Quote:
Originally Posted by euromodder
All things aren't equal here 
If you can make it light enough so that a 125 or 250cc FI engine becomes an option, it'd beat a small car engine on displacement alone .
(The smallest FI car engines you'll find are likely 1L - I doubt the 660cc Kei cars made it to the US ?) |
For quick-and-dirty, a 250 cc motorscooter is hard to beat: the engine, trans and rear wheel are all one module (and there are no shift and clutch controls to rig). The Zing! was first an enclosed two wheeler (which was lighter than the scooter from which I took the engine package). Then it was on three wheels, but still powered by the 50 cc scooter engine. It still had the scooter's top speed, but had gained enough weight with the additional wheels and car brakes, steering, etc. that acceleration was worse. But it pushed the thing around well enough for the intended purpose, which was to test the chassis. If I were not obsessive about fuel efficiency, and wanted to just drive around, a 250cc scooter engine would have made a nice little vehicle, at about 60-70 mpg.
Motorcycle and scooter tires are not designed to corner like a car tire, and swing arms are not designed for such loads either. Single-wheel-drive is not good in the north, where the drive wheel rides on the piles of snow and ice in the middle of the lane. Oversteer can be an issue, too, even on dry roads. But for simplicity, there is a lot to be said for just using the back half of a scooter or cycle.