Hello peeps.

I am currently a very avid biker, riding at the moment a KTM Superduke 990, and a 1978 Honda CB750 cafe racer that I have just finished building. I saw a car for sale the other day though and it really grabbed my attention and got me looking in to 7-type kit cars as an alternative to biking.

The car in question was a Tiger Z100, the twin Kawasaki ZX9R engined car. Wow!! What can I say. It is something very different to the usual bike engined or car engined kits. But it was a lot of money for a car that still needed some work and fettling to get set up right as it had stood for 5 years unused. Plus it wasn't road registered either.

Obviously from riding bikes which have previously included GSXR1000's and ZZR1400's and the likes, to looking at going to a kit car, I want something with that excitement and blistering performance from a bike, so I really think bike engined cars are the way to go for me. I might even then perhaps look at doing some sprints and things like that. But this just jumped out at me as being something a bit special. Something to talk about and keep my interest, plus something that would require me to do some work on it to tart it up, which would help me learn about the car too. But I just don't want to buy something that is likely to end up being totally unreliable to run, and end up being a money pit due to complexities of the twin engines.

So my questions to you experienced kit car owners, builders, and drivers are;

1. Are these twin engined cars a real pain compared to single bike engine cars?
   
2. The car has lights fitted but is not road registered. Would it be feasable to get something like this registered on the road without MEGA expense?
   
3. Any pros and cons that you think about twin engined cars?
   
4. Anybody own one or driven one?
   
5. What's your opinion of them?
   

The single-engined route is the simplest by far, and has been done by almost all of the manufacturers one way or the other, so lots of advice out there as to how to go about it, what the costs are etc ... I'd say go for a road registered single engined car and fettle to your hearts content ..

The twin engined Tiger Z100 (which I've passengered in) was built by Chris Allanson at http://www.zcars.org.uk/ .. He also did a twin engined Westfield .. If you want to know what it takes to build and register a twin engined machine, have a chat to them.

Cheers !!

Hi, I personally would go single engine, I can forsee very difficult set up issues, syncing the engines for one; gear ratio, gear selector, power etc.

If you have enough to buy a twin engined, buy single - ROAD REGISTERED already - and go nuts with an engine, turbo for example.

If your mechanically minded and have the time and money, buy a cheap registered kit, remove what ever engine it is, and go with a charged zx10/12 or similar.

You'll be very impressed with the performance of a n/a single engined kit anyway, they'll get to 60 quicker than a bike purely because of traction. And you'll be able to brake much later. Granted, the bits inbetween you'l miss your bike but if you went charged that wouldnt be an issue.

or do a trike like mine wah hahaha

Been discusseed here before, a search should find it.

Do it becuase you can, you want to achieve something different and you have deep pockets.
Else tread a more conservative path that will still give you ballistic performance.

There was a really nice Twin R1 Mini at Donnington yetsreday foy £15k. ?

quote:

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Originally posted by maccmike
If you have enough to buy a twin engined, buy single - ROAD REGISTERED already - and go nuts with an engine, turbo for example.

If your mechanically minded and have the time and money, buy a cheap registered kit, remove what ever engine it is, and go with a charged zx10/12 or similar.

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Cost of turboing a BEC depend on how much you do yourself.

Expensive route would be TTS or Big CC.

Cheap route would be DIY (which is what I did, here http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=150801 )

Matt

Out of curiosity what experience do you have driving cars?

I’ve got an R1 and my Locost has an R1 engine in it, the Locost is really quick and for me was a real handful to start with! So much so that I span it and broke a wishbone and a few other bits on day 3…

The point I’m making is you might actually find that a N/A bike engined car will do you for the time being, save up and turbo it once you’ve got used to it…

Equally if you a racing driver ignore my points

Good point that, Iv had mine a year and still not gone full throttle.

In my defense it has only got one back wheel and wheel spin is incredibly easy.

Had it spinning at 70 in a straight line.

I need a track day me thinks...

I don't have any major driving experience of super fast cars. Had plenty of super fast bikes and also driven a few Porsche's on occasion, then other than that it is just 90's hot hatches and a couple of track driving experiences with TVR's and Ferrari's and the like. I am no racing driver by any means. I do lots of driving through work though, in the UK and on the continent, and have probably averaged 35k miles a year for the last 10 years.

I wasn't initially thinking of a turbo car anyway, it was just a point raised by someone on here so thought I would ask the question about turbo's so I could think about getting the right car to start with so that I wouldn't have to change in a year if I wanted to make some alterations or something and the car I had wouldn't accept them or it would be financially prohibitive.

Have you been in a 7 type car? If not I wonder if anyone local to you would take you for a spin??

I’m not knocking turbo cars by any means, if I had the cash now I wouldn’t hesitate to turbo mine.. but I think I would have killed myself if id brought/built a turbo’d 7 as my first car. I have had other cars either front wheel four wheel drive but there is no comparison to the 7, it’s a total different beast.

In summary 2 engines sounds like an absolute mission to me so I would definitely go single bike engine, but do consider buying something that can be boosted if you get bored of the power!

Wasn't it a twin engined tiger that Tiff Needell mangled the gearbox in??? Seems to me that twin engined anything is all about the gearbox or gearboxes.

Never driven a bike engined car but I have been a passenger in a few and they are scary fast.

Yeah he was trying to break the 0-60 time. Think, think it was twin birds

quote:

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Originally posted by maccmike
Yeah he was trying to break the 0-60 time. Think, think it was twin birds

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Big money but there is a V8 made from 2 bike engines
2L, 2.2L or 2.4L 300+ bhp @ 10,200 rpm
Seen these in an Exege and a Caterham

I really like the idea of a supercharged TTS hayabusa, one day. In the mean time if anyone wants to donate a turbo Hayabusa that will do for now.

I've seen twin engined stuff at Hillclimbs, sprints and stuff so there must be a class for them, even if they run by themselves in that class

Cheers
David

quote:

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Originally posted by Fieldy
Have you been in a 7 type car? If not I wonder if anyone local to you would take you for a spin??

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quote:

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Originally posted by Irony
Wasn't it a twin engined tiger that Tiff Needell mangled the gearbox in???

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Twin ZX12rs, the engine failed because it was mechanically forced through the rev limit by the engines being in different gears. That what Chris from Zcars told me anyway and he wasn't very polite about tif at all

Cheers
David

I'm an avid biker, I got the kit car as a way to be a bit safer (two kids arrived) and to be able to take the wife out in it, as she doesn't like the bike.

She hated it, and with kids we hardly have many lazy afternoons we could have gone for a ride alone together anyway!

But I loved the kit car - very fast, and I felt much happier sticking it into a corner a bit hot, and pinning the throttle on the way out than I ever would on a bike on the road!

Had to sell up due to a house move, and I miss the BEC.

I would just add that a BEC is a very specific car, for very specific roads - a bit like a supermoto. great fun on the twisties, but a ball ache most anywhere else. Go into it knowing that and you will be happier.

oh, and I just bought a track bike to get my adreneline pumping again

[Edited on 3/9/12 by Dangle_kt]

Tiff going banzai

Z cars Tiger twin kwacky's 1200

Hi all,
I can confirm that the tiger Z100WR that tiff N blew up was twin ZX12-R engines, I know cos its sitting in my garage!!

To the originator of this thread, if your not a tinkerer, dont go down the twin engine route, although mine is technically road legal, it is really a race toy that happens to be road legal. It is rather brutal, every time out in it results in a full spanner check to tighten all the bits that have vibrated loose, and a visit to the dentist to have all your teeth that have rattled loose re-set.
It really is an enthusiasts car.
I shudder to think the fun you'd have to get one approved for the road these days!!
Nor is it the best handling car, dont get me wrong, it handles well, but I have done sprints with it, lap times around a course or circuit are marginally less than a single engine seven as the extra weight compromises the balance/handling, but the extra grunt on the straight goes some way to making up for it.
All that said though, for ultimate grin and "oh my god!!!!!!" factor, it cant be beat. You change gear using your in built human shift light, basically when your eye-balls are rattling to the point when you cant focus!!
And the sound track!!!!!...........two ZX12-R motors on full chat through straight through exhausts, the thing wet dreams are made of...

In the beginning of the video, isn't that the guy from Z Cars?

That is indeed Chris Allanson.

Chris is a bit of a Guru, there are no things he cant do, only things he hasn't quite worked out how to do yet!!!!

is this car by anychance local to you that you are talking about?

quote:

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Originally posted by maccmike
Yeah he was trying to break the 0-60 time. Think, think it was twin birds

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quote:

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Originally posted by beaver34
is this car by anychance local to you that you are talking about?

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blimey, road legal or not that's not a bad buy for someone with a bit of time and enthusiasm

Tiff turns the kill switch off during the start sequence!!!