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Originally Posted by Clev
At least with everything in the front you'll get predicable understeer.
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Spoken like someone who hasn't autocrossed...
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2. CRX. You might be able to adapt the FWD transmission to the rear. You'd have to swap the ring gear so you don't end up with five reverse gears and one forward. You're also cutting out a big chunk of the floor to fit the motor/tranny package in there, adapting drive axles and rear suspension from an AWD Civic to fit. And then you have no room for batteries in the back at all.
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I know something about CRXes, having owned and worked on two of them since 1993. So a few points.
- The CRX (and all Civics, and most Hondas) have transverse drive-trains. You can just pick the whole thing up and stick it in the back of the car and everything will turn the correct way. That's how the Fiero, the MR-2, and the X1/9 were all made, with FWD drivetrains behind the front seats. So no R&P flipping required.
- The AWD Civic rear diff and power transmission setup is horribly flimsy. It won't even take 100% of the torque that a Civic engine can put out, let alone an electric motor. The AWD Civic could only send a max of something like 15% of its power to the rear diff, so they sized the components for that. But putting the trans in line with the rear wheels will work just fine.
- The front compartment, where the engine used to sit, can be used for batteries. There is also a goodly amount of space in the back of the CRX, including the area taken up by the fuel tank. IMHO there is more than enough for an electric motor and batteries and the transmission.
- There have been mid-engine'd CRXes made. Or at least one, with an NSX drivetrain. It was made by chopping out the rear of the car and adding a partial tube frame to handle the loads. Something similar would be required for the electric motor and transmission in this case.
It would be a whole lot of work. Doable, certainly, but you'd have to really like fabrication and have some pretty good equipment to use.
It would be much simpler to start with a Fiero. Possibly an MR-2 (the later ones may have more of the look you want; the early ones are very small indeed). You could also use a Porsche 914; there are a number of electric conversions of that car around. Google can show them to you. It has a lot of room for batteries...
-soD