Should I trade my Fiesta for a Mirage? (and mod for more power?)

[Messy Mitsu]

We discussed this before: hayabusa kit could easy go 20K. Your best bet is to score totalled Lancer donor, and sell leftovers on eBay.

It doesn't have to be the exact kit, but knowing someone who has one could be a plus for measurements and ideas on how to swap an alternative street bike engine in there with potential.

[Eggman]

The problem with twin engines would be timing and tuning. You couldn’t have one engine powering just the front, while another is pushing the rear, this would cause accidents while steering. It would take a company like mitibishi itself to do this. I have seen 2 engines side by side powering 1 driveshaft to the rear wheels but even this is extremely complicated.

Accidents while steering? Do you crash while cornering in a front wheel drive car? I enjoyed learning to drive in a rear wheel drive car, and thought doing donuts in a snow covered parking lot was what driving is all about. How do you suppose four wheel drive vehicles manage? I'm not talking about all wheel drive drivetrains, I mean four wheel drive without the viscous coupled transfer case. In either case, I see many similarities.

I get what you are saying about difficulty in balancing power to the front and rear, but with continuously variable transmissions, I'm going to venture a guess that it wouldn't be that difficult or complicated as you suggest. As you said earlier, the engine from the Smart is the same as what's already in the Mirage. I don't see a gross imbalance of power output.

But, perhaps I am missing something in your explanation, or I am oversimplifying things. To me, this is just fun to think about. I don't think I would ever do something as extensive as fitting a Mirage with a Smart rear engine, much less put a motorcycle engine in the front. It would be fun to see someone try it!

Not to mention today's electronics, it would need to measure air fuel mixture which would take the sensors different amounts of time to send back to the ECU which then talks to the PCM. You are talking big money in fab work and possibly an electrical engineer to wire this up in order to keep ABS / traction control / stability control.

I agree, with today's electronics things get more complicated. But with the right donor, all the engine management electronics could be transferred intact & fully functional. Throttle is electric on both, right? Aren't the various electronic systems somewhat separated in the Mirage? Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought the engine management and traction/stability control used separate controllers. Use the Smart rear engine assembly with it's engine management electronics - I don't see the need to bring a second set of traction/stability controls with it. In this application, would you really want this? Let me know if you are going to integrate traction/stability control with your Hyabusa transplant.

What I was talking about is using a motorcycle computer / engine / trans and just fabbing up a longer rear end and datalogging with a laptop and gauge interface. I May not have to tamper much with the front steering besides brakes and suspension.

And you say this is not as much work, converting the vehicle to rear wheel drive in a motorcycle engine?

Go for it man! I can't wait to see pictures!

[Messy Mitsu]

Look at the issues ford had with the newest focus RS. They wanted it to steer like a FWD car but push from the rear like a RWD and it took them a very long time to perfect it. That was using 1 engine. One of them would have to output less power than the other, most likely the rear. It is very possible to do this but I think tuning wise it would be much more of a headache than a complete motor swap. A street bike wiring harness is a joke compared to a car, and typically much easier to tune, plus it is much more compact than what is already in the car. The kit for the smart car can give ideas of how to mount it and what it would need in the long run. I'm sure you could even make it mid engine with a streetbike engine which would make fitting the trans to the rear axle easier but it would make mounting the engine properly and safely a lot harder.

[Eggman]

Look at the issues ford had with the newest focus RS. They wanted it to steer like a FWD car but push from the rear like a RWD and it took them a very long time to perfect it.

Mind sharing your source for this? I'd like to read more.

[Messy Mitsu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwd5838OeY

they made 8 episodes. I can do further sourcing if you need.

[Eggman]

Thanks for sharing the video. I wish I had time to go through the whole thing, but 44 minutes of Focus advertising is a bit much. At what time in the video do they discuss the handling problems?

[Messy Mitsu]

start at 17 minutes, the whole video is basically trial and error of them testing and fixing it, im sure I have read dozens of articles about it too that goes more in depth

[Messy Mitsu]

32:30 is another bit

[Eggman]

start at 17 minutes, the whole video is basically trial and error of them testing and fixing it, im sure I have read dozens of articles about it too that goes more in depth

32:30 is another bit

I watched both segments and I don't get the sense that the people in the video who discuss the handling characteristics of this Focus RS describe it as problematic at all. On the contrary, they use terms that identify it as the 'character of the car' as if it's a good thing.

So, what's the big deal?