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Originally Posted by Dauntless
Ah, Jerry, THERE you are. Didn't figure you'd be answering questions at ES.
Since all the Triumph equipment has become hard to come by, I'm curious what you think of the possibility of substiting the Miata as a source. A few pictures below.
The wheelbase is 7 inches longer, I don't have a track for it but I'm sure it's a bit wider. I suppose there's substructure to be built on, I've seen artwork of the Spitfire frame, such as what I included.
If you don't like the Triumph drivetrain I'm sure this will bring some improvement.
If anyone familiar with the Miata frame as ideas, that'll certainly be of interest. But Jerry built the actual car, I'm most interested in his thoughts.
Good luck with the TriMagnum.
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Hi Dauntless,
Welcome to ecomodder! I do visit ES off-and-on but it's usually under the cover over darkness. The Trimagnum is still waiting - I've been blown so far off course this year - blah - blah - blah...
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Substituting another car such as a Miata is certainly intriguing. I do not know the Miata intimately so my thoughts are based soley on what I can see in the pics or read on the net.
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- On the surface there would be advantages such as parts availability, wheel choices, and a bit more room.
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Some thoughts that need looking into are:
- I read where they've put the engine behind the front axle for better weight distribution. Look at your oil pan and see if the oil sump is on the rear of the engine, and does it have to be that way (for clearance reasons?) The Kubota D850 oil pan is not like this, it's deep at the front of the engine and this may (or may not) be an issue.
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- The Miata I believe has both a front and rear subframe and they appear to be connected by a tunnel of sorts.... So to actually create a custom body (Centurion for example) may or may not be receptive to this especially over the long haul. Why? If using just the Miata platform, where would the strength the Spitfire center-frame provides (as a back bone if you will) come from? I may be incorrect but I'll guess that the Miata steel body structure adds to the overll rigidity/strength. This may not be an issue but I can't take my eyes of that Miata tunnel piece.
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- Hopefully the Miata you have is one with manual steering. Even if it is not, it would be easy enough to decommssion but you're up against some tough competition with the Spitfire here. In fact, the simplicity, durability and lightweight of the Spitfire front end is a hard combination to say no to. It's been time tested on and off the track. It may seem a bit nit-picky, but I believe weight is a big factor with this project regardless of what platform one uses - remember - the D750/D850/D950 are all in the 17-20 hp range (depending on the chart you look at) so if you're looking for optimum results, an overall weight target was set with the original Centurion and that 1200 lbs is a challenging target to break. This becomes a greater challenge if you're already starting out with a heavier/wider donor. Quick glance on width is approx 51 inches (Centurion) and 63-65 inches (Miata)...
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- A little creativity may be in order but, does your local area/state require an emissions inspection? Where I am, year xxxx and up have to pass this and it's all done via the computer by way of the OBDII. If a car falls into this category this could be a problem...
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- Assuming for a moment one would use the entire Miata and just do an engine transplant: Would you be willing to do some streamlining? A Miata is generally a low-slung vehicle but it (like some of other smaller cars) is a bit wider than Centurion. It all adds up if you're going for the gold so-to-speak...
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- Also, TedV beat me to it, and Jack McCornack has "Kinetic Max" and it uses a Kubota 1100 cc turbo. This is totally worth looking at as some of his outstanding work may be also applicable to your project:
See
Kinetic Vehicles
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- Not sure exactly what you have in mind but all of the above aside - I like it!!!!!!
~CrazyJerry