MINI Cooper Mark I

After spending a year and a half creating my Porsche 911, I decided to make a smaller and simpler car, but keeping some of the complexity of my previous creations.

But at the same time I wanted to follow the line to create all my cars on a scale between 1/7.5 and 1/8.5. So if I wanted to make a small car, I had to choose a very small car, a mini car we ... doing a MINI!!
The choice of the first version (Mark I) was only to seek a taste of the purest classic.

The final scale is 1/7.8, which is exactly the same as the Bugatti Veyron, and the final dimensions are only 23 studs wide, 49 long and 22.5 high. Looking this size I created a big scale car, but in mid-size :).

It has all the typical feautres of all Technic MOCs as functionals doors, hood and trunk. Also I have added folding front seats for access to the rear seat(this is my first car with two rows of seats haha)
It has a 4-cylinder transverse front fake engine, and as a curiosity the order of the cylinders follows the same order as a real, not like 99% of MOCs and technic sets.

Logically it has independent suspension on all wheels, and also it is the same type used in the real Mini, double wishbone front and longitudinal single-arm back.
Of course it is front wheel drive like the Mini and steering with functional steering wheel.

And the best for the end, this little car has a secret under that little hood, it has 4-speed sequential gearbox. The size is only 11x10x8 studs.

With this gearbox I close the discussion about the sequential gearboxes are too big for use in medium-sized cars.

The sequencing mechanism is one of the many versions of the Porsche's gearbox discarded.

It has no clutch but the car's relatively low weight (1.8kg) together with a good set-up result that does not need to switch brands correctly, as you can see in the video below.

It should be remembered that in that under that little nose, the car has: a drive axle with steering, a transverse 4-cylinder engine and sequential gearbox with all his mechanism. Maximum compaction.

As you can see in this last picture all electrical components are in the bottom of the car under the seats to maximize interior space.

And finally, as always a little video!!!


More pictures here:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=488596

I hope you like it!!