Bike engine for kit car

[Duncan Painter]

I've been thinking about building a kit car for a while now and I've never really decided on an engine as I really dont know much about them so I'm looking for any advice/opinions. Does anyone know if there's a usual 'go to' engine, or if there are any good options? So far considerations are around reliability/cost/power in that kind of order.

[Duncan Painter]

DanGPR said:

Bike engines are fair expensive due to their popularity in kit cars. Probably 3k+ for a running engine/ECU etc.
You want as large displacement as possible due to lack of torque in bike engines;

ZZR 1400
Hayabusa 1300
ZX-12R

There are plenty of car engines that would be suitable for your car and cheaper. What car is it?

£3k for a decent engine and ECU setup seems reasonable and roughly what I was expecting. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll start looking at those. No car in particular, it's something I want to design from scratch.

annodomini2 said:

Fwd, Front rear or mid rear?

Mid rear

mikeveal said:

Yes it was the AMG, yes he wasn't poodling at 2krpm in top gear and yes, I was being sarcastic.

We are in complete agreement Russ.

If you really want every last ounce of performance from a bike engine, then yes, you'll have to rev. But to say the engines lack torque and to imply that you need to rev hard for normal driving really shows that the poster above hasn't driven a well set up bike engined car.

I was bloody surprised that I couldn't keep up with an estate car without dropping a cog though!

To be fair, I wasn't planning on some AMG slaying machine, just something thats a bit of fun to drive and is something thats a bit unique. People drop £20k on sports cars all the time so this is just the beginning of me thinking that I might be able to design and build something pretty quick and unique for the same money. Engines are my weak point and I don't really have a lot of time to do the research at the moment.

peterrosey1 said:

If you do little road mileage and want a track car, then a bike engine is fun. But if you like spirited drives on A-roads - and trips to Le Mans - then a car engine is a lot easier to live with. In something like a seven I'd also avoid V8s: the Westfield V8 my mate had was very fast, but it didn't really suit the character of the car (plus with side exit exhausts it doesn't sound like a V8 when you drive it - more like a big VW Beetle!).

I'd go for any modern rev four-cylinder engine in a light kit car. The Ford 1.6 Zetec is a great choice as it's so light - only about 70kg - and can be made to really rev with head work (mine could rev to 8,500rpm!). Plus easy to mate up to a Type 9 gearbox.

If you're building a larger slightly heavier kit car then it has to be a V8; I currently have a Gardner Douglas T70 and it will really pull your face off with the torque of the 6.2-litre LS3.

Interesting, I'd definitely like it to be usable for spirited A roads. What power is the Zetec with the headwork? I'm aiming for a reasonable bph per tonne, for a 600-800kg car. Although this target weight is just something I've pulled from thin air for now.