R.M. Classics Eight

[RM Eight]

I've just purchased a 30-ish year old R.M. Eight frame and body that has never been started. From what little information I've been able to glean from the interwebs it would appear that R.M. Classics of South Africa were building a variety of kit cars in the late eighties and early nineties including a very nice Lotus 7 clone. It would appear that it was a little too close to the original as they were litigated out of business.

I'm looking forward to getting into the build and would really like to have more information about this car including the intended powertrain etc. If anyone has additional details I'd love to hear from you.

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[GonzoRacer]

Howdy!
Welcome to the forum. Interesting looking kit. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about RM Classics cars... But a Ford 5.0 or a Bowtie LS would make it scoot on down the road, I betcha!

Hang around, some of the smart kids will help you out.


JDK

[Bent Wrench]

Looks like a perfect candidate for one of Jack's Miata power units?

But if it was mine and I had your money I'd put an EcoBoost 3.5 in it!

[STranger 7]

Very little info on the web. Found this ref.

RM-Classics-Eightcr.jpg

At the bottom, a Rover V8 is mentioned.
A lot of these engines are used in mg-v8 conversions.
This site,http://www.britishv8.org/Photos-MG-Conversions.htm
details different engine, trans, and rear axle combinations.
Ron

[kreb]

That's a fine looking car. Here's some background which may be of interest:

[kreb]

That page comes from Dennis Ortenberger's "Lotus 7 and the Independents" which is a great reference on sevenesques up to 2004, which was when my copy was printed. I don't know if Dennis did subsequent editions.

Where are you located?

[RM Eight]

Thanks for all the replies. Being that South Africans love their horsepower I have no doubt a big V8 would fit. I'd like to stick to something more traditional around the 2 litre mark, say a Zetec, Duratec, Ecotec or the like. I'm hoping to keep it simple to maximize the odds against a protracted build but still keep it on budget.

As to my location I'm in Winnipeg, Canada.

I've spent a lot of time lurking on the forum, tons of great info.Thanks again.

[philso]

If you are considering the Duratec, have a look at the Ford EcoBoost 2.0 litre turbo. It doesn't take up a lot more space than the non-turbo engine. It is used in a lot of vehicles (Focus ST, Escape, etc.) so it is plentiful and inexpensive (at least here in the US). Since it is used in so many vehicles, it was not hard to find some with very low mileage (under 40,000 miles) at a reasonable price. You will have to find a different intercooler. Looking around this forum, I have seen people using the intercoolers for MR2's.

I will be measuring the engine in my friends Focus ST some time soon since I am getting ready to order a Stalker MX5 and would like to use the EcoBoost 2.0 in it. I will share the data on this forum when I get it.

[BHRmotorsport]

As to my location I'm in Winnipeg, Canada.

Welcome to the Forum and I'm glad to hear that you're in town. I look forward to seeing the car.

[w650gb500]

WOW, another RM showed up! I currently have 2 of these body/chassis kits at the shop.

RM kits were produced in Port Elizabeth South Africa"supposedly" under license of Westfield that I was told. Apparently there was some sort of legal litigation and when two large containers with many of these 7 and Cobra kits arrived at the docks in Baltimore in the early 90's, one was opened and the entire contents were crushed. The second container was unclaimed, not opened and went up for sale. The entire containers contents were purchased by a group of businessmen from Cornwall, Ontario Canada. Two of the kits ended up in Maryland with Chris Custer of Rotus cars and displayed at Import Carlisle in about 1992 or 1993. We spoke with Chris about the cars and even made a trip down to his shop to see what he had there and at Dennis's(one of his employees) house. We even spoke with him about building a bunch of the kits for Rotus to sell. That didn't happen, but we were able to make contact with the guys in Canada and go see all that they had. My father, Dan Lipperini and my uncle Albert Lipperini ended up purchasing 11 of the RM-7 and RM-8 kits in various stages. Some were just body/frame kits, some had front a-arms, some uprights and some of the RM-8 kits had rear suspension. From memory, all of the uprights and rear diffs were European Ford based.

The fiberglass on all of the kits is fantastic!!!!! Unfortunately the frames and welding, not so much. Easily fixable with the addition of some bracing.

My old car. viewtopic.php?f=30&t=13279

The RM-8 currently under construction. viewtopic.php?f=35&t=13056

Hopefully I will get time this winter to finish the RM-8 and consider what to do with the RM-7 body/chassis that's still sitting on a shelf in the shop!

If I can answer any questions or attempt to provide any more information to this thread, please let me know.

Dan

[Lonnie-S]

@RM Eight

Welcome.

That is a nice looking vehicle. I look forward to following your build.

Cheers,

Lonnie

[w650gb500]

The Toyota 4-AGE and T-50 fits very nicely as does the Mazda Miata. The Honda F-20/22 is too tall to fit under the stock hood unfortunately. I mocked-up a Mazda 12-A years ago and it also fit well, but we never built one with that driveline. Too bad as it would have been fun with a rotary, but I don't like having that hot exhaust on the passenger side of the car.

[GonzoRacer]

Good morning Dan-
Are you the same Lipperini person that is a friend of Ted Theodore and runs a Mallock in the Pennsylvania Hill Climb series? (See picture, stolen from FaceBook.) If so, welcome to the forum (again) and if not, welcome to the forum (again)!

JDK

[w650gb500]

Well, sort of. I'm Dan Jr and a friend of Ted's. Actually, I own his old Miata V-8. The picture is my brother Joel driving/flying his Mallock at the Weatherly Hillclimb. I prefer to build and fabricate while Joel enjoys more of the driving than building. It's a combination that works well as we've been fortunate enough to win 4 SCCA Run-Offs titles and one NASA National Championship with Joel driving cars that our shop, RaceLabz has built.

[RM Eight]

Thanks again for all the feedback. Nice to know there are others here in Winnipeg, Bill. Dan, that's a great looking car, awesome info.

As for powerplant I was at the local wrecking yard yesterday and found a really nice 2000 Focus with low miles. I pulled the engine right then and there so it looks like I'm going Zetec. At this point I'm planning to go with either Weber or bike carbs and a Megajolt ignition. I'm thinking about using a T5 out of an early 90s V6 Mustang with a Quad 4 Rods bellhousing although the T5 is going to be a tight squeeze width-wise.

Thoughts?

Bruce