No worries, I understand your problems with the budget, thats why I make everything myself.
Dont worry about only doing novice events at least your out there having a go and that's heaps better than other are doing.
Never give up on the idea of getting into the forest in a well prepared car and having the best time of your life.

Its great to have some one like your self 1200coupe on these forums especailly with your depth of knowledge. People like Michael and myself can really benefit from your ideas seeing as we are into rally.

I have one question about engine mounts. I have just dummied the setup of my 1200 motor and Hurricane extractors in the rally car. I have found that the extractors foul on the engine mount. I have breifly spoken to one of the rally guys down here about it and still have to check out his setup. He had the same problem. I used one of my spare mounts to check what amount of metal I needed to cut out of the mount so the extractors dont hit. Turns out I cut most of the rear vertical part on the engine mount out so the extractors would fit (instead of being a channel U its now a L). Seeing as you are an engineer can you tell me if this mount will still be strong enough? Should I design a new mount? I thought about utelising the mount without cutting it by turning it upside down, so instead of the channel being open from above (ie "U") it was up the other way. I am going to kick myself that I didnt get this car going sooner. Once the engine mount is sorted we can make a gearbox cross member, then the tailshaft can be made up, then it will move!

Cheers,

Simon

What you describe is a common problem when fitting big diameter pipes to the 1200's. I cant actually remember what a standard engine mount looks like
Your ideas do sound OK and obviously you are aware of the strength issues associated with engine mounts in a rally car, they do cop a pounding and your suggestions sound OK as long as you keep in mind the strength issues.
My engine/pipe set up has the same problems with the pipes interfering with the mounts so new mounts have been fabricated with cut outs in them for the pipe then they are reinforced. Every bit of metal that can be retained has been retained. There is about 2mm clearance around the pipe,I even have to jack the motor up to allow enough clearance to remove the pipes.
My car won the NSW championship in 2000 and has been rallied hard since and I still havent had to replace the engine mounts.
It's very difficult for me to give engineering advice over the web all I can suggest is that you just keep things as strong as you can and as with any new mods, keep checking them in service.

Good luck.

I have just had another look at my set up
The engine mount has a 'U' shapen cut out on the back edge of the standard engine mount then it is reinforced with another set of plates folded and welded to the mount to strengthen it. So it's a standard engine mount that's been cut and braced. I also modified the 'stand off' that comes up off the engine crossmember, the one that holds the engine mount. They are also plated and braced because I think they were a weak point in the set up and I had herd from others that they can crack.

Hope this helps.

Uh, shouldn't this avatar be forbidden on this site?