Primarily, the main factor taken into consideration in our decision was who drives the Indy the most and what sort of driving is done. As Dad is retired, he tends to use the Indy a lot and most of his driving is done at a rather leisurely pace and therefore a bike engine might not be best suited for his style of driving.
Responsiveness and quick acceleration are bike engine traits and they like to be revved, which is great fun on a track, but can lead to mishaps on the public highway. Dad has already had his license endorsed with three penalty points for exceeding the speed limit and he is now cautious whilst out driving and adheres strictly to the speed limits imposed.
In deciding which engine to replace the ZX12R with, we considered factors that we liked in engines. We wanted something with similar bhp, preferably more torque and quite high revving.
Looking around at various engines, we initially considered other bike engines, such as the FJR1300 and the Pan Euro but discounted them due to their complexity in a BEC
Finally, we considered….. wait for it….. car engines.
Obviously the Honda S2000 is prime candidate, however, it is slightly out of our price range unfortunately.
Other engines we considered were the Nissan SR20DET. Again, good bhp, torque but the complexity once again put us off
Lastly, we decided that although probably not the most modern of engines, we would replace our ZX12R engine with one that is tried and tested. OK, so they might not be the lightest engines out there, nor the most powerful but they are robust, easily tuneable and can return some impressive RWHP with bike carbs fitted. Besides which, the people who have them fitted always rave about them.
So….. Pinto engine it is!! Now we’ve decided, we can’t wait for summer to end, so we can get cracking on the transplant………
