Bike powered cars

[carob]

Am i going crackers. I quite fancy a change and this has got me thinking of a bike powered car. Something like this.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

Anyone else had anything similar?

Rob

[Yatesy350i]

Only any good with the larger bike engines mate Honda Blackbird or better. Apparently the more common Fireblade engine 7 type cars a pretty poor?

I had a chat with Steve at Bogg Bros about this. He has a 1400cc (Bike) race prepared Westfield. It leaves most stuff for dead on the trac.

A mate of mine has a very highly tuned 2.0l Vauxhall engined Westy and he reconns that leave nearly all of the bike engines for dust. Lack of torque apparently?

I'm no expert though.

[Tasmin200]

I've driven a Blackbird powered single seater thing at Knockhill, and as a biker I will tell you these bike engined car things will drive you mental Rob. The have no torque at all. And you are coming form a 4.6 V8 so it will feel gutless. It'll sound fast though....

I'm a v twin man (I've got a Ducati Monster and a SV650) and I've also got an old FZR600 4 cylinder and it's crap. Fast? yes if you are on it 100% but for running around it's rubbish.

If you want go fast ditch the car and buy what the engine came out of. Now that is an experience.

[carob]

Cheers guys.

Just what I wanted to hear Roy, someone speaking from experience.

Rob

[m4tti]

I've been looking at the spire gtr or an ultima. The spire is bike powered.

Watch this as the spire warms up and leaves the "torquey" chimaera behind

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LK7U6aHp_0g

And I've seen this in action I'm pretty sure it'd have plenty of grunt for the road.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iKbSOTALMEo

Edited by m4tti on Friday 22 November 22:50

[stlol]

I've had a westfield megablde, the lack of torque will drive you mad.
Good on track but not for the road.

[stlol]

I've had a westfield megablde, the lack of torque will drive you mad.
Good on track but not for the road.

[jmorgan]

Somehow I looked in expecting a Heath Robinson conglomeration with a Trabant, Sturmey Archer, Raliegh and some lycra.

[carob]

jmorgan said:

Somehow I looked in expecting a Heath Robinson conglomeration with a Trabant, Sturmey Archer, Raliegh and some lycra.

Ha-ha

Rob

[Wedg1e]

I suspect the quad-cam 16V 1261cc V4 in my bike would make for an interesting transplant into a 7-style chassis; as far as I know nobody's ever done it.
Not the last word in BHP but 115 or so horses, 80lb.ft of torque (not bad for a bike) and a torque curve flatter than Lincolnshire makes it no slouch in a bike frame.
Shaft drive as well so the power takeoff is in the correct alignment to drive a RWD axle.

[phazed]

m4tti said:

I've been looking at the spire gtr or an ultima. The spire is bike powered.

Watch this as the spire warms up and leaves the "torquey" chimaera behind

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LK7U6aHp_0g

Edited by m4tti on Friday 22 November 22:50

The spire only weighs as much as a pitta bread and is totally track biased, it's no real comparison.

They do give me a bit of trouble on track but at least I can drive back from the pub in reasonable comfort

[carob]

So if I did go down this route, Spire is the way???

Rob

[m4tti]

A lot of this will depend on what your budget is. A hyabusa or blackbird engine with a turbo is going to be massively fast road or track.

[carob]

m4tti said:

A lot of this will depend on what your budget is. A hyabusa or blackbird engine with a turbo is going to be massively fast road or track.

I am thinking of buying something that needs working. Engine wise would be no problem as most of my family and a lot of my mates are bikers, who know these engines inside out.

Rob

[V8 Fettler]

Engine torque is irrelevant, just learn to change gear

Bike_Engined_Cars are pain in the arse for most of the time on most roads, and the complete opposite to a lazy Rover V8. So why not have a BEC and a Wedge to compare and contrast?

[Jonny weggie]

These kind of cars are awsome Rob but there's no where you can keep a bottle of Rusty mate,lol.

[iiyama]

Depends what your looking for.

I have a Hayabusa powered Rush. Its been on the road for four and a half years now and its bloody good fun. Motorway driving is tiresome absolutely no doubt, the legal limit will see the engine hovering at around 5.6k rpm. Sunday morning blasts out to a cafe though and the car comes alive.

Its reasonably cheap to insure and tax although fuel costs are not as low as you might think, (the 'Busa is a little thirsty!). Litre engines are reasonably bullet proof but do need a few simple mods to make them reliable. Blackbird engines I believe are better dry sumped which is why there arnt too many of them around. The jury is out for the Hayabusa as to if baffles or dry sump, mine is the latter.

The performance of any given car will be reliant on gearing and power to weight. Mine comes in at just under 400bhp/tonne and the gearing is a little low, (couldn't find the right final drive ratio when I built it so had to compromise), this however gives it mental acceleration. Warm tyres and a decent launch will see 60 in under 4 secs.

Best bet is to drive one yourself. An even better bet will be to drive a few, that means different cars with different engines, then you can decide if its what your really after.

Westfield's are a good start, I believe the MK Indy is a reasonable car too. The Fisher Fury is meant to be very good and to be honest if I had known about this car before I bought the kit I did, I would have had one of these.

And as a sign off, here's my car.



Hope that helps?

[carob]

Seriously thinking about this. Anybody want a wedge that has been tweaked a bit?

Rob

[adam quantrill]

Rob I was considering a Radical a few years ago around the time the 400SX came up. I'm gladI didn't, the suspension components on these things (and like cars) are quite light-duty, so you will have wheels dropping off on normal roads - it doesn't matter so much on the track of course. Also british roads don't really suit fast-cornering cars because you can't see round the corners usually. Much safer with the slow-in/fast-out TVR.

[Snow Mole]

Hi Rob

Check out Z-Cars website. Mate of mine had a Mini from there and it was awesome. These guys are serious about power and speed - just depends how deep ytour pockets are!!

Richard