Donors

[Dave Adams]

its occurred to me that a comprehensive list of current donor cars will be useful on here.....so here goes;

BMW..all of them

Lexus...most of them i think

Mercedes...again most of them

Mazda....MX5 and i believe some others (RX7?)

Suzuki.....the 4x4's but box is easy to mod apparently

Fords mated to Type 9's

any others out there spring to mind?

[Steve and Matt Pegrum]

The guy who I bought my Phaeton project from said he was originally going to fit a Rolls Royce engine!

Luckily he didn't exactly get very far....

[Big Vern]

As said already - useful donors are ones where the parts fit readily into the Dutton chassis or whose whole chassis and running gear could be used. If you have to cut the main Dutton chassis rails then you could render the car needing an IVA the passing of which is a difficult challenge with a Dutton.

[Steve and Matt Pegrum]

The biggest challenge is findng front engine, RWD donors. My input on that side is the Vauxhall Omega.

Come to that, Jaguar S types are now a bit long in the tooth

I suppose there are also quite alot of RWdvans

[Big Vern]

In this list of donors are we talking just engines or all running gear?

The list needs to have donors that are known to be compatible based on duttons known to the club, ideally with conversions club members have completed and whether they meet the current VOSA rules RE inappropriate modification. As for engines; most engines could be made to fit as you say but a technical subject it must be based on fact drawn from experience rather than hearsay such as it might fit.

Without fact people could be mislead into an expensive and potentially vehicle ruining mistake. I've seen it happen more than once.

[Dave Adams]

to be honest Vern i would think any engine could be made to fit....it would be in the finest tradition of Dutton building, i have a 1977 pamphlet and it lists a good 20 or so engine options for Duttons. And there were a surprising number of makes you could choose from.

[Big Vern]

For a donor list to be useful it needs to list those cars whose parts are KNOWN to fit the dutton brand and where modifications that could require the car to be IVA'd are not required. Just producing a list of front engine rear drive cars is hardly helpful :-(

To my knowledge none of the cars you have listed could donate more than the engine and box.

I've been looking into using the suzuki 4x4 transplant into the Sierra but the Sierra's chassis doesn't suit the suzuki front axle arangement and won't do, IMO, without cuts to the chassis and thus an IVA would be required. The suzuki chassis is way too short at only 80" wheelbase and to lengthen it would requie an IVA :-(

Suzuki samuri passo lungo would fit the bill as its wheelbase is only 1/2" short but none came to this country :-(

Type 9's that fit Ford engines, depending on bellhousing availability, any cast iron Ford gasoline block.

Essex V4/V6 to type 9 is now back on thanks to the availability of an ally bellhousing. (the ultra rare 2.0L V4 manual bellhousings have long been known to be made of unobtainium! )

[Pete Clayton]

Some of the 7 boys are using Honda S2000 bits