Read that, I think that's an excellent choice, and is about as good a balance you can get between 21st century engines and staying true to the
basic 7 concept/formula..
Would be interesting to see what other 7 owners think after driving one. The PH article suggests it'll have enough power for most of us really
so there's probably little real world difference to pick up on
quote:Originally posted by cjwood23
Alway wondered why no one has turbo'd any of the 600cc bike engines and stuck them in a '7.
The clutch and gearbox would be too fragile. They aren't exactly the paragon of reliability on the 1 litre engines when used in cars.
You'd also have very little torque off boost, so you'd be screaming the nads of it all the time.
The only advantage of turbo 600cc might be that you could fit into a particular competition class. Say the turbo gives you a 1.4x engine capacity
weighting, then you could sneak under the 1litre with a 700cc engine. No idea if it would be worth the bother though.
quote:Originally posted by cjwood23
Alway wondered why no one has turbo'd any of the 600cc bike engines and stuck them in a '7.
The clutch and gearbox would be too fragile. They aren't exactly the paragon of reliability on the 1 litre engines when used in cars.
You'd also have very little torque off boost, so you'd be screaming the nads of it all the time.
Looks like they will be using a different box, as the article says a re-engineered 5 speed gearbox. Don't the bikes has 6 gears? Maybe there way
of dealing with the fragile issue?
quote:Originally posted by rdodger
Around 80bhp and less than 500kg, so 160 hp per ton.
Not exactly mind altering.
I don't see why anyone would want one because it is economical. How many miles per year does a Catering van owner do? 3000 max?
Yes but comparing it to the model its replacing, the NA 120hp 1.6, its not exactly a downgrade. I would expect it to make more than the figures and to
have some torque being blown.
quote:Originally posted by eddie99
I also get the impression its not a bike engine, but a 3 cylinder car engine developed by Suzuki with a normal box.
Yes it's a Kei car engine and gearbox based on (or just taken straight across) the RWD Cappuccino, probably designed for the Japanese market
more than anything.
The standard engine makes 77BHP at the flywheel and a Kei-Car-law-obeying 64 BHP at the rear wheels. The B spec engine made 120 BHP (and was used in
snomobiles amongst other things). A Caterham with this engine could be quite tasty.
As stated above, the K6A engine was used in the 2nd generation Cappuccino. The first generation UK spec cars had the older F6A engine, weighed 725kg
and did 0-60 in 8.2s according to Autocar. The newer engine is lighter and has more midrange torque. The Caterham is lighter still and if the get a
decent power output it could be really quite quick.
