Another RL note:
Bimmer found the Locost phenomenon (basically homemade Lotus 7 Replicas). One technique for WR there is to use a motorcycle engine instead of a car engine, as it's lighter. I think the Hyabusa is a current favorite. There's also a guy in the current Grassroots Motorsports who built an autocross car from the ground up around a Hyabusa engine sitting where a passenger normally would (perfect balance and crossweight almost by default.
As an aside, is crossweight as big a deal elsewhere as the spec miata guys make it out to be? All my knowledge here is just stuff I've read on the internet, and we know how reliable that can be.
