Why can you not have twin engine cars on the road?

[thetruemackie]

V8HSV said:

Yes Brabus put two 700cc engines into a Roadster as a project, about a million each for 170 BHP car

I thought they made a little V6 from 2 3 pots rather than 2 separate engines?

[Pigeon]

bridgdav said:

Scrapheap challenge done it to a Taxi IIRC... And drove it on the road...

They had to put it through SVA without the second engine in it though.

[V8HSV]

They bolted the two suprex motors together at a 30 deg angle from memory

[jacko lah]

Saw a Twin LET engineed road legal nova go up the strip at Santa Pod. 2 x 360 BHP Vauxhall LET engines, 2 six speed gearboxes. Near standard Bodywork.

Think it had a mechanical issue with gear linkages, cause at one point one engine changed up and the other did not.

[.Adam.]

I think it's only road legal if the engines are driving the same axle, if I remember correctly, in Scrapheap Challenge thay could only run the second engine when not on public roads, as the engines were driving different axles.

[docevi1]

Pigeon said:

bridgdav said: Scrapheap challenge done it to a Taxi IIRC... And drove it on the road... They had to put it through SVA without the second engine in it though.

The second engine was disabled when they on the road...

[Gaffer]

B16 DUB is twin engined, the guys who run Dubsport in Wigan also work at BlueFlame in Skem and its always going between the two places.

Claire

[Locoblade]

scared but happy said:

But they are all driving on one axle/gearbox ? If not I will go and find a box to sit in.....Ah, here we are

The Tiger Z100 WR (?) was 4WD and had one engine driving each axle, and the Audi TT mentioned above did the same with two 1.8T engines ISTR. The problem was, the Z100 needed about £10k's worth of Motec ECU to make it go in any direction other than a straight line. Thats the problem with having separate engines driving separate axles, that you can't control the torque split front to rear, so it handles like a bag of spuds.

>> Edited by Locoblade on Monday 6th March 22:07

[Antony Moxey]

scared but happy said:

But they are all driving on one axle/gearbox ?

The Tiger Z100WR has two engines facing each other (hence exhaust headers exiting each side rather than all eight coming out of the same side), and one engine drives the front wheels and the other the rear wheels. It has two gearsticks too (well three if you count the seperate reverse one) and apparently you can run the two engines in a different gear to each other, which probably also accounts for the two rev counters.

[_VTEC_]

Lookie.

[Pot Bellied Fool]

I remember my Dad (who was well known in the North West motor factoring circles) telling me about a guy on Merseyside (St Helens perhaps?) that had a twin engined Scirocco that he used to rally in tandem with his wife. My memory is a bit hazy as this is years ago but the name could've been Kim Mather.

Apparently they disconnected the 2nd engine for road use but don't know if this was just practicalities or legalities but apparently great fun was had when ever the 80's versions of chavs tried to burn off what they saw as a blonde bimbo at the lights.

I often went on his calls with him but never got to see this monster lurking in a workshop as far as I can remember - shame...

[williamp]

On the same thread (more engines = more power) Citroen did a 2cv with two engines- the other one in the boot. Road legal

[Andrew Noakes]

John Cooper built a 'Twini' Mini with a pair of full-house racing A-series motors. Actually that car nearly killed him...

I've also seen an Alfa 164 with a 3-litre V6 in each end

scared but happy said:

If it is due to scrabbing

What's scrabbing, then?


>> Edited by Andrew Noakes on Tuesday 7th March 09:26

[jeremyc]

Andrew Noakes said:

I've also seen an Alfa 164 with a 3-litre V6 in each end

That'll be this one.

One in the back:


One in the front:


And the whole thing: