I.m planing to make the trans. tunnel in my chassis. But if I would make it straight ( straight drive shaft ) the engine would be complete on the left side of the chassis. because it's going to be left hand drive all the weight would be on the left side. has anyone experience wich placing the engine in te middle and let the drive shaft run under a small angele. the trans. tunnel wouldn't be a problem I suppose .

Please you opinion before I make a final disision.

ps. I'm using a CBR 1000 engine

[Edited on 28/2/05 by whpracer]

Depending on what engine you are using, and the width of your chassis, the prop is likely to be over slightly to the right hand side anyway. An R1 is the only commonly used engine that springs to mind that you can get a dead straight prop with a book chassis. To get the engine itself in the middle would mean you'd have a big angle on the prop and would need to lose some of the passenger footwell even in a chassis with the regular width tunnel.
Its not impossible but props don't like being run at large angles like that, and obviously you would loose passenger footwell space.
If the weight thing really is an issue why not look at a different engine layout, maybe like the FJR1300 in this thread

Chris

A left hand BEC seems like it would be an awful lot of trouble. So much trouble, in fact, that I made a LHD car for US roads. In my opinion, the weight will be an issue. Say you've built a nice light car that weights 1000 lbs wet with driver. Assuming you--the driver--weighs 150 lbs and the engine weighs 150 lbs, that is 30% of the total weight on one side of the car.

Also, bike engines have to be installed way back in the chassis. Mine is around 15mm from the chassis rail. It would be difficult to mount the pedals. There would be very little room for the master cylinder.

Being in the US, I tried to figure out a way to driver on the proper side of the road . To me, it is easier to follow the UK folks and drive on the left.

--Best of luck, Chris

No problem at all, I placed the engine to the right.
Better is to have a look at my cars, I'm only 10 km away (Heerenveen). Send me a mail.

alternatively, find a bike engine with the output on the wrong side. These are rare and I don't know if they come with large enough engines but I have seen bikes with chains on the right.

The alternative might be different layout. DP Cars their DP1 car uses a single seat on the left hand side design with the engine sitting on the right of the chassis.
I was thinking of building something like this (only 2 wheel drive and a lot cheaper!) in the future but couldn't work out an easy way of making it right hand drive.

sorry mispost

[Edited on 1/3/05 by alister667]