Mid-Engined Mini Screams To 13,000 RPM With Kawasaki Ninja Engine

The original Mini is still one of the automotive benchmarks for a lightweight streetcar. It was so good that even James Hunt started his career racing them around Snetterton. Apart from its featherweight ethos, what if you swapped a engine in the middle, converted it to rear-wheel-drive, and added bigger tires on all four corners?

As it turns out, Adam of AMT Machine Shops stopped wondering and found out exactly what it would be like. Based out of Vancouver, B.C., he wanted his Mini to stick out from the crowd, and wow did he nail it. Bonkers powerplant aside, the car is fitted with flared fenders capable of putting an RWB Porsche into manhood counseling, with a rear spoiler that would look right at home in the pits of a World Time Attack event.

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Moving on to the obvious party piece of the vehicle is a mid-mounted Kawasaki Ninja engine. Since the original Mini is starved for space as it is, the guys from AMT had to get a little bit creative when tossing in the new powerplant. With rearward placement, there is no longer any firewall separating passengers from the heat and noise you’d generally never worry about. Letting it sing its song in the back also means that under the hood lies the fuel tank. 

Rather than sourcing a gearbox that could manage the power coming from the moto-engine, AMT Adam opted to keep the existing unit from the Ninja. The car also keeps the existing dash from the Kawasaki bike to keep tabs on vital signs. As if it couldn’t get any wilder, the vehicle also has a hydraulic handbrake, because why not?

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In a perfect world, we’d love to see a GP quick-shifter added for seamless gear-changes, but we get it, this thing isn’t a MotoGP machine on four wheels. If a car could capture the essence of James Hunt, we think this one would tick all of the boxes.

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