Midas Gold Q997 WAK

[bushbaby]

Finally got round to introducing myself on the forum.

I've had my midas for approx 8 years now. Bought it as a pretty original car, white gel, five spoke revo's etc. Then after a couple of years of driving the car around i decided i needed abit more power. Having had a mini previous to the midas i was going to go down the 1380cc route, piper 285 cam, ported head etc but then got to looking at the rover k series in the metro GTi. I took the plunge and bought a write off GTi to use for bits. After a lot of messing about, many months of head scratching looking at the head lights and subframes i finally came out with a midas with a GTi k under the bonnet, man was it quick too!

After a couple more years of daily commuting and with family on the way i bought a BMW 3 series for the extra space (young family). The midas slowly got pushed further to the back of my mind and i ended up storing it at my dad's workshop. Now my two children a few years older, i've got a bit more time on my hands so now it's time to bring my old midas back up to scratch. I'm 90% through the second rebuild, this time the spec is 1600 turbo k series, tubular front subframe, rear 'live' beam axle, inboard hydragas displacers and megasquirt ecu.

I just need some information to finish off the project. I need to know what the rear window of a mk3 coupe is out of. I done alot of searching but i've not been able to find an answer.

I've attached a photo after the first rebuild i did (silver) and also a shot of the car as it was a few week ago (orange).

Simon.

[Hans Efde]

That's totally wicked Simon. Can't wait to see the finished result.
Concerning the rear window, that's a bespoke item. If noone has a spare rear window, you'll have to have one made.
Cheers, Hans

[Alan D.]

Hello and welcome,
Have i spoken to you on the phone? I seem to recollect chatting about your engine conversion. Can we have more details and pictures with regards to your conversion. I'b be interested how you have altered your gear change? Is it a PG 1 or R65 box?
If you look on recent topics you will see that we are trying to put together a further group buy for heated front screens and new heated rear screens! I believe that the rear screen is bespoke to Midas.

Hungry for information please!!

Alan D.

[bushbaby]

Hans, thanks for the info, thats probably why i've not been able to work out what production car it's taken from. The rear window i've got at the moment is abit tatty but usable apart from the heater element is U/S. If a group buy comes up i'll have one!

Alan, you've probably spoke to my dad on the phone, his name is Keith Hamer and he runs Scholar Racing where most of the work on my car is done and where i'm currently rebuilding it. As far as gearbox goes i used the R65, the first time round i used the standard linkage with about 6" put in the length, the only problem was fitting the exhaust around the linkage. The current linkage is one i've made up. I used the subframe mounted bellcrank arrangement fitted with a telescopic steering column so i have one 20mm bar coming up it the car, this does the gate selection then the telescopic part selects the gear forward and back if that makes sense. I've attached a photo showing my subframe against a standard one (note the gearlinkage bellcrank).

If you need more specific photo's i'll take some snaps; I certainly need to work out how to reduce my photo sizes down.

Simon

[Alan D.]

Thanks Simon,

Re Photos: A tip I learned from some clever person on this forum (well done that person), is right click on the photo, then left click on: "open image in a new tab",then click on the new tab which appears on the top of the page. Then you get a near full screen photo! which is good for seeing the detail!

I have an R65 box in the car with the K-series in it, which is good because the diff ratio will be somewhere about 3.5 or 3.7, which is good for 13-14 inch wheels. But I do have a PG1 with Torsen diff, which I hope to fit to a car in the future! But the diff ratio will be about 4.2, but I've just won a very rare Montego Turbo gearbox on EBay with a 3.6 diff ratio. So this should make it usable in a Mk 3!

Keep the photos and information coming. I'm doing a job on an A-series at the moment, to get it ready for the coming seasons. events, but when this car is on the road, I will resume work on the K-series engined car. Mechanically I need to sort out the gear change and fit a radiator, Then the job I'm dreading is to fit a wiring loom and get it running. Which radiator did you use? I note that you are turbo charging so you will need something that is pretty efficient!!

Alan

[manifold]

Looking good there!

Keep up the good work!

[Alan D.]

"If you need more specific photo's i'll take some snaps; I certainly need to work out how to reduce my photo sizes down."

Please Simon, I could not quite work out what you meant, with regards to your modified gear change. I had thoughts of bringing the gear change above the tunnel, leaving the tunnel free for the exhaust. But I've not really applied myself to the problem as yet! It's in the queue!

I've just had a look at your Dad's website, very impressive! There is more to your car than meets the eye. Did you choose the 1600cc engine because it is sweeter than the 1800cc engine? Have you gone for the solid or VVC cam?

I have a Rover 200 BRM with the 1800cc VVC engine and I think it is superb a very torquey engine.

Alan

[bushbaby]

I chose the 1600 simply because we had a mot failure come in and it was available. I had to rebuild the bottom end and getting the compression ratio down for the turbo proved difficult. I'm building a 1400 engine up with low compression pistons that will hopefully take alot more boost than the 1600 as i'm half expecting the 1600 to split a liner or something as the boost increases.

If i was going to put an 1800 in mine i would go with a NA setup because alot of people have done all the learning with these engines and there pretty reliable now.

Simon

[Alan D.]

One of our little Northern group, has built a K-series block with an 1100cc crank and a VVC head and produce a 1274cc K-series, which he is hoping will rev to 9000rpm!!!

He is now building a Honda CRX engine with forged everything and turbo charged, which will give about 350WHP and is hoping to fit it to a Mk 1 Midas!!

All too fast for my old bones!

Alan

[Alan D.]

With reference to the much maligned K-series engine

Another site which I lurk upon is the 16vminiclub site. There is a lot of knowledge and common sense spoken on this site. There is a discussion going on a the moment about putting a diesel engine in a Mini. I found this comment interesting:

you need to try a vvc engined mini - you'll soon forget about diseasels. oodles of flat torque from idle, most of the time around town i change up at 2-3k rpm and leave it in 4th/5th! for example i 'raced' an L.E.D covered german tdi carpet salesman mobile (audi something or other) the other day, i pulled away in 2nd so he had a chance and didn't rev past 3k, all i could see was dame edna's glasses (google it) and a cloud of black smoke in my rear view mirror! plus i average 60mpg and have had 87mpg on a run before!
Take the revs past 3k and it's a different animal, it screams its way to the limiter, shoves you back in your seat and makes you do a little wee.

Food for thought

Sorry to hijack your post Simon, but i thought it was relevant with regards to the fuel consumption. My Rover 200 BRM, 143 BHP engine. The same engine as he is referring too, give 40MPG on a run, in a much heavier car than a Midas!! So Simon is taken the correct route in my opinion!

Alan