Zizzle,,,& Minimad,,,& Gafmo
I`m a born & bred die hard mini enthusiast so i like to stick with mini engines, but, that said , i am doing the turbo charged alloy V8 front wheel drive conversion for one of my speedway minis & also a turboed Yamaha R1 powered thing for bitumen circuit work also, so i`m not dead against engine swaps at all,,,but for road use, the average Joe Blow would have to seriously look at the Bimmer conversion before stepping into the whole "re-design the entire front of the car" thing,,,especially when a std mini handles so dam well, it`s hard to beat,,, & then concidering the over-all costs of both the Bimmer head job conversion compared to the complete front of the car toyota/suzuki job, well,,,in my books it just has to be a better option,,,as for the A series gear box being able to cope???,,,welllllll,,,,,there are so many miths & stories & crap talk about what they handle & how long for, that it really stands the hairs up on the back of my neck,,,so many people have absolutely no idea what they`re talking about , & usually & simply because of pub talk rumours as to how weak they are,,,what crap, they can take an absolute flogging if built properly & they take it for yonks.
I can say that "IF" an A series box was built well & correctly that it could & can quite easilly handle 100hp for sustained periods , for years & years, without any drama what so ever,,,proof is in the pudding with my roady 1510cc producing well over 100 Hp & it took 8 years of shear hell abuse racing nearly 2wice a month for 7 years & then it hit Targa Tasmania Rally for a 2000km flogging & still was able to continue racing club events for another year after that,,,it is buggered now tho

, but hey???,,,,that`s a shitload of abuse for a sh!tload of time & it`s just a std rod change gearbox with nothing special inside it except a slippery diff shoved up it`s bum, whoop doop!!!
so,,,in saying that, i know we can get approx 180HP out of our Bimmer headed "Road" stroker on 15lbs boost (possibly more), but i`m not after any more for road use, trying to keep it smooth,quiet & lovely roady & obviously that 180hp is not going to happen through the box for any length of time anyways,,,maybe just on track/club days , hillclimbs, autocrosses etc,,, REMEMBER, I`m not at full throttle & 15lbs @ 8000rpms while taking the missus to work & back or doing the shopping, there`s a sh!tload of homework gone into the build of this thing & the computer is set with 2 programs & 2 seperate fuel tanks & 2 different boost settings,,,the left tank with pump fuel, turn knob to low boost setting(5lbs) & push button to soft power program (1),,,,then we turn the tap over to tank 2 (full of Av-gas) , push program (2)--> (race mode) & hit the boost knob (15lbs) & hang on
definatley No race motor, but quick enough to put the sh!ts up some V8s & rotarys & have some fun at the track with while at the same time , i can drive it sedately to & from the track & still go shopping in the thing, easy-peasy
The 1170cc race version is a bit more complicated as we`re playing with ball bearing turbos & water/water intercoolers & hi boost (20lbs & up) & 10,000rpms etc etc etc...sorry no power figures for that one yet

still having probs getting it all together right, sorting cam profiles, lighteneing pulleys, re-working exhaust pipes etc etc etc...but i`d expect a bit over 200hp hopfully more but we can`t be too greedy concidering that we`re planning it to be quite drivable too

REMEMBERING it`s only a tiny weeny 1170cc & i`m not slinging the lightest rods & pistons in the world. I`d dearly love to be able to afford some lightweight titanium & alloy internals, one of my good mates (Bruce Ayers) has some old titanium indy car valves that i`d like to swipe off him & turn down for the job & also has a really good contact for some awsome pistons & rods, so maybe in the future we might rip it all apart & fit her up with some decent internals
hope that handles some of your questions,,,
like i said,,,i like the way the mini handles on 10" wheels, all my work on the "New Blew" Targa car was not in vein, i learnt a lot & it is one of the best handling minis that i`ve ever driven, but i know a 10" wheeled mini can handle even better & accellerate even better ,so that`s where i`m headed once again,,,back to 10s

it`s pretty dam hard to stick a suzuki or toyota into a mini & use 10" wheels with keeping a decent sort of final drive ratio hey??? not many people think about that part of the equation do they

instantly there`s no question but to shove big huge heavy motha brakes & even bigger & heavier 13" wheels on the poor old thing,,,yeah,,,a backwards step in my books
ah well,,,my fingers are hurting & my girlfriend wants me to feed the dogs & pooper scoop the yard
keep the questions comming if you like reading all my dribble,,,shut up if you don`t
