Welcome to FrankenMini Racing

The following is a blog by Paul Monaghan aka paulmon to highlight work in preparing a 1967 tube frame Mini Countryman (aka Estate) for SOLO2 competition in Ontario, Canada. Look here for more information on the car, you can check out my upcoming event list and don't forget the Photo Gallery. For additional information contact me.

New car new website. I'm not going to close this site but it won't be updated any longer. The new site, www.brutusv8.com for the new car is now up and running. Not many entries yet, but it will grow.

It's been fun. RIP FrankenMini.

An opportunity that I wasn't expecting has presented itself. It's not 100% for sure yet, but there is a chance FrankenMini might become a donor car. The recipient? A Locost aka Lotus/Caterham 7 clone. The picture you see at right is an example of just such a car. This particular unit is Yamaha R1 Powered Locost called "Project Seven" and built by Jeff. This car is my inspiration for what I would like to achieve. Paul from Breadbox racing is looking to start building Locost 7's.

FrankenMini has all the parts to be a great donor vehicle and with the recent setback with FrankenMini, having to extend the wheel base among other things, Paul and I started to talk about building a Locost. This isn't a small decision, I've got 3 years of my life in FrankenMini, and a great deal of $$$. That said, it's been 3 years and it's still not fully sorted. I think a clean slate might be the best way to proceed, a Lotus 7 has always been one of my "dream cars" and there is a chance here to have one of my dream cars, that's hard to pass up. I've indicated to Paul that I plan to proceed, we just need to work out the details. Just need to keep things on my tight budget. The other bonus is we can built the car with the prospect of registering it and making it street legal. Something that's much more complicated with FrankenMini without significant investment.

So what's up with the term "Locost?" The term Locost comes from Ron Champion, author of the book, "Build your own sports car for as little as £250". Ron called his creation a Locost and the term has stuck to represent the model for a "home built" Lotus/Caterham 7 clone.

The plan we're working on would be to build a frame large enough for my 6'3" 230lb body as well as large enough to stuff a small block chevy engine under the hood. To keep costs down the plan would be to use Frank's power train initially and get the SBC later down the road. A SBC would give the car around 3lbs per hp. That's a terrifying thought. However even with Frank's current drive train the car will weigh less than Frank and should be faster.

Anyone think I'm nuts?

FrankenMini will provide numerous donor parts, that's one way to keep the costs down.

• Ford 2300cc Engine and transmission
• Steering rack and steering wheel and bits
• Brake calipers,master cylinders, pedals
• Clutch master, slave and lines
• Coil overs (may have to change the coils)
• Seats and seat belts and window nets
• Gauges
• Battery and cables
• Fuel cell, fuel lines, fuel pump and filter
• And more...

The parts that I'll need would be as follows (click for pictures):

• Chassis
• Fiberglass
• New A-Arms
• New hubs, to go to a more common bolt pattern.
• New radiator
• Headlights/Taillights
• Some other misc bits (Rod ends etc)

Subject sort of sums it all up. The brakes won't fit inside the 13" wheels without some SERIOUS modifications. I'm basically faced with two options. Re-engineer the front hubs, spindles, suspension or extend the wheel base by 4-6 inches and go with bigger wheels to fit the brakes. The later offering the ability to run a larger rotor. I'm opting for the later. This is going to involve cutting what is effectively the entire front "clip" off the car, extending it 4-6 inches and then putting larger wheels and rotors. It sounds rather easy but does get into a whole load of stuff, which I've documented below, just hit the "Read More" link. I decided with this route for several reasons, most because it was easier than rebuilding the entire front suspension, hubs etc and it will also let me run a very common tire size 205/50-15. 13" tires are getting hard to get.

[read more]

Not update in over a month, that's not good. Haven't run the car in a while, need to still get the brakes sorted. Well I've got the new brake calipers but they're having just as hard of a time fitting as the previous ones did. I've requested Paul's help at Breadbox Racing to sort this out. He's suggested two approaches, both of which sound like a great deal of work. The two options are:

1) Fabricate a new spindle to move the pitman arm and modify the rack extensions, this keeps me with a 13" wheel but moves the brake rotor inboard a little more.

2) Go to a larger wheel, 14" 15" or 16" are possible with tires measuring 22.8" diameter. Obviously smaller is lighter This requires modify the flairs and floor to clear as well as a larger rotor as the caliper needs to move out more.

The first option sounds less complicated and require less fabrication changes. The second option I believe is a far better option but will cost me far more money. I'll need new wheels, new tires, and new rotors. That will get expensive fast. Staying with 13" wheels also gives me a huge selection of different Hoosier slick tire choices, yet still limits my rotor size. Decisions decisions.

The picture to the right is the brake calipers I just ordered from TCE Performance Products in nice bright red. Since my last post I've done more research and discussed things extensively with Todd over at TCE Performance Products. He punched in some numbers into various formulas and came up with some recommendations. We determined that my 1.75/1.62 Outlaw brake had way too much front bias when pared to my 1.75" 2 piston rear caliper. This will result in a very long pedal that's soft. This is what the Tilton folks said too. Considering my front calipers are leaking and in need of a rebuild I decided rather than upgrade the front master cylinder to firm up the pedal, yet still remain with a heavily front biased brake system and leaking calipers, I went with new front calipers.

Reducing the size of the front piston bore will require less fluid to push the calipers, less fluid from my smaller 0.75" master cylinder means a pedal that is more firm. I'm replacing the front calipers with the Forged Wilwood Dynalite with a 1.38*2 piston configuration. This is a significant difference over Outlaw calipers I have now. This results in the following changes.

Bias, assuming a 50:50 bias bar: 66% front for old calipers vs 56% front for the new, this allows finer grain bias adjustment, and I can ditch the proportioning valve. Which both Todd and Tilton suggested I should do.

The only draw back to moving to the smaller piston is more pedal force will be required to exert the same amount of torque on the front discs. Previously 60lbs of pressure on the brake pedal would result in 47906 inch pounds of torque on the front, I will now need 90lbs to get the same amount. Doing some reading and 90lbs on the brake seems like a good amount and what appears to be a common guideline for a non-boosted brake system. Rear torque goes from 37000 inch pounds to 24696, this is where the bias change comes in. Should be much easier to modulate the brakes with this setup.

More positive news with the Wilwood, it seems to be a smaller outside radius than the Outlaw brake. Basically this is the amount of room you need on the inside of the wheel to fit the brakes. I will reclaim approximately 2.5mm, which might not sound like much, but with this brake system is HUGE!

More to come when the brakes arrive next week sometime.