A bit of a monster!

[BobbaFett]

Came across this on fleabay, looks like an absolute monster but doubt anyone would stump up £27k for Smart:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SMART-FOR...01e5%7Ciid%3A1

[Thrumbleux]

A couple of months back, I was a passenger in a Honda Blackbird engined one. With 185hp it was plenty quick.

[BobbaFett]

I'd imagine it would be a tiring machine to drive, have to rev the knackers off it to get it going from a standstill and hang on for dear life once it gets up into the range - probably lunching a clutch every few weeks to boot.

[Thrumbleux]

Don't know about the e-bay one but the one I was in was amazingly tractable - Chris (who owns it) made the point by setting off from rest in second gear. Even in the 30mph zone he could work it up through most of the gears. By the time they are turning at around 3000 rpm they are making more torque and power than any standard fortwo ever did with another 9000rpm to come. We got to the far end of fourth gear at around 110mph in hardly any distance at all before shutting it down to re-enter the 30 mph zone. I'm told it pulls fifth and sixth as vigorously as the preceding ratios and I don't doubt it. Chris drives it real hard and still gets high 30s mpg. More practical than you might imagine then - but for the noise!

[BobbaFett]

Wow, I never thought that would be the case - I've always read that they are borderline unusable but guess not

[Thrumbleux]

Until I was in the one I was in, I thought they weren't much cop either. That idea began with Gordon Murray's Rocket and the notion it needed a special megabuck Wiessman gearbox as the standard bike ratios weren't suitable.Not so. Clutches got a bad rep but mainly because a foot is operating something designed to be hand operated. And the (bike) engines themselves make ample torque at low enough rpm and as set-up from the factory, run amazingly cleanly from idle to red line. Accompanying six speed sequential gearboxes are the icing on the cake.
They are noisy though. Not just exhaust (which can be brought down) but induction noise and the constant mechanical whines of straight cut gears. If you consider how car engines are hidden under copious amounts of sound deadening, the bike engine can't help but be on the loud side. If you get offered a run or a chance to drive a bike engined car - take it!

I think bike engines in fortwos got a bad rep because too many were built (and geared) to do doughnuts in supermarket carparks. Gear them right and they are formidable on B-roads.

[mikerj]

The gearboxes and clutches are always the weak link in these conversions, the ForTwo is just too heavy for a really good bike engine conversion. Lotus 7 style kit cars with bike engines tend to be well below 500kg, often below 400kg and they still tend to suffer with clutch problems.

[Thrumbleux]

But the UK is like America, obsessed with fast in a straight line with the traffic light grand prix the decider of everything so clutches take a hiding. Wait until its fully engaged before going hard on the loud pedal and the clutch will better survive - like you might on road with - bends.