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Bike power, mid engine, road legal, production??
Alez - 26/2/04 at 02:31 PM

So, what have been the different attempts to actually sell a

-bike powered,
-mid engine,
-road legal

kit car as either a kit or a turn-key car?

There was the MK GT1 now being re-thought as Banshee. There was the Wesfield XTR2 now XTR4. Any others? Oh, there's the Xanthos Grand Prix single seater as well, Fireblade powered I think, they claim it can be made road legal. Also, any with a transmission other than chain? Is that all in production out there, XTR or nothing??

There are a few others still at prototype level not production, like the Coram LMP and the Dragon F1, as well as some one-offs, like that OX7 and some cars that this guy Rotor posted a while ago, although I can't remember wether these were car or bike engined. If I'm right, Radicals and Ultimas are car powered, as well as the Sylva Mojo, Ariel Atom, Brooke cars, Carcraft Cyclone and UVA Fugitive F33 both now discontinued and so and so on, there are many more car engined cars than are bike engined ones!!!

Cheers,

Alex

ned - 26/2/04 at 02:35 PM

Alez,

Radicals are bike powered, range of kawasaki engines or suzuika hyabusa in vaious states of tune iirc.

Ned.

Alez - 26/2/04 at 02:36 PM

Hmm, tasty!! Not that I don't like the XTRs, BTW!!

Hugh Paterson - 26/2/04 at 06:50 PM

Alez, had a decko at the XTR at autosport, not too impressed with the chassis at the back end, the new Radical seems well sorted however. As for the Palmer motorsport beastie well some people call it lust, sori chaps if u got fed up wiping the drool marks from the bodywork, of course its a car engine but the quality of build made me weak at the knees. Thats the bench mark but at a price of course!
Shug.

greggors84 - 27/2/04 at 02:54 AM

Is the the palmer jaguar one? Very nice and they do a road legal version. LeMan racer for the road!

speck - 27/2/04 at 07:47 AM

quote:
Originally posted by greggors84
Is the the palmer jaguar one? Very nice and they do a road legal version. LeMan racer for the road!


AFAIK, the Palmer Jaguar uses a 3L V6 Jag engine tuned to 280bhp or so.

Hugh Paterson - 27/2/04 at 11:32 AM

Yup thats the one, I have heard rumors of an Audi engine one too but dont know if thats all it is.
Shug.

ned - 27/2/04 at 11:51 AM

The Palmer audii car was originally a national supersports car by the name of Zeus. Pete Sneller (the man behind Zeus) has since gone bankrupt but made the first bacth/sold/gave the rights to Jonathan Palmers boys.
The zeus's bodywork I believe was derived from a van dieman sports 2000 car.

The zeus won the National Supersports championship in 2001, only 1 car was made and run in the series, fitted with a vx Xe 16v.

I'll try and dig out some pics..

Ned.

ps see the resembelance?







[Edited on 27/2/04 by ned]

Hugh Paterson - 27/2/04 at 02:39 PM

Ah Ned what a mine of information u are, I may be mistaken but I thought that Zeus still had a website recently, nice car though drool drool slebber You obviously mix in exhaulted circles

Shug.

ned - 27/2/04 at 02:49 PM

Shug,

http://www.zeusmotorsport.co.uk/ no longer seems to work/exist, getting a page cannot be displayed error.

Ned.

oldgit485 - 27/2/04 at 06:38 PM

I think the Pell Genesis was one of the first bike/mid engined cars and the Stathcarron no longer in production used a Triumph motor cycle engine in a Reynard designed monocoque.

Pell Automotive
Unit 7
Essex Park Industrial Estate
Essex Street
Bradford
West Yorkshire
BD47 7UA

http://www.strathcarron-sports-cars.com/


Tel: 01274-307444
Fax: 01274-307444

Oldgit

Alan B - 27/2/04 at 10:12 PM

You may be right about the Pell...but the one I know is car engined...

Pell link

Alez - 1/3/04 at 05:28 PM

Hmmm!! What do we have here?? Isn't this Pell the only road legal, production, mid engined, bike engined, AFFORDABLE car around?? Lovely!!

Alez - 1/3/04 at 05:53 PM

V8 car engined, but worth a mention..
http://www.gdcars.com/gdt70/gdt70_index.htm

Cheers,

Alex

andkilde - 1/3/04 at 07:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Alez
Hmmm!! What do we have here?? Isn't this Pell the only road legal, production, mid engined, bike engined, AFFORDABLE car around?? Lovely!!


MK appear to be working on something quite interesting -- hopefully it will be road legal when finished. Everyone here seems to be quite complimentary about his work.

http://www.m-keenan.freeserve.co.uk/Banshee.htm


Cheers, Ted

Alez - 2/3/04 at 01:38 PM

Yes, I wonder why they had the GT1 in production for so little time. As for this new one, it's looking good, I'm not convinced about the bodywork though, to me it looks like a chassis covered by a bed sheet?? Strange

Cheers,

Alex

ned - 2/3/04 at 01:53 PM

Interesting that the pics on mk's website have changed. They did show a zetec engined chassis with an audi treansaxle.. now they have an inline bike engine bolted to a sierra dif, which I do believe ha been suggested on this forum before as a locost mid engine drive train!

Ned.

greggors84 - 2/3/04 at 02:08 PM

I thought they were still building the strathcarron, last i heard, which was last year, that they were planning to have a car engine option. Im not sure though.

Wadders - 2/3/04 at 08:35 PM

Well my vote goes to the black Palmer, the side mounted rocket launcher is an especially nice touch, and could come in very handy Dunno what the SVA man would make of it though!!

ned - 3/3/04 at 10:57 AM

Wadders,

The whole point is that it isn't a pamler car, but a zeus! its for sale, anyone interested i have a conctact...

and yes it is one peice carbon fibre bodywork on the car...

and an f3 style airbox.

Ned.

oldgit485 - 3/3/04 at 11:29 PM

Just posting about cyclone v8 on another thread (v8 using two bike top ends on a new crankcase/crank) made me think of the Light Car Companys Rocket, mid engine Yamaha ,50s racer style,dont know if its still in production was expensive!
Oldgit

Wadders - 3/3/04 at 11:31 PM

Ned
I really don't give a sh*t what the car is/was/might be, MY point is it just looks quite nice!!!!!! Thats all.
Al.

]Originally posted by ned
Wadders,

The whole point is that it isn't a pamler car, but a zeus! its for sale, anyone interested i have a conctact...

and yes it is one peice carbon fibre bodywork on the car...

and an f3 style airbox.

Ned. [/quote

spunky - 13/4/04 at 09:54 AM

Honda SP1 (135bhp 90ishft/lbs), non chain drive.
Short prop direct to sierra diff.
Originally an ST project but I took it off Ians hands, Soon found out why his development ground to a halt. Its been a b*****d to build, but just about ready.

More piccies in my archive.

John
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread just curious to hear your comments.

[Edited on 13/4/04 by spunky] Rescued attachment spider 01.jpg
Rescued attachment spider 01.jpg

GTAddict - 14/4/04 at 08:49 PM

Neat. What is windscreen from?

(Aw, okay, I'll bite...)

1.) A V-Twin! Wicked! Does it sound as good as I think it does?

And:

2.) Why have you got a cam operated master cylinder? It's a nice idea, but why?

Mark.

spunky - 14/4/04 at 09:04 PM

Hi Mark,

Yup, it does sound incredible with the twin DTM back box. Its an odd thing with no baffling just some perforated tubes to redirect sound!!!

Cam operated clutch was an attempt to give as much feel and pedal movement as possible since bike clutches only move a 'nats'. success was limited so have fitted bike master now.

Windscreen is special made but I believe the original Midtec that this is based on was a cut down Saab 96 rear screen, so I bin told. (loads of them around in breakers aren't there!)

John

Mave - 15/4/04 at 04:13 PM

Don't forget the AS One:
http://www.automotivesolutions.de/auswahl_uk.php?check=0&res=1

Really nice looking car, and the bodywork lends itself to some relatively easy DIY: a lot of flat, or single curvature faces.

N*E*R*D - 19/5/04 at 06:49 PM

Hi all <--- Newb

i like that but the price is taking the (fill in ####)
Aren’t the radical guys building a bike V8 USING?
Two tops of hayabusa engine Reboard to make 3000 cc
And a bespoke bottom end + Crank, if it works it will be the nearest thing to a formula 1 engine I think we will get and a great basis for a mid engine kit car
Just a thought

Alez - 31/5/04 at 07:21 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Mave
Don't forget the AS One:
http://www.automotivesolutions.de/auswahl_uk.php?check=0&res=1

Really nice looking car, and the bodywork lends itself to some relatively easy DIY: a lot of flat, or single curvature faces.


That's interesting, there are a lot of midi cars which share the lightweight / minimalistic concept (from the sophisticated Attack to the more kit car oriented models with no doors like the Mojo or whatever else), but none that I know have been designed with a DIY mind like the Locost is (folded sheet and so on). Yet I'm sure that some of these cars are better suited than others for the purpose of building a low cost version of the car (same chassis but cheap body and donor or generic parts all round, like lights and things like that). The original design that is going more clearly in that direction is the Gecko, but whenever I see other designs I just think "would it be possible to make a cheap version of this?".

Doc - 5/6/04 at 11:19 PM

How about the Fisher Fury Menace reviewed in both the kit car mags this month.

Alez - 7/6/04 at 09:30 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Doc
How about the Fisher Fury Menace reviewed in both the kit car mags this month.


I "discovered" it recently and started a thread about it. It looks good but.. I'd say it's not more than what it is in reality: a front engine chassis with a small engine (I mean in size) at the.. rear. Front wheels too far away. Engine too much to the rear. My personal feeling about it, although I really like its look.

cymtriks - 10/6/04 at 09:53 PM

Strathcarron!!

Died suddenly and appears to have been resurected in Kool cars form as the 5exi.

Why oh why didn't Marlin/Kool Cars copy the reynard racing chassis and not just the body???

The poor Strath got fatter every time you heard about it. First it was 525Kg. Then 575 then over 600... The original bike concept ended up like an Elise sized car with a bike sized engine. Then came emissions rules that it couldn't pass. Lack of foresight or what? Everyone knew emissions regs were comming.

What a shame.

The last time I looked at an an MK GT1 chassis it had no triangulation at all at the front and barely any around the engine bay and rear suspension. I do hope they fixed that.

Whatever came of the midtech? It seemed to do Ok for a short time in the early nineties. The odd option of paying extra for a cortina engine adaptor sticks in my mind. Why not put a Renault engine on a Renault transaxle? Or use an Audi eng/trans? Great idea though. I test drove one. The project got bought by someone and now by someone else... Surely with an Audi engine and box (no messing with adaptor plates) and a clean up to bring the fit and quality up to modern standards it'd do fine. Just a tip for anyone who trys taking over the midtech. Double Y brace the top of the engine bay and triangulate the top of the rear suspension region and the stiffness doubles.