Thinking about building a bike engined Seven
Discussion
I have the opportunity to purchase a rolling Caterham Seven chassis.
It has just had a "long front" at Arch Motors following a racing accident, so the chassis is straight and mostly new. It is having the skins replaced too.
It's complete apart from engine, gearbox and ancillaries.
I'm sure there will be bits that i'll need to source to finish it properly, and it will need painting, but it's mostly there i think.
It was never put through the SVA (i think that's what it's called?), so wasn't registered as a road car. I'm not sure how much hassle this would be to do?
I've always fancied a bike engined Seven. Possibly with fireblade of ZZR1400 engine.
I have worked on Sevens before, having raced them on/off for ten years or so, but i'm not the most experienced mechanic! I have done an engine swap before, and have a pretty good garage.
So. Thinking about this as a project, what hurdles might i encounter? Any experience/advice welcome before i decide whether to go for it or not.
In my mind i'm looking to tick the following boxes:
Wide track suspension
Cage
Kevlar/carbon seats
Carbon dash, ideally with the bike dials/LCD dash fitted. Nice and clean with almost no other dials. The new (2012+) fireblade dash would look great behind the wheel with no other dials present.
Removable MOMO wheel
Sequential gearbox
No lights. Possibly rear brake lights as some trackday organisers like to see these.
Aeroscreen across the full width (no windscreen)
Anthracite wheels, with 8" rears
That's about it.
Questions:
Will a ZZR1400 engine fit in the engine bay of a Seven? Too tall?
I'm guessing a bike engine will need to be dry sumped. No experience of a Seven with dry sump. Difficult to do?
How tricky is it to actually fit a bike engine? Presumably new engine mounts will need fabricating?
And how about coupling the engine/box up to the propshaft. I'm guessing some kind of adapter is needed?
How will the gearing be out of the box? Too tall? Too short?
Having written that out i'm not so sure i've got the skills TBH...
It has just had a "long front" at Arch Motors following a racing accident, so the chassis is straight and mostly new. It is having the skins replaced too.
It's complete apart from engine, gearbox and ancillaries.
I'm sure there will be bits that i'll need to source to finish it properly, and it will need painting, but it's mostly there i think.
It was never put through the SVA (i think that's what it's called?), so wasn't registered as a road car. I'm not sure how much hassle this would be to do?
I've always fancied a bike engined Seven. Possibly with fireblade of ZZR1400 engine.
I have worked on Sevens before, having raced them on/off for ten years or so, but i'm not the most experienced mechanic! I have done an engine swap before, and have a pretty good garage.
So. Thinking about this as a project, what hurdles might i encounter? Any experience/advice welcome before i decide whether to go for it or not.
In my mind i'm looking to tick the following boxes:
Wide track suspension
Cage
Kevlar/carbon seats
Carbon dash, ideally with the bike dials/LCD dash fitted. Nice and clean with almost no other dials. The new (2012+) fireblade dash would look great behind the wheel with no other dials present.
Removable MOMO wheel
Sequential gearbox
No lights. Possibly rear brake lights as some trackday organisers like to see these.
Aeroscreen across the full width (no windscreen)
Anthracite wheels, with 8" rears
That's about it.
Questions:
Will a ZZR1400 engine fit in the engine bay of a Seven? Too tall?
I'm guessing a bike engine will need to be dry sumped. No experience of a Seven with dry sump. Difficult to do?
How tricky is it to actually fit a bike engine? Presumably new engine mounts will need fabricating?
And how about coupling the engine/box up to the propshaft. I'm guessing some kind of adapter is needed?
How will the gearing be out of the box? Too tall? Too short?
Having written that out i'm not so sure i've got the skills TBH...
CrutyRammers said:
Well, if you want to road register it, you'll need lights!
SVA is now IVA, you can find the manual which lists all the requirements here (in the "M1 manual") http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail...
It costs around 500 quid for the test, plus 90 for every retest, and you should reckon on at least one.
It will certainly be more than a pain than making a track-only car, as you'll need to pass stricter noise and emissions limits, plus need a reverse gear which bike engines don't have. There are now reversing motors available specifically for this though so it shouldn't be a massive problem.
The other stuff which usually worries people, the sharp edges stuff, isn't really of a problem in my experience. A Caterham should go through easily.
Have a check on locostbuilders.co.uk, despite the name that's a good place to go if you're planning anything "off-piste" with any sort of seven type, lots of experience with different engine/chassis combinations on there. There is a caterham forum as well which might have some info but I never go there
Thanks.SVA is now IVA, you can find the manual which lists all the requirements here (in the "M1 manual") http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail...
It costs around 500 quid for the test, plus 90 for every retest, and you should reckon on at least one.
It will certainly be more than a pain than making a track-only car, as you'll need to pass stricter noise and emissions limits, plus need a reverse gear which bike engines don't have. There are now reversing motors available specifically for this though so it shouldn't be a massive problem.
The other stuff which usually worries people, the sharp edges stuff, isn't really of a problem in my experience. A Caterham should go through easily.
Have a check on locostbuilders.co.uk, despite the name that's a good place to go if you're planning anything "off-piste" with any sort of seven type, lots of experience with different engine/chassis combinations on there. There is a caterham forum as well which might have some info but I never go there
TBH the road registering part is more to help it retain a fair amount of value. It will obviously cost quite a bit to get together, and as a pure track car i'm guessing it won't be worth as much.
Why anyone would want to use a track focused car with a bike engine on the road is beyond me anyway, though it would save having to trailer it to/from tracks.
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