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I haven't ruled out the small diesel option, mostly for the possibility of using bio diesel. The thing that's nice about the Suzuki motors though is that the 1.0l three cylinder engines bolt straight up to the samurai 4x4 gearbox. Since these have divorced transfer cases you get a simple, easy, light weight (under 200lbs for the motor and gearbox) five speed. I could also turbo charge it and fit it with an LPG conversion.
Also, front wheel drive is the best engineering solution. 2/3 weight up front, 1/3 weight at back is the idea distribution for a reverse trike, and the front wheel drive offers better traction. I am however quite hung up on the idea of RWD - the idea behind this machine is to provide me with a small exciting machine when I want to throw it around (hanging the back end out like a Morgan going up a VSCC Shelsley Walsh hillclimb), and returning very good fuel economy when I want to commute to work.
There are difficulties with a front wheel drive in this configuration however.I'm kind of limited to sticking the engine in front of the axle (Lomax, Pembleton etc), which limits powerplants. The other option of 'reversing' the set up and having a transaxle at the front with an inline engine pointing backwards makes shifter linkages difficult. I'm sure it's nothing insurmountable though. Also, transverse FWD does not lend itself to the open wheel arrangement I'm keen on having.
Those wheels will probably end up in spats for improved aerodynamics, and steer with the wheels. The other option is for spats that remain fixed, which allows the headlights to be mounted in them, but the spats would not be able to fully enclose the wheels in this case, so the aerodynamic benefit of 'removing' the headlights is kind of negated.
Still, it's only an excercise on paper first. I'd rather have a pretty good idea of what goes into its construction before I spend any money on it!
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