Yeah, both cars are to run, pretty much because race car. Some one gave us a rusted out unregistered MR2, and there are two too many hatchbacks in my yard, and Bender and I heard the same psychotic voices in our heads. I have far more reasons NOT to, but here we are.
I don't think there will be any advantage other than application and refinement of what we have learned the hard way with the MRolla. I think weight/balance differences will be negligible. We'll preserve the FX wheelbase, which I speculate is an inch or two shorter than the MRolla. Cage clearances may be a bit more generous. The profile will be higher. The MRolla's handling would be a challenge to improve on. It really is an incredible car.
We'll take a different construction approach, inserting a cut-away MR2 rear and center tunnel into a hatchback body, as opposed to just splicing two cars, but the key geometry will be the same. The key construction point of the MRolla was mating the MR2 center tunnel to the Corolla's firewall, and the rest of the structure followed. With the new project we will match the FX16 wheel base, but coincidentally it looks like that will put the MR2 center tunnel right against front firewall again, same as the MRolla. We'll know more when we start cutting.