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Both the R1 and Hyabusa use a hydraulic clutch, so you can retain the original Mini master cylinder. This can be piped from the front of the car either under the tunnel or through the interior to the back.
In the case of the Hyabusa it can be directly plumbed to the original bike hydraulic cylinder. Because the Mini master cylinder moves more fluid than need be, you must make a small stop so that you do not over extend the internal workings of the motorcycle clutch. This can be quite simply a bolt drilled through the floor pan in line with the clutch pedal, which can be screwed in or out to act as a stop.
The R1 kit utilises your mini slave cylinder and master cylinder. The slave cylinder is mounted just behind the engine on a bracket and can be plumbed directly to the master cylinder as above. The original clutch actuating arm needs modifying slightly, and if posted to Z Cars, we will modify it and send it back the next day.
If we supply the engine, the modification will be done already.
Accelerator pedal needs modifying by drilling 2" below the original cable fastening point. This is because the original cable moves approximately 2" over its full travel and a motorcycle needs approximately 1" of cable travel. By drilling the pedal nearer to its pivot point, you would reduce the cable travel to the right amount. Obviously, you will need to re-drill the bulk head to enable you to put the cable through at the lower point.
Brakes. We recommend using metro turbo vented discs and Calipers at the front of the car. These are readily available and require the fitting of the metro hubs onto the Mini uprights. We also recommend where fitted that the servo be retained. The front brakes are plumbed exactly as standard, and the rear brakes plumbed through the brake pressure regulator will result in a perfect brake balance and good braking performance.
You will need to wire your engine to run. If you are not a competent electrician, then we would advise retaining the Mini loom as standard, and using the motorcycle loom purely to operate the engine. The R1 carburetor version is relatively easy to wire, but the Hyabusa and fuel injected R1's are not so easy. In any case, Z Cars will modify your standard bike loom so that it becomes a plug in item. The engine can either be started using the original ignition key or ignition switch and push button.
In the case of the Hyabusa, the standard fuel pump is discarded and a proprietary fuel injection pump fitted near to the tank and then pumped to the back of the car, through a regulator fitted near to the injection throttle bodies it is set at 45psi.
The advantage of this system is that there are less parts involved and also if your engine is tuned later, the regulator can be turned up to give higher fuel pressure.
Z Cars can also supply, for the front of your Mini if you don't already have one, a front shock absorber and coil spring conversion.
The reason for fitting this is now you have taken the engine out of the front, the standard rubber donuts will give a very harsh ride and so they can be removed along with the original shock absorbers. The Z Cars kit comes with all brackets, nuts and bolts etc, and is sprung to give a good ride and handling characteristics.
Once the kit has been fitted to your Mini, you will need to set up the suspension at the rear. The rear wheels can be adjusted for camber and toe to your preferences. However, a good starting point can be achieved in the workshop using simple tools. The first thing to do is to set the ride height of the car by screwing the spring platforms up or down on the rear shock absorbers. The car should sit level and can be measured along each sill front and rear to check this. The damping on each shock absorber can be adjusted by turning the knob near the bottom of the shock absorber clockwise to increase or anti-clockwise to decrease.
To adjust camber, the outer rose joint should be slackened until it can be slid up or down the slotted hole to achieve the result you wish. This can be seen in the picture opposite.
To check this easily, use a spirit level alongside the wheel and by measuring the gap at the top of the tyre sidewall, try to get them both ¼" when the spirit level is plumb.
Next, get a straight edge approximately 8' long and hold it to the side of the tyre level with the car. By looking down the straight edge and comparing it to the sill, you should be able to see whether the wheel is toeing in or out, set both wheels to toe in slightly over the length of the sill by about 1/8". To do this, you measure the gap just in front of the wheel, then near the door hinge. If you need to adjust it then simply screw in or out on the rose joints at the front of the rear suspension arm.
Once you are happy with the settings, double check to see if all the nuts and bolts are tight You will need to visit a 4 wheel aligner to finally check your settings, but this will get you going.