'd just like one of these with rwd. The 130i is a good car but for me a little too heavy at 1475kg, I just like the feel of a lighter car.

[Taskedo]

mybrainhurts said:

I really fancy an original Mini with a bike engine in the boot...

Yeee and, indeed, Haaaaa ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOldGhPe0-0&fea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQlS303dtig&fea...

The 400bhp vtech (I guess supercharged or turbo'd), AWD version from the USA is very nice and won't deafen you like the rear engined one might
superfastminis.com I think