Bike engined project
Discussion
I've been looking through the archives and I know the arguments have been done to death on bike v car (bit like the v8 vs s6 on the tvr forums) so I don't want to start another one.
Seeing as it's the new year I've been thinking about my next car and decided I want to build my own. At the moment it wont be started till later in the year as I need to take the cerb to Le Mans, but after that I feel it will be time to sell up and move on.
Plan is to build up a bike engined car for weekend hooning and track days.
Questions are.... It seems to be that Westies and Tigers are at the front of the pack for bike engined stuff. These are also the two styles I prefer.
Does any one of these companies have a distinct advantage over the other or are they both pretty similar in terms of what you get and how they perform/handle? The price seems to be fairly similar..
Second, how much is the typical price for engines say blade/zx9 against busa engine?
Is the busa worth the extra beer tokens?
How tuneable are these things when the inevitable upgraditus starts to set in?
I thought I better start the research now and give myself plenty of time to price it all up, get the test drives in and maybe do a Caterham slalom day to see what sort of fun you can really have with them?
Cheers for any replies.
Andy
Seeing as it's the new year I've been thinking about my next car and decided I want to build my own. At the moment it wont be started till later in the year as I need to take the cerb to Le Mans, but after that I feel it will be time to sell up and move on.
Plan is to build up a bike engined car for weekend hooning and track days.
Questions are.... It seems to be that Westies and Tigers are at the front of the pack for bike engined stuff. These are also the two styles I prefer.
Does any one of these companies have a distinct advantage over the other or are they both pretty similar in terms of what you get and how they perform/handle? The price seems to be fairly similar..
Second, how much is the typical price for engines say blade/zx9 against busa engine?
Is the busa worth the extra beer tokens?
How tuneable are these things when the inevitable upgraditus starts to set in?
I thought I better start the research now and give myself plenty of time to price it all up, get the test drives in and maybe do a Caterham slalom day to see what sort of fun you can really have with them?
Cheers for any replies.
Andy
Stuart Taylor Motorsport are the kings of bike-engined kit cars IMO.
A 'Blade or ZX9R motor will provide plenty of thrust for around £1000. A 'Busa lump will cost at least £2500 and needs dry-sumping (at least another £1000).
Check out my profile and website for details of my ZX9R engined Stuart Taylor Loco.
A 'Blade or ZX9R motor will provide plenty of thrust for around £1000. A 'Busa lump will cost at least £2500 and needs dry-sumping (at least another £1000).
Check out my profile and website for details of my ZX9R engined Stuart Taylor Loco.
Alex
Interesting..... Never thought about they guys. I'll have a closer look tomorrow but the prices on the website look quite good and it sounds like I'm doing the same as what you done in looking for a cheaper track day tool.
If I'm honest I'm scared to take the cerb on the track purely because an off has the potential to become extremely expensive.
Cheers
>> Edited by andy4200 on Tuesday 4th January 22:17
Interesting..... Never thought about they guys. I'll have a closer look tomorrow but the prices on the website look quite good and it sounds like I'm doing the same as what you done in looking for a cheaper track day tool.
If I'm honest I'm scared to take the cerb on the track purely because an off has the potential to become extremely expensive.
Cheers
>> Edited by andy4200 on Tuesday 4th January 22:17
Jon Ison said:
www.mk-sportscars.fsnet.co.uk/
kit car of the year.....?? worth a look and on your doorstep.
What happened to the MK GT? There's no mention of it on the website.
Have a look at Dax too, their camber compensation chassis is pretty good. Busa will give much better drive and really only needs a dry sump if you're really serious about track days and use very sticky tyres, and even then there are people doing just that without a problem on wet sump.
I didn't expect so many replies so quick, the cerb forum takes a little time for everyone to get round to it.
I didn't really know about Stuart Taylor but I'll have to check into them.
The MK seems to have a lot more based on needing a donar car (correct me if I'm wrong) but I live in apartments and don't really have space to strip down another car for parts. I was looking more at being able to get the bulk of the kit from one place then maybe hitting the breakers for a few parts.
I looked at the Dax website but I'm not entirely convinced about their take on the styling. The roll bar and square headlights just seem out of place. I know I could probably put something else in their place so I'll keep an open mind about it.
Are the costs between a blade engine and a busa really that huge a difference? I might have to take a run down to holeshot racing and have a chat to see what can be done. I want to make sure I can get an engine in thats fairly tuneable.
I didn't really know about Stuart Taylor but I'll have to check into them.
The MK seems to have a lot more based on needing a donar car (correct me if I'm wrong) but I live in apartments and don't really have space to strip down another car for parts. I was looking more at being able to get the bulk of the kit from one place then maybe hitting the breakers for a few parts.
I looked at the Dax website but I'm not entirely convinced about their take on the styling. The roll bar and square headlights just seem out of place. I know I could probably put something else in their place so I'll keep an open mind about it.
Are the costs between a blade engine and a busa really that huge a difference? I might have to take a run down to holeshot racing and have a chat to see what can be done. I want to make sure I can get an engine in thats fairly tuneable.
Andy - If you want to scare yourself $hitless have a gander at this 
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29750&item=4515678528&rd=1
Not mine by the way, but I have seen one in action. Oh the noise!
Paul.B
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29750&item=4515678528&rd=1
Not mine by the way, but I have seen one in action. Oh the noise!
Paul.B
andy4200 said:I went through this decision process when choosing an engine for my project and went for the 2003 R1 fuel-injected engine.
Are the costs between a blade engine and a busa really that huge a difference? I might have to take a run down to holeshot racing and have a chat to see what can be done. I want to make sure I can get an engine in thats fairly tuneable.
I couldn't justify the cost of the hayabusa engine although I really wanted one as more power is more power after all.
I've had a kawasaki zx6r before now and the build quality was appalling and while I'm aware this may not necessarily reflect on the 9r engine I've heard some stories to suggest it may not be quite as well built as a honda or yamaha and my experience with the 6r was enough to put me off.
I have a honda fireblade and wanted to use that engine as my bike has been utterly spot on for 3.5 years and 17k miles but the gearbox output shaft on an R1 engine is closer to the engine block which gives more flexibility on engine position, the R1 doesn't have a built in immobilisor to overcome (can't imagine that's an issue though) and the R1 engine seemed a bit cheaper.
The blade engine I have in the bike is the 929cc 2001 FI engine which puts out about 130bhp (contrary to the original claims of 150bhp from honda). I found the prices for the later 954cc engines that do put out about 150bhp were significantly more expensive although the throttle response is supposed to be better. Low rev pickup on the 929cc engine is a bit jerky.
I got the 2003 FI R1 engine for 1200 (3000 miles) incl rad, downpipes, exup valve, loom, throttle bodies and injectors from this guy www.colibriman.com/ and he delivered it for that too. The engine looks fine although I haven't had the opportunity to run it yet. The guy is well regarded in locost circles and he's a nice bloke.
My intention is to run the engine as stock initially and then replace the yamaha ecu with a megasquirt system. I don't know if I'll get any more power (I'd hope I would) but it'll be a good winter project.
Mark
I'm currently building a bike engined single seater - found a '97 Fireblade RRV motor for £200 and have since bought carbs for £60, a starter motor for £10 and a new dynojet kit for £30 - ah the wonders of eBay! You can go very wrong with this approach, but so far, i've got all the bits I need for under £500 and this will give me 130Bhp with the potential to get more.
I've seen asking prices of £5k for a 'Busa motor which seems crazy to me - speak to some of the tamer bike breakers or check eBay out - I know a lot of the kit car boys source their motors there.
Happy hunting!
I've seen asking prices of £5k for a 'Busa motor which seems crazy to me - speak to some of the tamer bike breakers or check eBay out - I know a lot of the kit car boys source their motors there.
Happy hunting!
Paul.B said:
Andy - If you want to scare yourself $hitless have a gander at this
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29750&item=4515678528&rd=1
Not mine by the way, but I have seen one in action. Oh the noise!
Paul.B
There was one in the PH classifieds recently.
Kits available at Z-cars for about 20k inc engines.
All good information so far, gives me stuff to look at in the next few months or so.
Andy
No Competion as far as I am concerned it would have to be the T5 Developments Mission.... its a great track day/race car. Mine is Blackbird powered but I may well change it to the ZX12R.
www.t5developments.com
John
www.t5developments.com
John
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