scoobyis2cool
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 02:10 AM |
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Twin Engined Cars
I'm a bit confused about the legal side of twin engined cars and was hoping someone might be able to shed some light for me...
On the Tiger website they have details of their Z100 twin-bike-engine car, and they say that it is fully street legal.
However, last week I was watching Scrapheap Challenge Scrappy Races and they said that one of the teams, who were planning a twin V8 car, could only
use one engine while on the road because it is illegal to have a car powered by two engines.
Now I'm assuming Tiger must have a few of their cars on the road so I'm sure they must be road legal, and I also would've thought
Scrapheap Challenge would get their facts right (especially with all those SVA inspectors knocking about!), so can anyone explain the difference?
The only thing I can think of is that the Tiger has two engines driving the same axle (as far as I know), wheras the Scrapheap Challenge car had two
engines driving different axles.
Anyone know for sure what the law is on this?
Cheers
Pete
It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care...
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Jon Ison
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 11:13 AM |
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i think but may be wrong... you cant have one engine drivin the front and one drivin the rear without them been connected in some way, otherwise the
front wheels could be doing 30mph and the rear 60mph?
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andyps
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 12:51 PM |
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There is a German company which make a twin engined Audi TT which the UK magazines tested, and if I remember right it was one engine per axle.
Going back a long time there was a Twini Moke which was a Mini Moke with two engines, although very few were made. Also, John Cooper had a bad
accident in a twin engined Mini Cooper which he was driving on the road. Like the Twini Moke it had a front subframe mounted at the rear, with the
steering fixed although this is what broke on John Coopers. The law may have changed since the 60's though!
Just found a book with some info about the Twini Minis - the first Moke had a 950cc engine at the front and an 850 at the back! The one John Cooper
crashed (on the Kingston bypass) had two 135bhp engines and he was doing 100mph at the time.
[Edited on 16/1/05 by andyps]
Andy
An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less
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DaveFJ
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 02:00 PM |
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The tiger you mention has one engine driving the fron and the other driving the rear. Although they are not mechanically connected they have a very
sophisticated (and expensive) computer system that balances the 2 engines a bit like a electronic differential. you do however still have 2 gearboxes
and a strange sort of twin shift lever so that you can change both at once (would be interesting to see what having them in different gears would do).
The twin engine cars were done by Z Cars whop seem to be pretty much the experts in this field.
As for scrapheap challenge.... well if those cars could really pass an SVA then were all worrying about nothing!!! IMHO the program is so false as to
be embrassing.
Dave
"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always
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mangogrooveworkshop
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 02:25 PM |
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I think it was because they had a seperate steering mech that was independant of the front set.
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Northy
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 05:00 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by DaveFJ
(would be interesting to see what having them in different gears would do)
If your going for the 0 - 60 record then one of them blows up as Tiff demonstrated!   (which smilie do I put for "wanker"?)
Graham
Website under construction. Help greatfully received as I don't really know what I'm doing! 
"If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?"
Built 2L 8 Valve Vx Powered Avon
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JoelP
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 05:40 PM |
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imagine how confused the MOT man would be trying to work out where to stick his emissions probe!
perfectly legal AFAIK.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 06:27 PM |
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All legal. More details in this thread
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=21208
There have been several Twin-Engined VDubs over the years. Many of them by dubsport
http://www.dubsport.com/projects.asp
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stevebubs
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 06:28 PM |
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Oh...there were also twin engined 2CVs...called the Sahara or Savannah (or something like that)
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stevebubs
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| posted on 16/1/05 at 06:30 PM |
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From all I've seen in Scrappy Races, I'd ignore just about *EVERYTHING* they have to say about the legalities of SVA etc
quote:
Originally posted by scoobyis2cool
I'm a bit confused about the legal side of twin engined cars and was hoping someone might be able to shed some light for me...
On the Tiger website they have details of their Z100 twin-bike-engine car, and they say that it is fully street legal.
However, last week I was watching Scrapheap Challenge Scrappy Races and they said that one of the teams, who were planning a twin V8 car, could only
use one engine while on the road because it is illegal to have a car powered by two engines.
Now I'm assuming Tiger must have a few of their cars on the road so I'm sure they must be road legal, and I also would've thought
Scrapheap Challenge would get their facts right (especially with all those SVA inspectors knocking about!), so can anyone explain the difference?
The only thing I can think of is that the Tiger has two engines driving the same axle (as far as I know), wheras the Scrapheap Challenge car had two
engines driving different axles.
Anyone know for sure what the law is on this?
Cheers
Pete
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scoobyis2cool
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| posted on 17/1/05 at 12:33 AM |
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Cool, so it looks like it is road legal after all! Not something I'd consider doing yet (lack of experience) but maybe a future project...
As for scrapheap challenge, i always take what they say with a pinch of salt - entertaining but some of their knowledge seems a bit
'dubious' to say the least.
Pete
It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care...
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Marcus
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| posted on 18/1/05 at 08:41 PM |
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If you're going twin engines, would it be possible to have, say, the rear manual transmission and the front automatic!
Would save the hassle of gear linkages!
Marcus
Marcus
Because kits are for girls!!
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Simon
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| posted on 18/1/05 at 08:56 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Marcus
If you're going twin engines, would it be possible to have, say, the rear manual transmission and the front automatic!
Would save the hassle of gear linkages!
Marcus
With different gear ratios and number of gears in auto/man boxes, you will never have engine speed parity which willl kill everything very quickly!
ATB
Simon
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britishtrident
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| posted on 18/1/05 at 09:18 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by DaveFJ
The tiger you mention has one engine driving the fron and the other driving the rear. Although they are not mechanically connected they have a very
sophisticated (and expensive) computer system that balances the 2 engines a bit like a electronic differential. you do however still have 2 gearboxes
and a strange sort of twin shift lever so that you can change both at once (would be interesting to see what having them in different gears would do).
The twin engine cars were done by Z Cars whop seem to be pretty much the experts in this field.
As for scrapheap challenge.... well if those cars could really pass an SVA then were all worrying about nothing!!! IMHO the program is so false as to
be embrassing.
Twin engined cars have a long history of either blowing up or crashing going back at least as far as the Alfa Romeo Bimotore -- that was in 1935 and
I am pretty sure somebody would have tried it long before that ---- nothing is new.
http://www.varln.nl/history/bimotore.htm
[Edited on 18/1/05 by britishtrident]
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