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Since rear spring conversion was mentioned

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I am starting to get it, The 8.8 Ford rear is lighter than the 9" Ford and will handled the 300-350 RWHP, I am afraid the smaller 6 cylinder rear end will not hold up. Even shortened up the Ford rear end will be quite heavy against the stock Bugeye, But really need the strength
 
I guessing in your case you’re referring to the a V8 car, not to be condescending in what your trying to achieve but a V8 engine in a Sprite is way over kill in the handling department due to the power to weight ratio and as well how can you apply the power to the ground with minimum wheel spin. If you have wheel spin you’re making a lot of smoke that looks cool but not going anywhere, it may make a great drag car but not a road racer.

Gundy, I’ve been waiting for the new battery sheet metal box to come from England for over a month, order was held up due to part of the carpet set was made in the wrong color. Yes this time they will be on steroids, Bugzilla hollers every day at me come on I wanting out of my pen!!
 
Nice job!

You can also get a rear disk brake kit from Peter May Engineering in the UK. Cost is around 465 GBP.

LINK

Winner's Circle may have these too, but their online webpage is hard to view:

https://www.spridget.com
 
Thanks, I did consider those options however, but unfortunately they do not provide emergency brakes and mine does! Also I do not have to install a wheel spacer.
 
BlueMax said:
I guessing in your case you’re referring to the a V8 car, not to be condescending in what your trying to achieve but a V8 engine in a Sprite is way over kill in the handling department due to the power to weight ratio and as well how can you apply the power to the ground with minimum wheel spin. If you have wheel spin you’re making a lot of smoke that looks cool but not going anywhere, it may make a great drag car but not a road racer.

Theres a BE with a small block Ford and an auto trans in our local club. Rear has been changed to something heavier as well though I don't know what. Car goes like stink in a straight line but doesn't ever do very well in autocross.

Kurt.
Click to expand...
 
BlueMax said:
I guessing in your case you’re referring to the a V8 car, not to be condescending in what your trying to achieve but a V8 engine in a Sprite is way over kill in the handling department due to the power to weight ratio and as well how can you apply the power to the ground with minimum wheel spin. If you have wheel spin you’re making a lot of smoke that looks cool but not going anywhere, it may make a great drag car but not a road racer.

Gundy, I’ve been waiting for the new battery sheet metal box to come from England for over a month, order was held up due to part of the carpet set was made in the wrong color. Yes this time they will be on steroids, Bugzilla hollers every day at me come on I wanting out of my pen!!
Click to expand...

Yes the V-8 car.

I would never had done the V-8 conversion but came accross this car at a very fair price and could't let it go. I agree with all that you say about how the car will perform but I want to re engineer this car to make it work around the cones more than 1/4 mile speed. I realize getting a lot of power to the ground is going to be tuff if you also want car to handle fairly well.

The first thing I am going to do is run at least a 323 rear or possibly even a 273. With the 3 speed C-4 this should keep the tires from catching on fire. Also I will have more use of lower gears with a high reving 331 Ford V-8

Also #1 spark plug sits 14" rearward of the front spindle line, therfore the motor is setting rearward toward the center of the car helping with the front to rear balance, and I am going to a rear 9"x15" rim so I can get some rubber on the ground through some street/race compound. So I only get 1000 miles or so on them it will be fun.

This is why I am trying to figure out best way to address rear suspension. Leave set up as Healey designed (which is how it is now with the 57 olds rear end) or go to a 4 link adjustable suspension.
There has got be a way to do it
 
I would say that the Ford engine would weight twice as much as the Sprite engine and your transmission would weigh twice as much as a Sprite transmission. If you run a Ford rear end you would have to build coil-over’s and cut the rear end housing down to fit under the car to the length you want then have your axles made to fit. You would have to reinforce the rear bulk head substantially and fabricate your 4 link brackets from that to the rear end housing. I can vouch for that hard work it was basic what I had to do.
 
If the hard work is rewarded with a well handling car it is worth it, So basically my question is still a question.

Is the current 1/4 spring set up sufficent if heavier radious links are used, or would an adjustable 4 link system built off a reinforced bulkhead be best option? I already know how I can reiforce the spring box area if I keep current factory set up.

The 1957 Oldsmobile rear under there now fits better than you would expect, running a 7x14" wheel. The only reason I was moving to Ford rear end is to get modern mechanics under car.

The complete Ford engine weighs in at 560 lbs, anyone know the weight of the 1275 Austine engine complete
 
Let’s look at in this prospective! What are the most sophisticated racing cars in the world? We all should know that F1 is! The current weight of a F1 car is around 440 Kg’s to 500Kg’s I know you don’t have a F1 car but where I’m going with this is that light weight and HP means quickness and handling, I also know that F1 has all the aero devices and traction controls. You don’t see big old cast iron lumps in a sports car unless the Detroit lump is less weight then the British lump like the Healey 3000. With a big old hunk of Detroit Iron sitting in the car theirs no way that you can make the car handle as well as the stock Sprite. Hap Waldrop had mention his racing Sprite, I remember Hap saying that a well prepared 1275 Sprite was the quickest handing car on the track for the money. If you want something that will handle I’ll say loose the weight dump the Detroit Iron, and go with something like the 2.3 Ford Duratec that weighs around 205lbs, and you can get up to 263HP if you want. remember light weight with lots of HP, and then you can design the suspension to perform properly.
 
understand what you are saying, when i said I wanted it to handle well I didn't mean to be as good as orginal car. I actually meant I want it to be balance and not be a miserable car to drive. I don't care about conversions enough to change every thing about car, just trying to make this work. Conversion was done professionally and really just needs update. Thanks for all the information
 
As for power, I agree about the weight issue. If one wants power to weight, the rotary turbo RX7 will provide 380hp like it does for Jeff Keisel. And that motor can produce a heck of a lot more.
https://www.racingbeat.com/mazda/performance/features/rotary-racer-jeff-kiesel.html

Its been discussed before, but the RX7 rear end gives limited slip, reduced weight, and disc brakes. Don't know how much power its good for. It may handle it. My neighbor just built a 3 series BMW with a 500hp small block and the stock rear and and axles handle it no problem, and its running low 10's.
https://the-mite.com/mite22.htm

But there is something to be said about the cool factor of a big V8 sitting in such a little car! May not be the most functional, but cool!
 
Rotary’s have their place, but no Japo stuff for me, at least the very obvious components at least HeHe!!
 
How light is the RX7 rear end, and I assume they are not a problem to shorten, I doubt I build this motor to have over 350 HP to the wheels probably close to the same torque. And are different gear ratio for RX available?
 
Problem with using an rx7 rear end in a V8 swap is the gear ratio available. I'd go with a late model mustang rear end. Plenty of shops narrow those. Then you can get higher ratio gears and LSD if you want.
 
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