My head is being turned by thoughts of a Maxi rep.
I don't want to get too stuck into total authenticity, but want to explore what's out there beyond massive hub spacers if you get my drift.
There's a few builds out there which I have read religiously on maxi's and Dimma's, so I got to thinking about creating a thread which is a 'go to' blueprint of well considered solutions to not only get the look, but also develop a car that functions well as a track/sprint toy and a sunny Sunday car too, without the £15k rear beam etc etc.
Mods feel free to move to a different place if this thread should belong elsewhere.
So first up to get the ball rolling; Bodywork?
Is this the best option these days in the UK?
http://www.maximotorsport.com/products.php?directory=products/Peugeot/Peugeot%20306/306%20Maxi%20Bodykit%20Phase%202
I think these guys use a fairly decent French supplier and operate as the UK distributor. Has anyone any experience of them?Is there anything else out there? I appreciate the days of Dimma steel panels are long gone, even though Geoff still has a few tucked away, but not at the budget level I'm looking at!
Aside from the obvious fitting, are the old rear quarters just cut, folded and re-welded to create space, or should the whole rear quarter come out and be replaced by new metal inner arches? (doing this on my Impreza at the moment)
Do our OEM side skirts fit the kit with a cut to meet the rear quarter panel? Are the remaining panels a bolt on? My Impreza panels are WRC kevlar and are taking a massive amount of work to fit correctly!
Running gear:
Rear track width: Bridgecraft Engineering for rear beam axle spacer and spindle. 40mm wide perhaps? Opportunity to influence camber through this route? What does good geometry look like at the back? All my reference points are RWD cars, so I'm well out of touch regarding what a fast road/track set up looks like.
Are there any other beam solution? Keep the original beam and using a spacer in the axle seems to be a solid solution to my mind. Any idea of the cost of this?
Front track width: I'm less sure of the score here. Is anyone manufacturing a wide track tubular wishbone set up? I'd heard that maybe early boxer vans used wider wishbones? Would love to know what needs to be done to track rod ends and so on to operate more width at the front without big spacers. Does there need to be a bump steer mod to cope with the way the car sits on bigger wheels?
Also what sort of mods look a good option for re-positioning top mounts? Can camber and castor be suitably influenced in the top mounts, and do they need to be reinforced?
Suspension: does this need altering to account for the track width and wheel size? Front coilovers perhaps for clearance, or not really necessary?
Wheels: I think these should be 8x18 according to the originals. Would that mean you can get 225/40 rubber on? Is clearance a problem - does the top of the inner wing need work? What offsets would work if the extra width can be generated by the beam and wishbone mods to get the width?
Err, is that pretty much it?
I think for anyone considering such a project the collective experience and knowledge here on the forum would represent a great resource for creating a blueprint on how to best go about it.
I for one would really appreciate any input.
Cheers
Iain