Something the Gold coupe could be

[Hans Efde]

Here's an intersting link of someone using a VW donor and plunging all the stuff in a cheeky midengined sportscar:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles ... oks_green/

Personally I think this is the way to go for the next gen Gold coupe. I have been looking at mating an old Gold coupe body with a Toyota MR2 donor. That's maybe a step to far, but the idea is as the chap in the video says that going green does not have to be dull. A light small ME car could easily do 60mpg and go over 140mph. A Gold coupe with 120bhp in the back would be a real mini supercar.

[fuoriserie]

Here's an intersting link of someone using a VW donor and plunging all the stuff in a cheeky midengined sportscar:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles ... oks_green/

Personally I think this is the way to go for the next gen Gold coupe. I have been looking at mating an old Gold coupe body with a Toyota MR2 donor. That's maybe a step to far, but the idea is as the chap in the video says that going green does not have to be dull. A light small ME car could easily do 60mpg and go over 140mph. A Gold coupe with 120bhp in the back would be a real mini supercar.

I agree with you on the concept idea, but you could use any modern mid-engine kitcar chassis with a fwd transverse engine and fit a new Midas Body design....you could use a Mev Sonic7 chassis or a Sylva J15 chassis and engine options:

See here for MEV:

http://www.mevltd.co.uk/gallerysonic.html

See here for Sylva:

http://www.sylva.co.uk/j15.html


An interesting design project i would have to say, but with manufacturing cost being to high for kitcar operations maybe an exo-skeleton chassis and with a minum of bodywork could make sense.

[Hans Efde]

No I am not a fan of the exo skeletons. I have always loved the GRP constructions by Midas and GTM. While GTM now out of production (but probably coming back) a freshened up Midas Gold coupe with an engine in the back would be amazing. That said I know developing such car would cost ten thousands in manhours and material and specialist work.
I had the idea to acquire an old shell and use it for a conversion, trying to keep it cheap (but I know it eventually will be expensive). Interestingly I recently read in a CKC about a ZCars universal Engine kit. They supply a frame that can hold all sorts of engines, the rear suspension is already in place. It is designed for normal hatchbacks, but perhaps could be made to fit in a Gold coupe:
http://www.zcars.org.uk/univkit.php
A very comprehensive kit including many special parts as an aluminum fuel tank is 6230 pounds excl. vat. Not cheap, but developing everything yourself isn't cheap either and would take a few years to make. It took gordon Murray more than 10 years to get his rear engined Bronze on the road! Extrapolated to me would mean a 100 years job!
Luckily I don't have the money, nor the place and time (at the moment) for such a project so that's not a burden on my shoulders. For a brief moment I had my convertible for sale to raise funds, but I just couldn't part with this fabulous car. It's such an addictive machine.