On the Diesel V Petrol debate...

Mid mount it in a nice spaceframe chassis (Something a little bigger than a lotus elise/VX220) and give it the turbo/supercharger combination to maximise torque all through the rev range.

I bet it could do some wonderful things.

stop giving me ideas here

theres already been a perkins derv powered E30 :)

I'm thinking 6->8 litres running in a chassis weighing arround 750-

Bit like the guy who built the rover V8 powered reliant pro-street kitten.

But build it from scratch to looky sporty and handle well.

What perkins engine was that? I know you mentioned it a while back but I can't remember.

My Maestro van (that I'm still not using yet due to being too lazy to sell the Fiesta) has got an excellent 2.0 DI lump in it, that could have a lot of potential when the body rusts away (which hopefully is a long way off yet).

Peter

straight six avm

But if you turbo'd and fitted the same size petrol engine, it would be better.

Define better (have we been here before? :-)

Peter

That was the whole point.

I reckon with low down grunt, and a pretty good top end, it would make a excellent trackday motor.

You could just go super light and fit the VW 2L 210bhp 330lbs/ft TDi from the Mk5 golf cup car.

I still remember the Paxman VP185-powered dragster that somebody built while I was at uni. Can't seem to find any info on it now though :-(

Andy

That would be like the VX/Elise based EcoSpeedster from a couple of years ago.

I was thinking more along the diesel supercar that you could afford to run type thing. Maybe even an NA W12 from a Taureg/Phaeton

Hmm I bet you could get more than 400bhp out of the 5L V10 TDi the standard

More powerful, with as much if not more torque. You're building an insane track car here remember, diesel has no benefit.

Oh why not got he whole hog and get one of the Gardner diesels that were fitted to Hunter/Killer subs? A straight sixteen with a supercharger with a manual clutch.

What is the power to weight ratio of a 6 litre diesel engine? How does it compare to a good small petrol engine? (like the one used in the caterham r500)?

"Sporty", "handle well", you're going to have a huge monster with an 8 litre engine in it!!!

What sort of MPG did they get?

Now we are thinking. V10 is good.

Would a Cummins V8 truck engine do you?:

One of your better ideas ;)

Arround the middle of the car. if you design and build the car to take that sort of weight from the start, you can make the suspension work surprisingly well, have brakes that would haul it down, and have it handle too.