At 12:06 PM 12/9/97 EST, Jacob ben-David Zimmerman wrote:
>
>As an ignorant question, besides the problem of mounting the bike motor,
>would it have enough torque? I know it develops lots of HP at the high end,
>revs high, etc. but is only designed to spool up maybe 500lbs of bike plus
>rider. Our cars weigh lots more than that, and have more rolling
resistance.
>Would it be able to handle it?
>
Not an ignorant question at all. I think the motor probably has enough
torque to do the job, but, as you imply, most Kawas aren't torque monsters.
The problem will probably come with the clutch or transmission. They were
only designed to launch 400 lbs of bike and 200 lbs of rider. The Spit and
a driver will be close to a ton - close to 4 times what the tranny was
designed to handle. Plus the Spit will have better traction, to the
detriment of the tranny. With 600 lbs and 150hp you get either acceleration
or wheel spin. With 2000 lbs, and twice the contact patch, you get gear
bits in your oil filter. The little race cars that use these engines
probably weigh close to what the original bike weighed, so they have little
problem. Plus they run often run on dirt so the wheelspin protects the
internals. Porsche was having problems with their new Carrera 4. With AWD,
wide sticky tires, and 400+ hp they had gobs of power and gobs of traction.
And lots of little bits of expensive clutch parts in the bellhousing if you
launched it hard enough. I had this problem also with my hopped up VW
Scirocco. I'd take off the timing mark cover on the bellhousing and let the
friction plate spring pieces fly out. The inside of the bellhousing was
ugly when I took it apart.
Brian Harper
Spits and Ducks and Geese.
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