Bike engines in the front!

[Huwbertus]

Anybody thought, tried, or seen anything with a bike engine driving the front wheels?

I seem to remember a grastracker from about 10 years back but can find no info.

Or maybe front engine rear wheel drive?

Any ideas?

[rougeleo]

have a look here


www.zcars.org.uk/mini/mini_main.htm

[Huwbertus]

Cheers lots of info there.

Thought in my mind was to keep my mini front wheel drive though. I like the standard slighhtly decrepid looking GTI basher look.

Slapping a bike engine under the bonnet was a thought. Motors are cheeper than equivelant car engines but my guess is that the transmission would be a bugger!

[Fatboy]

I remember thinking that this would be a brilliant idea 10 years ago when my brother first got his mini - never did try and do it though.

The problem I couldn't see how to solve was how to get the drive from the bike output shaft where the sprocket would normally go to the diff in a compact enough manner to allow the standard front to be retained. I've seen thew Z cars set up for the chain driven diff, but it doesn't look compact enough to go under the front end. Now, if you could mate the bike engine to the mini gearbox, that would be a winner for sure....

[ccharlie6]

there was a front motorbike engined mini in mini mag a few months ago, it went like a rocket, but was not stealth like at all because to get the drive and everything lined up and correct, the engine had to be angled forwards poking out the front of the car so there was no grill or anything, not very stealth!!!

[annodomini2]

what about a clubman fibreglass front end?