2/13/09

Tee hee! I have a Honda N600! I'm so giddy about that. I've been trying to do internot research on the thing but have been having my typical luck. I think I'm seeing that the “throwaway” Honda engines, the ones that come out when an Acura B16 goes in to a Rice Boy Civic, will “fit.” Of course a bigger motorcycle engine should be doable as well. I'd sure like to have a car that sounds like a Formula One! Ok, before I start making radical plans, I really need to inspect that thing more closely and see just what kind of room we actually have to work with. Oh, I did find a guy in North Carolina or someplace, who has rebuilt and hot-rodded engines for these things. I wonder how much a fresh engine with, oh let’s say, forty five horsepower would cost. They are thirty seven horsepower stock, that’s where the mild forty five came from. Anyhoo, I was thinking about it last night and comparing it to other cars in my mind. Mom’s Altima has almost six times the engine displacement. Ms. Clio is triple. Hell, a stock Datsun 1200 has double the displacement of this car! If we were to convert the thing to rear wheel drive and install a Datsun A-12 and four-speed from a 1200, we’d double the displacement of the stock engine! I have Gigi’s engine and transmission sitting there on the floor. I have a single DCOE manifold and header for an A-12 as well. Wait, what did I just say a few lines ago? “Before I start making radical plans, I really need to inspect that thing more closely and see just what kind of room we actually have to work with.” That is going to be difficult. Not inspecting the car, keeping me from starting in with radical engine swap ideas. Of course there is a part of me that is thinking that the little 600cc, air cooled twin would be kind of cool, if we can make it run. They say the thing will spin to 9,000 RPM and the car is capable of 80 miles per hour. I wonder how much boost that engine would hold. The compression ratio isn't outrageous, or even all that impressive actually. I think I remember seeing 8.5:1 or something ludicrous like that. Finding a small enough turbo would be the issue. Then again, a supercharger wouldn’t be all that tough to install. Hmm. Well, I just had to step away for a bit and got a call from John in the process. He has a buyer for his orange four-door 510 so we’ll be moving that in the morning. I made the comment that we could also move Barbecue Bob out and the N600 into the main bay. “You’re terrible,” was his reaction. Perhaps. Ok, since it is a foregone conclusion that I'm not going to heed my own advice and wait until I've had a chance to inspect the car before making radical plans, I think I'm going to make radical plans. Here’s my thinking on the N600. My first choice, I guess, would be to make the thing go with the stock engine for the time being. However, if we’re going to go really wacky with the Bosuzoku style, like we’re thinking we will, it really needs more than 37 horsepower. So, having said that, I think a bigger bike motor is the way to go. The thing weighs about the same as Shichi, right around 1,200 pounds, so I don’t think a reverse gear will be absolutely mandatory. It would be nice, but not mandatory. We’ll see. I'd like to stick with something from Honda, but I'm not married to that idea. I’d also like to stay with an air cooled engine for simplicity and weight savings. Oh, and for some reason I'd also like to stay at or under 1,000cc. Now, having said all of that, if we were to learn that the “throwaway” Honda Civic engines are an “easy” swap, and we were to come up with one on the cheap, I'd go that route. Of course, if a big Honda car engine and transmission were to fall in our laps, I wouldn’t be averse to making a mid engine monster out of this thing. Hmm, VG33? The thing would probably flip over onto its roof the first time I let out the clutch! Hmm, VG33 with an automatic? That sure would be an easier transmission to find. It might also be an easier swap. I don’t know. Just how stupid fast would a VG33 powered N600 be? Juan wouldn’t need a Manuel transmission, the thing would probably boil the hides in top gear on the freeway at 100 miles per hour! Wow. Ok, back to reality. Bike motor I think. I just don’t know. Well, I do know I'm ready to play some solitaire and stop rambling on and on about this subject. Perhaps I'll have something else to say when I get to my desk later. We’ll see. Ok, I'm back. By the way, I'm babysitting another Bored Meeting. I didn’t mention it before because… well, I don’t know why I didn’t mention it before. Anyhoo, I spoke to Kevin just a moment ago and he said I should call Steve at Steve’s Foreign Auto to see what parts he has for the N600. It is entirely possible he’ll have that coil in stock. I'm sure John and I will stop off tomorrow and see him while making the 510 delivery. I don’t know if I'm going to make it to the gun show or not. I may just plan to go on Sunday and make tomorrow all about the Honda. So, Honda’s version of the fabled Hayabusa is something called a Fireblade, I believe. I don’t think I need to go that radical with a power plant. I think something in the 750cc ballpark, putting out somewhere in the 80 to 90 horsepower range, ought to make that little car fly. I think the most important thing though is for it to have a stratospheric redline and sound like a Formula One car on song. I think the thing would live “on the boil” just to hear that sound coming from a little shitbox economy car. I wonder if I could get it to “sing” like the Renault F1 teams do with their engines. They have a warm-up program for their engines which cycles through the RPMs and plays “God Save the Queen.” It is frigin’ awesome. I've also heard it play “La Marseilles,” the French national anthem, but it isn't quite as good. Probably because, even though they are a French company, it is a British team. Their version of Queen’s “We Are the Champions” isn't too bad, but “GSQ” is their best effort by far. That would be the British national anthem, not the song by The Sex Pistols, by the way. THAT would be what I'd program my car to play! Oh hells yeah! Well, I'm bored with this yet again. I think I'm really going to call it a rant this time. Have a day.