What Car Engine Would You Like to See in a Bike?

Ferrari made some tiny V12s, including some 2000cc models.

Subaru WRX motor

What a Valkyrie should have been

Here's an example: a snarling 2-liter Ferrari V12 from the 1952 166 coupe. There were a lot of hot little Italian engines from 500cc to 2000cc in Italian cars from the '40s through the '80s. Probably some sitting around somewhere.

Subaru engines kick ass. A popular swap these days is a Subaru flat four into a an old Porsche 914 or 911. A WRX-STI motor can be tweaked with a chip to 450 hp. There are a lot of VW Vanagons running around with Subaru flat fours and flat sixes.

Picture This.......

A sport touring rig w/ a longitudinallymounted 4 cyl. Specifically, the 2.3L Ford that was in the SVO Mustang and the T-Bird Turbo Coupe, with a tranny from a MotoGuzzi. Kinda like a Griso, but w the 250-300 HP of which that motor is capable. Even a mild tune of 200 would be kinda cool. Big rear, long wheelbase, comfortable seating position, and the ability to bust the back tire loose at will. Also, no muffler other than the turbo, with a little downpipe.

HOOooWaaaa!

Rob

just simply wrong, on soooo many levels.

It should be illegal for a Vanagon to have more than 89 hp.

Just not right. (grumble,*****,moan.....)

Hhumph. Offends the sensibilities. Stings the Nostrils....

R

Turbo Cummins Diesel

I vote for a Mazda Rotary, like the current gen from the RX-8. Even if it's scaled down, a compact, low torque (for a car), high revving, high power-to-weight engine seems like a no brainer for motorcycle applications. In fact, if you optimized one for a bike it would probably rev even higher than it already does.



Piston engines in bikes are more oversquare than in a car, sacrificing torque for higher revs and more horsepower. I wonder what the rotary would look like if it were built from the ground up for a sportbike. Too bad my engineering background is in aircraft, not engines, though I still think it could make an interesting project/hobby.



The rotary engine has come a long way since the last rotary bikes died; it might actually have merit again.

A Morgan three wheeler.

I was being silly at first, but how about just one cylinder from a turbo cummins diesel? 1000 cc, 100 ft pounds torque, 50 horsepower, 4" exhaust pipe, and a jake brake, 350,000 miles, give or take, between rebuilds. I could live with that. Maybe we could get Kenworth to build it. Been on the interstates lately? If ya can't beat em, join em. If we was willing to sacrifice a bit of engine longevity to get more horsies, maybe a one lung cummins could put out 100 ponies in exchange for say, 175,000 miles between rebuilds., I could live with that too.

Don't laugh, but I always thought the aluminum 3 banger from an old chevy Geo would be a good mill for a bike. Small size, low weight and good horsepower potential.

A lot of small inline-four car engines would be great powerplants for touring bikes.

Here's a video clip that will illustrate that any car engine, no matter how small, will accelerate like blazes when you remove all the unnecessary weight of a car:

http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/news/classic-top-gear-the-ariel-atom-will-blow-your-face-off-186011.php

66' saab sport engine - 850cc 3-cylinder 2-stroke... if you modified it quite a bit it could probably get some good power for it's weight with some modern 2-stroke tuning.

oh and a Radical SR8 engine .. I think that's the radical that comes with the V8 made from two hyabusa engines....

I gotta to say that is one of the sweetest cars I've never seen. Just awesome.