How much work would be required to make the car RWD.

I am guessing a mid to rear engine transplant as mounting the engine longitudinal wouldnt really be an option. A lot of work.

I seem to remember that someone in Italy made a small business out of it but I really don't remember the name.

Engine was boosted up too making a very entertaining package.

The question though is why would you want to? Autocross? yep although it is a bit heavy for that...
Regular road use? not sure that is necessarily wise. I've seen enough crashed Clio V6s (not to mention driving short wheel based mid-engined cars) that the format, while fun, is not well suited to wet roads or emergency stops.

But if you must do it the formula is something like this:

Mark out where you want your new suspension to go.
Chop out your entire rear suspension.
Create a subframe for the engine and suspension. (so easy to say...)
Weld in suitable mounting points on the chassis.
Mount the subframe - the whole thing needs to be adjustable to ensure the alignment is accurate down to about 1mm.
Create a firewall in the chassis.
Relocate the fuel tank to the front complete with plumbing. (or use a ready made bag tank).
Rewire the car - actually this is one of the easier bits since the engine pretty much runs off a few plugs...
Find suitable suspension spring and damper rates for the front and rear. You'll need a new ARB at the front too as the original one will be too stiff.

Realistically what you are doing is (approximately) spaceframing the rear of the car, you'll need to reinforce the front too as the engine provides some stiffness that you've removed.

Or put a panda 4x4 box in.......

either way it's a dumb idea

An aweful lot. There was a RWD Cinq in PCC (front engined!) a couple of months ago -- scan in the Sei/Cinq section. Otherwise, there are a few mid engined Cinqs about, including one with a Cossie Tub motor.

With proper set up and geometry will handle like a Stratos or a SWB MR2............ Will need IVA.

UFI said:

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/21/awesome-mid-engine-rwd-abarth-500-motore-centrale-revealed-at-t/

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That's the one! Glad someone has a better memory than I!

Alternatively cut the body off an X1/9 and weld the abarth one on instead. The X1/9 has a wheelbase about 10cm shorter so you'd need near wishbones at the rear but otherwise pretty much all the work is done for you!

Now getting a horrible idea - given that I *have* both an A500 *and* a spaceframed X1/9 missing an engine......

To bad I live in the USA and parts and the cars are not easy for me to get ahold of.

Should be lots of X15s and MR2s out there.

Only MR2
I own a feiro to witch is the same set up as the MR2

xxabarth09 said:

Only MR2
I own a feiro to witch is the same set up as the MR2

Click to expand...

Only done by idiots!