RE: Driven: bike-engined Fiat 126 Bis

[tmcb1971]

Who cares what the figures are? It's mad and made me smile, well done for building it. There seem to be far too many top trump nerds on this thread that are missing the point. My bother and I once put a modified Rover V8 in the back of a VW transporter it ate gearboxes, didn't handle and probably wasn't that fast, but what fun. Plenty of sleepy XR3i drivers got surprised.

[jaik]

bartselephant said:

There's a chap called Wayne Schofield who put a 'busa engine into a Cappucino. It started almost as a thought experiment, that got real, and then seriously real.

The first clip is in-car footage from a trackday at Donnington, to see what the car would do (at 1 min 18, he catches and passes some 7's. The second clip is from a race he entered at Mallory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNgfUxbyNUU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBZuPMAPZto


I don't think he usually involves himself in any of the oily bits, as he does the electrical and programming side for a living. This car gives me serious envy!


Umi

The left front wing used to be on my Cappuccino

Time to roll out a couple of shots I got back in its early days. The noise of it on the dyno left your ears ringing


Hayabusa-powered Suzuki Cappuccino Race Car by jaikdean, on Flickr


Hayabusa-powered Suzuki Cappuccino Race Car by jaikdean, on Flickr

And a video of it on the dyno that day, not by me… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PugzPTNv2C0

Edited by jaik on Saturday 28th January 21:09

[dandarez]

Never been a fan of bike-engined cars...
cars should have car engines and bikes, well, bike engines.

However, that Fiat 126 is hmm.

THIS Yammy R1 engined Fiat is better!
MUCH better!!
And just listen to the sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KujCUCgn6TY&fea...



Back to cars, even Fiats, and having car engines.
Like this Tornado Fiat 600, now that has a proper 'car' engine in the rear... scroll down.
Not only that, it is the correct engine!

[Simon says]

I like this kind of thing my drag racing brother-in-law fitted a Yam 1000 EXUP 5 speed engine into a Bedford Rascal i got the job of tidying up a few loose ends and getting it MOT'd this thing was fking insane it was as quick as you could change gear side stepping the throttle and shifting clutchlessly even with a different rear axle to stop it revving its tits off, you could stripe the tarmac in the 1st 3 gears no problem cheapest bit of serious fun on 4 wheels I have ever driven needed a billet clutch basket though as Yamaha EXUP stock clutch was not its strongest point even when fitted in the bike you could just let cars go from the lights and be gentle with the clutch once it was fully disengaged you could just reel them in again 123 wish i had taken some pics as it was engineered lovely and was not the usual rust bucket Rascal, he did run it up the Pod a few times 15's quarters and loosing rubber halfway up the strip needed an LSD really.

Edited by Simon says on Saturday 28th January 22:29

[marky911]

Bike engined cars are great when they work but, require loads of maintenance, eat gearboxes and generally don't work as well as a good car engined car.

Great when they work, but not so good if your girlfriend actually likes to see you at any time at all during trackday season.

Car engined cars for me please.

[central]

SBC -


135 by Fast an' Bulbous, on Flickr

[bartselephant]

jaik said:

bartselephant said:

There's a chap called Wayne Schofield who put a 'busa engine into a Cappucino. It started almost as a thought experiment, that got real, and then seriously real.

The first clip is in-car footage from a trackday at Donnington, to see what the car would do (at 1 min 18, he catches and passes some 7's. The second clip is from a race he entered at Mallory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNgfUxbyNUU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBZuPMAPZto


I don't think he usually involves himself in any of the oily bits, as he does the electrical and programming side for a living. This car gives me serious envy!


Umi

The left front wing used to be on my Cappuccino

Time to roll out a couple of shots I got back in its early days. The noise of it on the dyno left your ears ringing


Hayabusa-powered Suzuki Cappuccino Race Car by jaikdean, on Flickr


Hayabusa-powered Suzuki Cappuccino Race Car by jaikdean, on Flickr

And a video of it on the dyno that day, not by me… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PugzPTNv2C0

Edited by jaik on Saturday 28th January 21:09

I can't say that Mr Schofield can't drive, clearly he can , but to get 1st, 2nd and 3rd podium places during his FIRST year of racing makes me think that he's built a great overall car, instead of a beast dominated only by the engine.

It makes a "paltry" 212bhp, and at about 600kg, there are lighter bike engined cars out there, so he shouldn't really be as quick as he is. However! Whatever Mr Schofield has done, it does seem to get the power down, go, handle and brake better than most other racers in it's category (and a few other categories too).

Now if he ever wanted to help build a road car.......



Umi

[Dimski]

marky911 said:

Bike engined cars are great when they work but, require loads of maintenance, eat gearboxes and generally don't work as well as a good car engined car.

Great when they work, but not so good if your girlfriend actually likes to see you at any time at all during trackday season.

Car engined cars for me please.

I disagree!

I mean obviously, mine is currently immobile on its trailer awaiting a new fuel pump, but that's just a co-incidence!

It is fun though. Like no other car I've owned.

The fiat is daft. I don't believe the figures either, but still people doing projects like that deserve praise for lunacy.

[Noger]

Flying Toaster said:

I think my problem is that there's no power at the bottom end of the rev range. You can hear the car juddering as it pulls away from a standstill, there's just no power at low speeds.

Bike engines have flat (if low) torque curves. The problem isn't one of lack of power, it is the clutch, they tend to be a bit binary when foot operated if you don't ensure the pedal travel is increased from the car clutch pedal.

You can pootle round town in 6th in a BEC.

Whilst I also hummed a bit at the figures (3.5 is probably do-able, depending on where the gearing tops out, but not 150 as well) this is a hugely fun project, it made me grin Well done.

[marky911]

Dimski said:

marky911 said:

Bike engined cars are great when they work but, require loads of maintenance, eat gearboxes and generally don't work as well as a good car engined car.

Great when they work, but not so good if your girlfriend actually likes to see you at any time at all during trackday season.

Car engined cars for me please.

I disagree!

I mean obviously, mine is currently immobile on its trailer awaiting a new fuel pump, but that's just a co-incidence!

It is fun though. Like no other car I've owned.

The fiat is daft. I don't believe the figures either, but still people doing projects like that deserve praise for lunacy.

Oh yeah Dimski, like I say when they work they are fantastic. Sold my Global GT light (pic in profile) last year after two summers of mucking about with it. A lot of the time was getting it up to scratch from previous owners but, quite a bit was also breakages. Mid-mounted engine though, was always on the limits of its cooling capabilities.

When it worked though, Wow, it was good! Too time consuming for me though. I never expected to just have to wash it and put petrol in it, but it was getting silly!

[Simon says]

marky911 said:

Bike engined cars are great when they work but, require loads of maintenance, eat gearboxes and generally don't work as well as a good car engined car.

Great when they work, but not so good if your girlfriend actually likes to see you at any time at all during trackday season.

Car engined cars for me please.

I would suggest the car is not light enough or they are strapping on to much HP if its eating gearboxes not helped by incorrect use of the constant mesh g/box, I have seen plenty of motorcyclists who cannot use these gearboxes correctly either "Clunk Clunk" smooth proper use of these gearboxes require practice especially clutchless shifts but full powershifting will obviously take its toll most damaged bike boxes I have seen have damaged/broken dogs on the gears and bent broken shift forks you can make out the cause of this kind of damage/abuse 90% of the time Still reckon everyone should experience a bike powered ride at some time though All IMHO as always.

Edited by Simon says on Sunday 29th January 11:39

[GarryA]

[e8_pack]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KujCUCgn6TY

[navyseamonkey]

Im sure my zzr1100 170bhp suzuki carry 600kg would outgun this! Maybe a quarter mile against it is in order?

Edited by navyseamonkey on Sunday 29th January 21:35

Edited by navyseamonkey on Sunday 29th January 21:36

Edited by navyseamonkey on Sunday 29th January 21:39

[footnote]Edited by navyseamonkey on Sunday 29th January 21:44[/footnote

It may be up for sale if i can get enough interest in it.

Edited by navyseamonkey on Sunday 29th January 21:48

[big_rob_sydney]

For 10k you can get plenty of fast cars, so I think its optimistic in price, as well as claims.

FWIW, I like performance cars, and I like BEC's. Hell, I argue in favour of them all the time - F1 cars have bugger all torque, but they're still the bees knees, so the idea of a BEC with power up high in the rev range is music to my ears.

THIS particular car is probably not going to do a lot for me, but kudos to the owner anyway for the effort.

[Grovsie26]

I figure this would get more plaudits from PH, if it was say a diesel with a remap.

[blunder13]

If I had a spare £9,995 I wouldn't think twice.

[garypotter]

I just love these build in the home garage types, well done guys, even if the figures may be a bit far fetched but I bet it feels liek 150 with the engine revving at 11k on those skinny tryes in 5th gear knowing that when you want to stop - you wont

[vdubbin]

navyseamonkey said:

Im sure my zzr1100 170bhp suzuki carry 600kg would outgun this! Maybe a quarter mile against it is in order?

Bravo Dude, that looks like a lot of fun!

[Steve Evil]

Looks like a lot of fun, but as someone who previously looked at BECs, the common theme for them seems to be cars for people that deep down would like a bike, but love to make excuses about why they couldn't have one.