Well it has been about a 8 years since I sold off my bike engined car. It was which was a single seat D-sports racer, with a Yamaha 1000 it weighed in just over 1000lbs and the gearbox was never an issue. Someone probably knows but I'm thinking that if you really work on the weight (lexan windows, gutted doors, alloy everything) you may be able to get a coupe down to about 1350lbs?? Now with that said I know of bike engined pure race cars that are near this heavy. SCCA D-sports are supposed to be 900lbs with driver, C-Sports Racer was 1200lbs with driver and allowed up to 1300cc bike engines. I don't recall the C-sports having gearbox issues. Now the chain drive probably takes up some of the load. Another aspect to consider is with smaller rear tires, they would likely limit the load through the gearbox. As for wheel spin, we ran 7 inch slicks on the back and you could pretty much light up the rear tires in the lower gears if you slapped on the gas (something you never do on a road course).

I have considered the bike engine in the 1200 numerous times but beyond the vintage legal deal it comes down to simply turbo charging an A series would likely net nearly the same power for a lot less cost. Keep in mind I don't weld or fabricate so I have to pay for all the motorcylce related changes. Now if i could weld and fab properly than yeah buying a $700 sportbike that some squid crashed and mid mounting it in a 1200 could be a fun project.


Tom