The Hayabusa V8 engine we like so much here at The Kneeslider, powered a Radical SR8 to a new lap record for production cars at the Nurburgring. The former record holder, a Porsche 996 GT2 was eclipsed by 20 seconds! Records like this normally get lowered by a second here and there, the Radical SR8 just demolished it. For those of you who wonder why I spend so much time talking about motorcycle powered cars and their variants, this should give you an idea. They're fast! Really fast! Remember, too, these guys have a larger displacement version of this engine now going into their new SR9. Neat.
via Autoblog
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What’s the story about importing Smart cars into the USA? I need one for four reasons (maybe more!): 1.- No room in my garage for more than the Smart and one motorcycle. 2.- Need a car with the best possible economy (am retired). 3.- Need a tiny tow car for my Winnebago Rialta. 4. – Need to replace my “commuter car”, a ’95 Chevy G20 van. Won’t be able to keep doing volunteer work unless I have a car with much better mileage, such as the Smart Diesel. Has anyone mentioned a workable scheme for buying a Smart in Canada and then registering/insuring/servicing a Smart in the USA?
What is the price for the Thunder Star 1200 likely to be?
Why not try from UK import like the motorcycles?
Smart UK: http://www.smart.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/mpc-uk-content-Site/-/-/-/SVCPresentationPipeline-Start?Page=issite://mpc-uk-Site/mpc-uk.com/RootFolder/smart/home.page
The V8 for the Suzuki is great advantage on small and light engines with perfect rotation between engine parts, giving the full power where is needed.
I want Mr Suzuki to get on board with sort of engineering. And build the next Hayabusa with a motor of this caliber. This sort of bike would turn the bike world upside down…
Regards Richard
The SMART CAR is built by MMC in France owned by Mercedes-Benz and is sold in the USA starting Jan ’08 and ranges from roughly $12,500 to a convertible model at maybe $17,500+/-. Why have you not discussed one of the earliest and most succesfull moto engined car–the BMW Isettawhich was a license built Italian Isetta powered by a 250cc BMW moto engine with around 13hp. Often people think it had 3 wheels but actually it had 4 with the rears very close together. Other odd things the front door opens the front of the car. Built around the late ’50s to early 60′s. TClar
hey I like the cars you guys have thats smart I was going to put a Hayabusa engine in my 4 wheeler but sweet car