6/12/13

Okay, remember all that stuff yesterday about the Fiat 600 for sale in Longview?  Well, after talking it over with John, and Larry, and Gregg, they have talked me out of buying it.  We’re now pretty sure I'm going to get the Mini in Little Elm.  I've been studying the Mini Mania Honduh VTEC installation kit which would allow me to use the Honduh engine and transaxle I have sitting on the floor in that car.  I've been debating the merit and weighing the cost and complexity versus the potential gains.  I had just about… no, I had talked myself out of it and into dropping the Mini body onto a Datsun 1200 floor pan to make it RWD and use a Datsun engine.  Then I started thinking just how much work that project would be and I think I'm back to the Honduh engine again.  Here’s my thinking: with the kit we won't be “re-inventing the wheel” since all the R&D has been done for us.  Yes it is spendy, but it will include just about everything we’ll need to make the thing happen.  As for the Datsun conversion, we wouldn’t exactly be breaking new ground since John knows of a Mini in Not Texas with a 210 floor and drive train, but there would be a ton of fabrication and trial and error work involved.  Also, with a Datsun A-12 we’d double the Mini’s horsepower… the Honduh would almost triple it!  Sure, it would still be wrong wheel drive, but the Mini is the epitome of making a “Pull Toy” handle.  I talk a big game about hating FWD, but the truth of the matter is it really doesn’t make that much difference to me.  As long as the thing is fun to drive, it could be “Flintstone’s Foot Powered” for all I care.  I'm not trying to have the world’s fastest or best handling thing.  I just like for it to be fun to drive.  Now, I'm not saying the Datsun floor pan and A-series engine are out of the question, but we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.  First off we must get our hands on the car… which, by the way, might be happening this week.  It appears as though John has a buyer for the Versa already.  He sent me a text earlier asking, “Where will we park the Mini if we go get it this Saturday?”  I said I'd been thinking about my back patio but we could just as well leave it on the trailer at Beenbroke.  I'm easy either way.  If it is at my house, I can go out back and grok it whenever I want.  We’ll see.  So, there’s all of that going on.  And I think I'm done talking to y'all for today.  Yeah, I've got nothin’ else to say.  Toodles.