Any motorbike engine info please

[jako999]

Hi all for those of you who are not on the roadster forum I own a Brabus coupe Exclusive and love it but I put it in storage 6 months ago as I got my self a 911 turbo its one hell of a car but the Smart is more fun!! I went to a hill climb yesterday and several of the single seaters and Westfields were running motor bike engines,this got me thinking Ive seen some of the bike Smarts on you tube they look fun. If I built one it would give me the fun of the Smart with lots of power, Ive had a hunt around the net but there isn't much info. I want to know is it easy, cost, do they handle well and so on. There's no rush i'm just after ideas and if I did do it I would want it to be a Roadster coupe.

Thanks in advance.

[Thrumbleux]

Re: Any motorbike engine info please

First point to make is that Westfields and the like weigh in at 500kg or less - a Roadster is 800+kg. The weight difference between engines isn't so different (an R1 engine weighs 65kg, the Suprex is lighter. R1 includes gearbox but not diff, you'd lose the smart gearbox weight but still need a diff).
Secondly, getting the bike engine low enough in a smart chassis is a whole lot harder than in a Westfield. And you will still have to do lots of cutting into the shell to make it fit.
A lot of effort and/or cost for a 150hp bike engine ( a more powerful one will cost a lot more) when the Suprex can be tuned to 130hp and have good torque across the rev range.

[jako999]

Re: Any motorbike engine info please

I was thinking of going all out if I did it and running at about 180bhp I used to have around a 200bhp Westfield years ago it was a lot of fun problem was not an every day car as no hood. May be I should just stick with what ive got and push it to the max who are the best people to talk to do the work?

Thanks

[Thrumbleux]

Re: Any motorbike engine info please

I think, though I'm not certain, the amount of chassis hacking requires a SVA test for road use.
Smartuki did bike engined with the engine in the engine bay. There's the Diablo which puts the engine inside the passenger compartment (and much lower).
Not sure if anyone is doing any conversions any more - think I heard Smartuki had folded - Google for their website to know for sure.
If you are going to do it, consider a hand operated clutch as bikes weren't meant to have their clutches operated by feet! (That's what I intend on the R1 engined single seater I'm building).