WOW, you won't find many engineers that cheap! The risk and liability are too much for that little pay. Maybe one-man-band engineers are brave and under-paid but a larger consulting engineering company wouldn't charge less than $150 per hour for someone sufficiently qualified. (the eng gets paid 1/3 of that though...) So, he drove both ways, twice, spent a couple of hours the first time and maybe 1/2 hour second time:
assuming 1/4 hour travel time, 1 hour to do all the paperwork including tax invoice etc. You've got 4.5 hours. So your bloke charged $45 per hour and didn't even have time to do any check calculations to see if it was all OK.
I think I once worked out that to get one of the guys at my work to do a proper job of a sub-frame assessment and approval, one that would survive professional scrutiny, it would cost at least $15,000. That doesn't include any construction, just the check. Once he'd done a few he could use a comparitive technique that could cut the cost down to maybe $5k each time....

M

Oh,,, i though he was talking about a road registered race mini

But if he was only after a hillclimb special,,,, wellllllllllllllllllllllllll

the obvious answer is Bike engine,,, rear/mid mount,,, light as possible,,,, barest of essentials,,, & then simply remove the brain & add it to the balls ,,, lower center of gravity you see & apply copious amounts of the right peddle

or maybe fit one of these--->

http://www.powertecengineering.com/

or one of these--->



or any of the other "umpteen" similar designs of lightweight motorbike engine based weapons avaliable if you`re filthy rich

anyone buy a lotto ticket today??????????