by Seth
26. March 2009 04:23
People have been mixing and matching motorbike and car parts for years in an effort to go quickly in a small, light but more than two wheeled package. Morgan started in business by doing this and by way of another example here is the "Halec JAP" seen at the recent Race Retro show. Built in 1955 for hillclimb and sprint competition it uses the front half of a Formula Three racing car, a bike type rear frame and suspension with a 1200cc V twin J.A.P. engine / Norton gearbox sandwiched in the middle.
The plethora of more modern high performance Japanese bike engines have become favourites amongst the newer generation of retro car fans to make superb sprint, trackday and most importantly fun vehicles. My own experience has been of this seven that belongs to a friend of a friend and is used for assaults on the Nurburgring. It is equally as good at summer time evening blasts into central London for a bite to eat. No room for shopping though.
The sensory overload in a car like that is incredible, the sound it is making seems at odds with the four wheeled layout and the clunky close- ratio sequential gearbox helping keep the revs where they need to be. Fantastic though that is, this carbon fibre Honda Z600 that was first brought to my attention by Bryn is in a completely different league. The engineering looks incredible with a Suzuki Hyabusa engine strapped to the tube chassis next to the driver and cantilever shocks all round
So where can I go to get some bike engined action for myself? Well one option is to pay a visit to Z Cars in the north East of England. (caution – noisy video loads on the home page!) Cars they have converted include Minis, Lotus Elises and a twin Hyabusa turbo engine four wheel drive Ultima. In their own words “Awesome!”
To finish here’s a couple of videos I came across while looking for information. It seems there is a class in an Italian hillclimb championship that attracts old Fiats and other cars with motorbike engines. Brilliant!
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