Is there a reason that I cant put a bike lump in front of the axle and sit in front of it. Using a fairly standard book chassis, bird engine the same way as in a bike, and a very short chain driving a sprocket fixed to the half shafts. The seats could be further forward keeping the car about the same length.
OK, i knew it was stupid!

mmm, you'd need a diff in there. not sure a sprocket on the half shafts would work... maybe a FWD gearbox in there somehow? maybe left in 4th gear? don't know

see the fury menace.

I would imagine it would turn the car into a great big quad bike.

Definately going to need some extra gearing, somewhere

Ronnie

A chain drive to a sprocket on a sealed diff is how the bike engined hillclimbers & autograssers do it. Obviously a chain is going to require more looking after but otherwise why wouldn't it work for the road?

A Scottoiler would help no end with chain life.

As an example of this kind of car, kindly also note the Sylva R1ot....

Chain driven cars common practice in hill climbers and race cars in the 750 Motor Club. Radicals and karts also operate on a simular principle. The only problem for a road car is that the rear wheels are fixed as there will be no diff, therfore when cornering the inner wheel will travel at a shorter distance than the outer wheel and scrubbing of tyres will occur.

Hilclimb and sprint car chain drive to a Quaife diff. Simple and effective!

Wyn

If you watched the Race of Champions last week the ROC buggies had blackbird engines in the back in what looked like its original orientation, it might be worth looking up how they do it.

Thanks for the replies, maybe not quite as stupid as I thought. Thought it would be easier with the engine the right way round, use the std manifold and everything. Probably wouldnt suffer with oil surge as much either.

Sounds like a good idea to me :-)

Standard manifold might not work as these sometimes run under the engine which may not be an option of you're trying to mount it as low as possible.

There are quite a few photos which might inspire you on my web site.

Wyn

Nothing wrong with the idea, been done 1000's of times see below my Toyota MR2 diff with ZZR1100 engine, complete with electric reverse

[img]http://[/img]

Only thing I would say is that these installartions take up more length than you might think, you'll struggle to get the distance from the front of the headers to the centreline of the diff much under 26", don't know how that dimension sits with the room behind a seven's seat, might make for a very light front end too.

Worth looking at a Sylva R1ot as well, thats pretty much as youve described in terms of layout and chassis design.

You could also look at my archive pics and nitrams