Hawke FF1600 - Conversion

1976 Hawke DL17, FF1600 Single Seater - Conversion to 'fun' hillclimb & sprint car (Mini engined)

Box of bits acquired about 10 years ago.

Front view of modified Hawke DL17 chassis.

The Hawke chassis utilises rocker arm suspension at the front with coil over damper units fitted inboard.

The original Hawke was acquired as a wreck. It had been in a severe rear end shunt. Basically there was nothing remaining behind the roll over hoop.

All the front suspension, steering & brakes survived intact and bodywork and moulds were also supplied.

Another front view.

New 32 x 2.6mm rear stays have been welded to the roll hoop (originally there was a 20mm 'X' brace bolted from the roll hoop to the rear of the chassis).

The original chassis has all brazed joints, the new chassis members have MIG welded joints except where they join to existing brazed joints.

The only chassis work remaining is the addition of a few 20mm diameter braces to provide additional rigidity plus a few brackets for radiators, tanks etc.

Modified Mini front subframe installed in new rear spaceframe for the Hawke chassis.

Subrame bolts to spaceframe in 10 positions

The lower suspension arms and tie rods have 'rose' joints to eliminate unwanted variations of toe in during hard cornering.

The suspension is via Mini rubber cones with 'Hi-Lo' adjustable ride height trumpets.

An anti-roll bar and the damper top mounts have still to be fabricated.

Rear View.

The rear chassis top members are considerably wider than the original Hawke chassis as the Mini engine/transmission unit mounts transversely.

The top chassis members are 25 x 50mm (18 gauge) box. Bottom members are 25 x 25 mm and additional braces are 20mm round tube.

Page1
Page2
Page3
Page4
Page5
Page6
Page7
Page8
Page9
Page10
Page11

Page12

What next?

More Hawke FF1600's

Doug's Mini Pages

Doug's Home Page
Douglas Anderson: mini_sport@yahoo.co.uk
Date Last Modified: 18/12/2004