carbon wrote:
I'm glad that someone with personal experience posted what their take was. Not trying to troll, or argue, just trying to solve problems so cool e36m3 can happen for people. Good luck.
I built my first 7 replica with a 2001 Yamaha R1 engine in 2001. Back then everyone said it wouldn't work, blah blah blah... It worked BRILIANTLY!
Here's my second lotus 7 build, also with a Yamaha R1 engine.
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As for reliability issues, problems, trans issues, kickstand switch issues, etc. I had NONE! I built both cars from scratch, used the hawk machine driveshaft adapter, the stock bike fuel pump, trimmed the wire harness accordingly, and tracked the living E36 M3 out of them. As near as make no difference 5 seasons on car #1 with not one issues. I have driven them around the neighborhood, and a few back country roads. What I found driving them on the street was I tended to run in 4th and 5th gear, just so the throttle wasn't so touchy. in the early 2000's I was very heavy into 7's, had quite a few friends with Caterham's, one with a Stuart Taylor(with a CBR900 Fireblade, a few with 4age Toyota engines, and so on. The Caterhams were the fastest, but both Cats had very potent engines and ran Avon slicks. Bart( Cat 7 with a wild track only Kent based engine) and Brian(Zetec powered Superlight R) were faster around the track than me, but they both had roughly 6 or 7 times what I had in my car. And they were really only a second or two quicker around a 1.5 miles track.
As for the bike engines, they hold up just fine if you don't abuse them, just like anything else. I have really never heard of anyone destroying a trans. At least not in the group I ran with. I would build another 7 with a bike engine in a heart beat. Street or track, doesn't matter. They work extremely well on the track, and are reasonable on the street. For city traffic, well its your car, do with it what you want. Think of it this way, a Honda civic from the 90's had 100hp and maybe what 80lb-ft torque, and weighed 2400 lbs. My first 7 weighed 1073lbs with me in it on track, and the R1 engine had 130ish hp to the wheels, and 60ish lb-ft torque. More than enough, to pull out from a stop(even on a steep hill) with out slipping the heck out of the clutch, or anything strange. yes the lack of reverse is an issue if you want it on the street, and especially if your state requires it. But theres enough solutions out there now, that its not an issue. I still wouldn't spend the $$$ on a quafe reverse box or anything, still to unrealiable in my opinion.
Bottom line, its your car, build it the way you want, and just enjoy the heck out of it
Paul
Seriously, older Miatas are getting rusty. It's the same reason so many AE86 Corollas got cut up before the drifters discovered them, they were mechanically tough, cheap and rusty. Nobody takes apart a good car to build one of these. The end result performs much better than the donor car too - my Locost and my Targa Miata lap our local track at very different speeds, but they have very different ways of going about it. And the Locost was a lot cheaper to build.
