You may have seen this before......but you have to admire the engineering skills and its practically all British Leyland parts, transverse mounted engine and front wheel drive just like proper Mini's !
More here:
http://reocities.com/MotorCity/factory/2760/Viku2.html

Rover V8 3.5L engine on transverse Austin Princess fwd gearbox for the Mini Clubman V8








"Plan included fitting the engine transversely like the original Mini layout, finding a suitable gearbox/diff and mating everything together. Gearbox is originally from an Austin Princess. It is of Mini design, located underneath the engine. Surprisingly the Rover V8 block and Austin Princess gearbox fitted pretty easily (?) together with only a few adapter plates. Flywheel is a combination of Range Rover and Princess parts. The clutch is a combination of late model Rover clutch plate and Saab turbo diaphragm. A new final drive was specially designed and machined for this engine, ratio is around 2,7:1. The engine is tilted backwards about 10 degrees.

"Carb is a 390 cfm Holley which also needed modifications to gain bonnet clearance. Engine is rebuilt and fitted with a hotter camshaft. Owner Viku Perala from Finland, fabricated one-off exhaust manifolds with stainless steel and mild steel tubing. His Mini has "only" a single exhaust because the dual would not fit and he wanted some stealth effect… Well, the exhaust note is hard to miss !!! Cooling is taken care of with a Mini 2-row super cool radiator and a specially made auxiliary radiator.

Surprisingly enough suspension components and suspension pickup points are all ORIGINAL. Furthermore, bulkhead is also original, no cutting was required !!! Like you see in the photos, the package is pretty tight but everything fits. What is even more surprising is that this car does not feel over engined. It runs just about the same way an original Mini does. Only difference being the extra torque....."

 

Gordon Allen's Jaguar based Twini Mini engines were also interesting feats of 1960's hybrid Mini engineering......
Information on the amazing 'Twin Jag Mini' below is from the John Baggott 'Mini Racing Story' book.

Allen Jag-Mini engine as seen at the NEC 2010 on MCR stand (Photo: Miniholic-MCR)

 

'Practical Performance Car' Magazine (UK) - August 04 page 30-36 write up on another FWD V8 Mini Clubman here.
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