I recently returned to Oz for two weeks (I live in Holland) and spent a fair bit of time worrying about or working on the Moke and Mini... rather than enjoying them.
While I understand that it's not good for any car to sit around (only getting the odd start-up) for over two-and-a-half years, it's still got me thinking that it might finally be time to give up on the old A-series. MOKEME runs a supercharged 1275 with a Quaife and plenty of other fruit... so you'd be right to assume that I want to keep things brisk, and keep the fun factor in the car. This would be a change for reliability, and not really economy.
The biggest problem I have: nearly all the engines being shoe-horned into Minis (read: Swift, Charade, Starlet) are either fairly old themselves, or from obscure imports. Considering a full-time return to Oz is not on the cards any time soon, I'm looking for something quite new, with parts to be easily obtainable for years to come. What is stopping people pursuing something newer - is it just cost, or also complexity?
There are plenty of fantastic small capacity engines coming out of Europe these days - has anyone taken a tape measure to a VW 1.2TSI or even the twin-charged 1.4TSI? I believe the DSG gearbox is big, but how about the 6-speed manual? I realise, I'm not talking cheap options here (especially when you factor in that most of the work will be out-sourced) - but that is not necessarily the primary concern.
Has anyone else had any other thoughts on newer engine conversion options? I'd prefer engines that make good power (i.e. >100 HP) out of the box - I don't want to destroy reliability with lots of bolt-ons.
