Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Has anyone done this yet successfully other than the Kenyon setup? Hawk makes adapters for the dwarf car guys so I figure this might make this attempt easier to almost bolt one together. Thanks

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

3/4 Midgets have been doing it for years too. Would be easy to do, just wouldn't be legal anywhere.

Bill

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Pat

The guy at Rod End Supply had a shaft drive 600cc car back in the late 80's. He used an old shaft drive Yamaha 6000cc motor and it looked real neat, great workmanship but it was just a little down in the power department. The problem is the the rear end required a lot of extra power to work and was just not as efficient as the chain drive.

Shaft drives would be legal with the MMSA and down in Florida. The Dwarf cars use an open drive shaft and I know of very few racers that would want that spinning drive shaft between their legs just below their privates.:5:;):5:

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Originally Posted by DAD:
Pat

The guy at Rod End Supply had a shaft drive 600cc car back in the late 80's. He used an old shaft drive Yamaha 6000cc motor and it looked real neat, great workmanship but it was just a little down in the power department. The problem is the the rear end required a lot of extra power to work and was just not as efficient as the chain drive.

Shaft drives would be legal with the MMSA and down in Florida. The Dwarf cars use an open drive shaft and I know of very few racers that would want that spinning drive shaft between their legs just below their privates.:5:;):5:

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

I was thinking of just using the hawk adapter to be able to bolt up to the front joint at the firewall and use a regular torque tube driveline from the firewall back. I might see about milling a billet spacer to take up the difference in length between the adapter and the front joint. I would guess that space would be 3-4" give or take a little. Maybe the u-joint could be bolted straight to the adapter and the motor plate be "boxed" to accommodate the added driveline length. Gotta love the winter time blues and spare parts staring at you in the shop..... Lol

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by PatrickMead#13:
I was thinking of just using the hawk adapter to be able to bolt up to the front joint at the firewall and use a regular torque tube driveline from the firewall back. I might see about milling a billet spacer to take up the difference in length between the adapter and the front joint. I would guess that space would be 3-4" give or take a little. Maybe the u-joint could be bolted straight to the adapter and the motor plate be "boxed" to accommodate the added driveline length. Gotta love the winter time blues and spare parts staring at you in the shop..... Lol

I would think you could machine a blank sprocket bolt it to the u-joint ala Kenyon car. The next problem will be off set for rear end and height of torque ball in relationship to the rear end. Seems they keep raising the sprocket height on the newer motors. You might have to dig a trench around the race track for the oil pan to run in.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Maybe......lol I know for a fact that the sprocket height difference between a oil cooled gsxr1100 and a r1 is almost 3". Seeing that new zx10r and thinking how could you drive the car with the air cleaner almost being in the way. That engine sure is tall....

What would be the advantage?

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by Bb2005:
What would be the advantage?

Bd

The advantage?

1. You would be different from the rest of the pack.

2. You wouldn't have to worry about that old chain slinging chain lube everyplace.

3. Down in Florida you wouldn't have to worry about premature chain wear due to sand.

4. changing gears would be super quick, instead of 30 minutes you could do in in 3.

5. You would look just like a real Midget race car.

DISADVANTAGES:::

1. You would add about 40 to 50 pounds to your race car.

2. You would run into problems adapting it to your motor.

3. There would be about a $700.00 premium for parts.

4. You couldn't brag about being chain drive.

5. You take a 20% hit in your rear wheel horsepower because the M/E loss between using a hypoid gear as opposed to chain and sprocket.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Pat,
What's the offset between the crank & countershaft on your R1? Montpelier and MMSA still want you to keep it under 6" with the drive shaft on the centerline.
Dad,
Regarding the $700 premium, wouldn't you eventually eat that up replacing chain and sprockets?
What's M/E loss? we talkin' drag/friction here?

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by jjones752:
Pat,
What's the offset between the crank & countershaft on your R1? Montpelier and MMSA still want you to keep it under 6" with the drive shaft on the centerline.
Dad,
Regarding the $700 premium, wouldn't you eventually eat that up replacing chain and sprockets?
What's M/E loss? we talkin' drag/friction here?

Jim

Yep that chain is expensive.

The efficiency of a Hypoid gear with a very low mounted pinion aka rear end is down around 90 to 95% multiply that by the 95 to 98% efficiency for the quick change gears and you get something like a 20% loss of efficiency. Them rear ends get hot and that heat (friction) is due to sliding of the teeth in the Hypoid type gears. This eats up horse power. That is why they make special oils for Hypoid gears because regular oils just aren't strong enough to work with them.

Problem:: if you placed the motor fore and aft in the center of the chassis the drive shaft is already offset to the right several inches. Place it 6" offset to the left and the drive shaft is probably going to be inline with the brake pedal. Then you got to figure out how to raise the drive line or drop the engine enough to get the drive shaft in-line. TQ's fix this problem by chopping off the transmission. That worked OK with the low rpm of the 750 Honda but to try to gear for 13,000 RPM's + with an 82" tire with only the rear end gears is not possible right now. Boy that is going to be a strange looking quick change.

I could see probably a jack shaft with timing belt being used for both motor placement and gear ratio. When somebody finally does this I'm going to put two of these things in a race car and go race full midgets Ala dual engine go Karts. They weren't a whole lot faster but boy did they give you a kick in the butt when you got down on them.;) Wonder if they would allow Dual Right Rears?

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by DAD:
Jim

Yep that chain is expensive.

The efficiency of a Hypoid gear with a very low mounted pinion aka rear end is down around 90 to 95% multiply that by the 95 to 98% efficiency for the quick change gears and you get something like a 20% loss of efficiency. Them rear ends get hot and that heat (friction) is due to sliding of the teeth in the Hypoid type gears. This eats up horse power. That is why they make special oils for Hypoid gears because regular oils just aren't strong enough to work with them.

Problem:: if you placed the motor fore and aft in the center of the chassis the drive shaft is already offset to the right several inches. Place it 6" offset to the left and the drive shaft is probably going to be inline with the brake pedal. Then you got to figure out how to raise the drive line or drop the engine enough to get the drive shaft in-line. TQ's fix this problem by chopping off the transmission. That worked OK with the low rpm of the 750 Honda but to try to gear for 13,000 RPM's + with an 82" tire with only the rear end gears is not possible right now. Boy that is going to be a strange looking quick change.

I could see probably a jack shaft with timing belt being used for both motor placement and gear ratio. When somebody finally does this I'm going to put two of these things in a race car and go race full midgets Ala dual engine go Karts. They weren't a whole lot faster but boy did they give you a kick in the butt when you got down on them.;) Wonder if they would allow Dual Right Rears?

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

So M/E = Mechanical Efficiency: got it.
I haven't measured crank to countershaft c/l on my oiler, but just eyeballing a Kenyon Car they look to be a tad over 6".
There are some high-winding Suzuki 4-cammers out there in TQ land, so they must have figured the gearing out.
Your jackshaft/timing belt setup would add quite a bit of bulk and probably suck even more power, not to mention the additional bulk and weight of 2 gearboxes; the first Synergy V-8 the Kiwis built had two cranks and a central drive in a common crankcase, a similar idea but eliminating the gearboxes, kinda like the BRM H-16 F1 motors from around 1967 (2 stacked boxer-8's with a central power take-off). They scrapped that for a single crank, due to guess what? Excess weight, and power drag. Hey, didn't Mel & Don already do that about 20 years ago?

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by jjones752:
So M/E = Mechanical Efficiency: got it.
I haven't measured crank to countershaft c/l on my oiler, but just eyeballing a Kenyon Car they look to be a tad over 6".
There are some high-winding Suzuki 4-cammers out there in TQ land, so they must have figured the gearing out.
Your jackshaft/timing belt setup would add quite a bit of bulk and probably suck even more power, not to mention the additional bulk and weight of 2 gearboxes; the first Synergy V-8 the Kiwis built had two cranks and a central drive in a common crankcase, a similar idea but eliminating the gearboxes, kinda like the BRM H-16 F1 motors from around 1967 (2 stacked boxer-8's with a central power take-off). They scrapped that for a single crank, due to guess what? Excess weight, and power drag. Hey, didn't Mel & Don already do that about 20 years ago?

Jim

Those TQ's have a much smaller right rear 68" ? also those are old school 11-12000 rpm suzukie's.

Cut the gear boxes off tie them together with timing belts one of the most efficient forms of power transmission around, even better than chain.

It was a guy named Runyon (had a tool rental business) I think from Indy. Had a crankcase and crankshaft made and used 2 old school Suzuki cylinders and heads. It ran pretty good. But then his driver (his son) decided he was smarter than the old man. He went out and got a ride or two on his own and found out he wasn't as hot as he thought he was. The old man said to hell with racing, best I can remember and he sold all the molds and things a few years ago. Heck the Kenyon's might have bought the stuff.

When comparing these new motors (05-up) to those old school motors it is kinda of like comparing a flat head Ford to 410 sprint motor.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

I'll measure the r1 this weekend so we have a number out there. I started this topic because I bought a short wheel base midget and have had a gsxr600 sitting in my office for a while. My main intention is to build a ft Wayne ride. I figure a 600 might just work for a trial and error and it's free.....lol I even thought of using a belt drive like a Harley for it but the rules state it must be a quick change and drive shaft. They let the kenyons run indoors so I figured what the heck.... It's legal for mmsa and in Florida but I haven't seen anyone do it yet to my knowledge. This whole thing came up as I like to tinker and try new things. The demon bullet #13 will still be a chain drive, but if I can iron out the bugs with black betty, I might just do it on my other car down the road. I'm just like DAD and figuring new things out is a good thing to do and it opens up avenues for outside the box thinking which is a great thing.... ;)

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

I think a minisprint guy I know was thinking of doing the same thing with a 600 motorcycle engine and installing in a midget but they wouldnt approve. Maybe email Tony at Rumbleseries@aol.com to confirm so you will have a early jump on next year. He is usually quick to respond.They let me bring in a Quad 4 this year but I got prior approval and I guess they had ran in the past.
Just a thought.

Chris

Could do a busa......:)

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

I have seen a v8 Suzuki gsxr1000 cylinders and heads on a billet made block. Crank was made just like sprint car had injection and all . I wish I could see it run in a mini

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Here's the Kenyon; only time I ever saw one run in person was at a BCRA race at Santa Maria, CA. Wheeler Gresham won with a Kenyon under the hood. It was a sweet-sounding little motor, too.
Attachment 10425

Attachment 10426

Originally Posted by jjones752:
Here's the Kenyon; only time I ever saw one run in person was at a BCRA race at Santa Maria, CA. Wheeler Gresham won with a Kenyon under the hood. It was a sweet-sounding little motor, too.
Attachment 10425

Attachment 10426

Hmmmmm...... The only downside to doing something like that is if it worked well and was upfront these days, it would be deemed "no go" pretty quickly I bet. They make a busa v8 for the kit car guys that would kick a$$, but again, how long til it would get "looked out"? I wish I could find one of the v4 engines as this car is pretty short up front. Maybe a vw or a Mazda if I get turned down for the 600 idea.

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by PatrickMead#13:
Hmmmmm...... The only downside to doing something like that is if it worked well and was upfront these days, it would be deemed "no go" pretty quickly I bet. They make a busa v8 for the kit car guys that would kick a$$, but again, how long til it would get "looked out"? I wish I could find one of the v4 engines as this car is pretty short up front. Maybe a vw or a Mazda if I get turned down for the 600 idea.

Pat

They even outlawed the little V8 cycle engine powered car at the Chili Bowl, a bastion for out of the box thinking (Left front skis left front cycle wheels, dragster roll bars, titanium frames and on and on) The powers that be just don't want to rock the boat any more they want to stay with the status quo, a sad state of affairs.:13::13:

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

The Kenyon was banned in the 80's by USAC, at the time I saw it run BCRA may have been the only place it was legal. Brad Mosen ran the Synergy V8 at the Chili Bowl and they banned it immediately; you know if it's illegal at Tulsa it's gotta be something special...

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by jjones752:
The Kenyon was banned in the 80's by USAC, at the time I saw it run BCRA may have been the only place it was legal. Brad Mosen ran the Synergy V8 at the Chili Bowl and they banned it immediately; you know if it's illegal at Tulsa it's gotta be something special...

Jim

Yeh at the time they wanted $20,000.00 for one of them Synergy things and they were not set up for production yet. That sounds high to a mini sprinter but to a midget guy that would be dirt cheap, and they did not say anything about the fact that could run a couple of seasons of racing before they needed a freshen up.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by DAD:
Jim

Yeh at the time they wanted $20,000.00 for one of them Synergy things and they were not set up for production yet. That sounds high to a mini sprinter but to a midget guy that would be dirt cheap, and they did not say anything about the fact that could run a couple of seasons of racing before they needed a freshen up.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

ttt:8:

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Originally Posted by jjones752:
Pat,
What's the offset between the crank & countershaft on your R1? Montpelier and MMSA still want you to keep it under 6" with the drive shaft on the centerline.
Dad,
Regarding the $700 premium, wouldn't you eventually eat that up replacing chain and sprockets?
What's M/E loss? we talkin' drag/friction here?

The R1 measures 5.75" crank center to the center of output shaft. Hmmmm.....

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Dad this was done by a fellow in Ohio son drive car raced at Ada

Would anyone happen to have a picture of the Kenyon setup?

And just for sake of discussion. At Montpelier, there's no engine rules so to speak. With that being said, I have found several kawi 1400 concourse engines complete for less than 1k. Just remove the factory drive assembly from where a sprocket would go. Power on the cheap I would think and would be able to spin a q/c without too much hassle. And....... Go.......

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Shhh! I was thinking the same thing about a V-Max...
Montpelier rules don't even restrict a shaft-drive motorcycle setup to have the driveline centered in the chassis, so what you're proposing would be legal under the rules as they stand now. You may end up with something that could only run at Montpelier, but that isn't neccessarily a bad thing.
My gut tells me Montpelier would allow a certain amount of wiggle room in the rules, until we started making the Midgeteers nervous...

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Here's some pics of the Kenyon setup...

Originally Posted by jjones752:
Shhh! I was thinking the same thing about a V-Max...
Montpelier rules don't even restrict a shaft-drive motorcycle setup to have the driveline centered in the chassis, so what you're proposing would be legal under the rules as they stand now. You may end up with something that could only run at Montpelier, but that isn't neccessarily a bad thing.
My gut tells me Montpelier would allow a certain amount of wiggle room in the rules, until we started making the Midgeteers nervous...

Nothing new there... my old engine was talked down upon until my rookie butt ran fairly well then I got more of the 1000cc rule kindly reminded to me. Lol

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

And now I will be running that same brand of old antiquated lump, only Hilborn-injected; I'm looking forward to being the brunt of ridicule come April...

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by jjones752:
And now I will be running that same brand of old antiquated lump, only Hilborn-injected; I'm looking forward to being the brunt of ridicule come April...

Jim

Get out there and have fun dang it. Ain't nobody saying nothing.

I wish we had enough cars so we could have a Sr. Division. Then If I could figure out an A/C unit and a bottle of Oxygen I could get out there to and show you all how a Master Does it.

You know somewhere else on IOW they are talking about roll bar reinforcements, Bet a big old Carrier A/C unit over my head would take care of that just fine, and we would be really fast when the track slicked off.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Bill
I intend to have a great deal of fun; I've already been given a ton of help and encouragement, I just know that there are people out there who won't miss an opportunity to turn their nose up at "outdated" equipment, whichever side of the firewall it's sitting on. That's OK. I don't live my life based on other people's opinions. I've witnessed how well Pat did with a motor almost identical to mine, and that gives me a good feeling about my prospects. Watching Floyd Alvis compete in the Chili Bowl at age 79 was uplifting too; heck, if I can run until I'm 79 that would give me an 18 year career!

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by jjones752:
Bill
I intend to have a great deal of fun; I've already been given a ton of help and encouragement, I just know that there are people out there who won't miss an opportunity to turn their nose up at "outdated" equipment, whichever side of the firewall it's sitting on. That's OK. I don't live my life based on other people's opinions. I've witnessed how well Pat did with a motor almost identical to mine, and that gives me a good feeling about my prospects. Watching Floyd Alvis compete in the Chili Bowl at age 79 was uplifting too; heck, if I can run untill I'm 79 that would give me an18 year career!

Jim

Like I keep on saying>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>It ain't all in the motor Pat probably did well because of his driving ability inspite of his motor.

Had he not done well then he can blame the motor, everybody else does.

BC and his crew could have probably done just as well with a car that did not make it out of the B main at the Chili Bowl. Go figure??

I'm from Kentucky We bet the "Jockey".

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Originally Posted by jjones752:
And now I will be running that same brand of old antiquated lump, only Hilborn-injected; I'm looking forward to being the brunt of ridicule come April...

Nothing wrong with your engine setup at all. If I could have found another one for a less than a crazy price, I'd still be running a Carbed oil cooled Suzuki because it ran like a beast. One major thing I always laugh at is hearing the newer motors banging off the rev limiter almost all the way around the track. I only hit mine once, on purpose, and ran just fine. I only turned my engine to 9200rpms because it didn't make any more useful power beyond that anyways so why spin it to hell and back if you don't have to. Another thing that I found helpful was my pavement experience for my driving style. Yeah, it looks wild to back it in, but I didn't have the horsepower to drive it in like that, I just drove it all the way through the corners so I didn't have to shake the tires loose.

As far as age. I feel old at 32 when I'm most the time I'm racing against drivers that aren't even old enough to drive on the road. For that, I'd like to refer to the viagra commercial where the guy gets the truck and horse trailer stuck in the mud. Instead of getting mad and banging gears, just gets the horses out and tows the whole rig out. Lets call it the age of experience to make things out of date by some folk's standard happen. :)

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by jjones752:
Shhh! I was thinking the same thing about a V-Max...
Montpelier rules don't even restrict a shaft-drive motorcycle setup to have the driveline centered in the chassis, so what you're proposing would be legal under the rules as they stand now. You may end up with something that could only run at Montpelier, but that isn't neccessarily a bad thing.
My gut tells me Montpelier would allow a certain amount of wiggle room in the rules, until we started making the Midgeteers nervous...

Jim

The V-Max and 14000cc concours are a little down on power and a tad bit heavy for a race car.;) . For that matter the same thing holds true for the Hybusa and ZX14r Kaw.

If you want an "Old School Bad AZZ Motor" find a Bandit and drop about $6000.00 in it. You will be fast for a bit.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Yeah, I Googled the specs on the Concours and it actually makes just a tad more power than my 91 GSXR did stock. But that was Pat's idea anyway :). The V-Max is right up there with your beloved ZX10, but it probably is heavier. More displacement doesn't always mean more power.
The encouraging thing to me is my ol' Gixxer has close to the same torque as the more "modern" motors; if I can keep her hooked up I should at least be pretty good off the corners...:31:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Originally Posted by jjones752:
Yeah, I Googled the specs on the Concours and it actually makes just a tad more power than my 91 GSXR did stock. But that was Pat's idea anyway :). The V-Max is right up there with your beloved ZX10, but it probably is heavier. More displacement doesn't always mean more power.
The encouraging thing to me is my ol' Gixxer has close to the same torque as the more "modern" motors; if I can keep her hooked up I should at least be pretty good off the corners...:31:

Jim

The bottom is often the best place to be on the race track but it takes one hell of a driver to run down there fast.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Jim

Let me see 79 minus 18 equqls 61. Heck you are ain't nothing but a young pup, seems like them years tend to go by faster and the energy tends to drops off geomerticaly.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

I can see us going down the pathway of the TQ's except we are going to be saying heck no we don't want no shaft drive mini-sprints because that would take away or inherent advantage of having a cheaper and more efficient drive line. I have always been of the old school though that a race car is a race car, and is used to help better the automotive breed.

I have been around these things to see the 1200cc motors become very popular and then almost die out because of the cost involved to race them. Back in the 90's a good 1200cc motorcycle engine from a reputable motor builder cost almost as much as a Midget motor. Well the 1200cc race cars fell out of favor. About this same time the motorcycle manufactures developed the "pocket rockets". they were small light 600cc version of the big old 1200cc bikes. They caught on with the young teenage cycle people like you would never believe. These little 600cc motors were much more efficient than their big brothers and cheaper also. They were seen as the right to manhood by many young riders. Unforntunately for them and fortunately for us racers they wrecked these things in very short order. They fit right in where the old 1200cc motors were and performed almost if not better than their big brother's. There were people that spent big money trying to make them faster but we soon found out they worked pretty good right off the bike.

I guess the manufactures saw what a big success they had in the 600cc bikes and developed a new 1000cc class looking for the same success that they had enjoyed with the 600cc bikes.

The 600cc upright mini sprint was a great race car but at the same time the sidewinder was being developed by the Micro Midget people. This caused the price of the 600cc motor to go up because of the demand.

Allen Rupenthal of ERC race cars saw the possibilities that the new Yamaha R1 had for this class of race car. He put a car together with an R1 as its power plant, and with the help of a very talented race car driver by the name of Lynn Ambrose took his creation to race with the AMSA mini sprints. At this time the AMSA was in decline because of the expense of building and keeping a competitive 1200cc motor racing. Within a year it seemed mini sprints began to turn around with these new motors and Allen's efforts to promote these cars the car counts were increasing again, and all because of that little r1 motor. Suzuki and Kawasaki soon followed up with their own 1000cc motorcycles and mini sprints were off and running again. In fact they were so popular that newbie's thought that they needed to change the name to make them sound more racey and be something other than "MINI" a name they saw as demeaning. Thinking that popularity of these cars was in a name rather than in the fact that were fast and cheap to race.

The new economy we are facing today may mean more changes are in order. They are still making motorcycles but they are not nearly as popular as they were in the 1990's and early 2000's. A nice fast 1000cc bike is going to set someone back between $12000.00 and $18000.00. The teenagers aren't getting these things like they used to and the older rider who is spending this much money on a cycle is much more likely to put a lot more miles on them than the kid's did. Dwarf cars, Mod Lites and formula 1000 sports car racers are also trying to buy the same engines. This means we have a smaller amount of 1000cc engines available with much higher mileage on them and a much larger demand, a great thing for the dealers.

I bought a new Gen IV kawasaki. It is going to be a bear to get it into a race car where it will work the way it should. I am quite sure Suzuki and Yamaha will change their motors to where they don't lend them selves to race cars either. Does this mean we stop using newer motors. I think Harvey in New York is having problems with an over complicated computer on his BMW. He probably has it "hacked" out by now, but what we need to think about is will the newer cycle motors fit our needs in the future and if they don't do we just put a cut off date like 2010 or older motors and do like the other race groups out there or do we look for other ways to power our cars?? Will that require a drive shaft??

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: Shaft drive mini sprint
 

Thanks for the history lesson Dad. Coming from California, and being mostly involved in TQ's and Midgets out there I didn't have a full appreciation of the Midwest evolution of the chain-driven classes; I don't think any of the uprights on the Left Coast went through the 600 iteration, they just morphed straight from 1200's to 1000's. I could be wrong, like I said I wasn't paying that much attention, but seems like the 600's were almost exclusively sidewinders out there. I migrated to a 1200 upright because it looked like the most economical way for me to get back into racing, not really aware of what was going on behind the curtains with the move to 1,000cc rules. Since my intention has always been to run non-wing it hasn't hurt me too much in terms of places to race, so I'm OK with my decision.
Truth is, it's gonna be tougher and tougher to find suitable power units as both bikes and cars get more electronics and emissions controls placed on them. Personally I see nothing wrong with a little experimentation just to see what works and what doesn't; chain drive bike motors, shaft drive bike motors, chain or shaft drive PWC units with a radiator instead of a lake supplying the coolant, Ecotechs, VTECs, SkyActive Mazdas, Dodge Darts, Subarus, whaddaya got? The Next Great Poor-Boy Racer is out there waiting to be unearthed, taking its' place in the Pantheon next to the Rajo T's, Riley and Cragar B's, Edelbrock flatties and Small-block Chevies, Chevy II's and V-Dubs, GSXR's & R1's. What's next?