Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Yeah, have seen that people have put a subaru engine in a fulvia (antipodean thing) and another have put a ferrari engine in a fulvia! But at least that has some 8.32 thema bits...mainly the inlet manifold I believe.

In the world of modified cars this is far from the biggest crime.

Pretty sure it'll be an aluminium block and not exactly a heavyweight, so not as bad as you might expect.

LS engine would add just under 50kg to an MX5, from some quick Googling, whilst adding 400 or so horsepower - not a bad trade it seems to me.

And it's compact being pushrod.. I believe a good swap when a 996 shits the IMS bed...

Nope, moves the weight up and back significantly and packaging it it a pain.

I'll defer to the expert

Yep as above, it's the Alu block so fairly light but mostly because it's his competition car for drift events.
700bhp in a car that size makes it fairly competitive Vs the 1000+ bhp Silvias etc

And on YouTube and engine swaps. There's a full build series here of a money no object 90s F1 engine dropped in a brand new supra. Potentially the best sounding street [legal] car ever

https://youtu.be/sMxh_LaCXqg

But it is not just the engine, it is the gearbox then the suspension, then body strengthening and then stopping.

Ah so basically the skin of an MX5.

Wonder how long the 90s F1 engine lasts.

That Judd V10 is not an F1 engine it's from the Le Mans series so has a service interval of circa 3000km .. they do get swapped into historic F1 cars.

I owned 2 over a 14 year period and did all the mechanicals so I was too busy underneath the car to be looking at any other models!

Did wonder as I remember reading a while back that older (sounds so wrong but then it is 2 decades ago) F1 cars engines are were so bespoke that getting parts made is still exeptionally expensive that other engines were used.

The other thing that there were issues with was the electronics, not just engine management but things like steering wheels electronics failing so finding a work around has been interesting.

x-post from kid thread - car seats. Test fit of our car seat renders front passenger seat a bit useless. Is this likely to be an issue if I size up to a Golf/Leon/Octavia estate, or do you need to go up to an E-Class or LWB RR to avoid compromising passenger legroom?

Pretty much, most rear facing child seats take up masses of room, so if your front seat passenger is taller than 5ft3 you are going to struggle in most "normal" sized cars.
Was one of the reasons we went from our subaru legacy to a 5 series and not a 3

It's definitely tough but our Renault Zoe fit a Cybex baby seat and toddler seat with the front seat still useable and the Tesla fit them both with plenty of room.

I guess it's too late to change car seats?

Also highly dependant on the rake of the seat base that the child seat sits on.

We were actually choosing between the Cybex and the Maxicosy, went with Maxicosy in the end.

Our car was already only really just big enough (2x dogs), so I'm not averse to getting something bigger. It'll our only car for the time being, so it's balancing size vs ease of daily use.

Kid in boot.

Many reasons, the LS isn't a heavy engine.

Friend is currently building one to defend his world championship title in Gymkhana Grid, he's pretty confident it will be better than his supercharged 1.8 was, otherwise he wouldn't have spent so much time and money doing it.

His isn't quite the big budget builds you seen on youtube though.

Friend is currently building one to defend his world championship title in Gymkhana Grid

Not trying to argue, but your friends car, as well as the driftcar (mentioned further up) IMO don't count in what I am talking about. Especially as I doubt much is left from the original mx5. As a point, when friends did grass tracking the cars were homemade space frames with just the outer skin of the car. Nova (vauxhall) became mid engined rover k series cars.

Is this likely to be an issue if I size up to a Golf

Mk6 Golf with a massive swivel base cybex beast in rear facing mode allows for a usable front seat. However it is tighter on leg room that you'd like. Point about seat rake is important.

Worth also saying that when I put no1's forward facing seat in my folks mini there were absolutely no issues or limitations. So it is one of these short term issues while they're short enough to fit rear facing.

Enterprise car club are doing a black friday offer of £10 for a years membership and £10 driving credit using the code black21

Took a good look at the wiring on my old car over the weekend and it's in need of some upgrading. Too many electrical loads a 60yr old car was never intended to handle. The bloody to do list keeps growing. So far, the essentials seem to be:

Remount the fuel pump behind the tank
All new fuel lines
New alternator (got one out of a Toyota truck.)
Rewire all high current areas forward of the firewall.
Junk the mechanical fan for a big electric one out of a Ford Taurus.

After that, I'll have a last crack at unsticking the troublesome lifter and if that doesn't work. It's new solid roller lifters, new pushrods and a new valley plate so I don't have to pop a sodding cylinder head off every time I want to get to them.

If that isn't enough - I'd still like to swap the current 1 3/4" headers for a 2" set I have, then fit a modern steering box and maybe some stiffer torsion bars, so it's not quite so terrifying to drive.