Hi,
I' m fairly new here. It totally depends on the logic behind it. If it's a case of "it's on my garage floor so might as well do something with it"? Considering the various garages I have access to my options would be a 1.6 Vauxhall Ecotec, a 1.6 Toyota 4age, selection of 2.0 or 1.9 Opel Cam in Head's or perhaps the odd 80's Audi 5 cylinder 10v with or without turbo ;-) Why wouldn't you? I'm kidding. Truth be told I do look at the Ecotec fairly regularly and think it's a reasonable candidate for the micra.
I don't know what a "rally track car" is. I know what a rally car is, and I know what a track or track day car is, so presumably you're building something that does both? Do you want to get a light car in to a 1.6 class? Are you thinking that zetec engines and upgrades are more readily available than the Nissan GA16DE (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GA16DE) which I believe in stock form boasts exactly the same power as the '00 zetec, except for the later NCVS ones which are more - 115bhp. I've read on this forum that GA16DE does go in to a micra with a bit of chopping about and re-welding depending on how you approach it - but I've read a bit about scarcity of upgrade parts for these - cams, rods, pistons etc.
It doesn't sound like a common mod to me so you might end up at sea in terms of advice and/or parts available? Presumably a lot of bits would need to be bespoke eg driveshafts, exhaust, cooling, electrics, gear linkage and much more. Not to mention does it fit in the hole and what's the crack with engine mounts, does the sump clear everything at the bottom and can you get the correct angle?? I'm guessing you've thought of all that though.
What were your thoughts on inlet & timing? Would you use all Zetec including ECU, which would mean a reasonable amount of loom hashing, or would you be looking at carbs/TB kit with off the shelf control which would give you a fairly clean slate, build yer own loom? I've done a bit of work on a mate's zetec back in the day and I think clutch was hydraulic and micra's is cable. I'm of course assuming you'd be using the zetec's gearbox.
If none of that phases you then I'd be thinking, why not!
If you're putting it in un-modded (stock engine standard injection etc), as Matt says above - its only a 24bhp upgrade from the micra's 1275cc and a 17bhp upgrade from the micra's 1348cc. With a bit of searching on here and a few hundred quid, you could get one of those up to 98bhp without picking up a welder, and spend the time you would have spent under it in the garage out driving it!!
Hope that helps and isn't considered abuse - there maybe people who have tried or succeeded with it, would be good to hear from them...?
Chris
