engine suggestions

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BMW POWER

BMW POWER

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hi i need your help. i am currently building a caterham superlight racer and i need your help on choosing an engine. i have two options available:

A) a standard 2.8 litre unit from a land rover
B) a BMW 3.2 litre straight - six M power unit

the BMW engine is the same as the one in my m roadster and my mate at a BMW dealership can put in touch with the supplier from germany as well as get me a big discount.
the standard 2.8 litre engine is out of my cousins land rover, even though it is powerful enough for the caterham, its very large and bulky making it a lot harder to fit. but it is also nearly 3 grand cheaper.
any suggestions?

(PS the caterham in the picture will be the same as mine except mine will be metalic blue)
 

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hmm. lemme think??? MORE POWER BABY!!! yEEEEEEEhhhhhAAAAAwwwwwww!! i'd go with the bmw. sure its more expensive, but it's brand new from the factory, so you'd have a warranty i assume? and its probably better built then the stinky tip over land rover (yuck). but its really on you. do you want to spend 3 grand more on an engine? how much will you be driving this thing? do you need more power? do you WANT more power? 😈 do you have lots of money to blow? or is this saved up $$ for your great hobby? would the 3 grand be better spent on something else? like super fast stickers? hehehe well, hope you come to a sensible decision. and have fun when your done!
 
thanks a lot for your suggestion i think i will probarly go for the bmw engine, even though its more expensive i will have 325bhp in a car that ways the same as a motorbike, without TRACTION CONTROL!!!
(should be scary) :D :D :D :D 😈 😈 😈 😈
 
post some pics when your done building! wut color are you painting it? gonna put some 22's on that puppy? :darkside:
 
yeh as soon as i finish i`ll post pics, its gonna be mettalic blue - the same colour as my m roadster.
hopefully i`ll have 20s on the back and 18s on the front to give it a drag car sort of look 😈 😈 😈 😈
 
hehehe :fdevil: are you gonna drive it on the road? or you have a track near you?
 
yeh as soon as its finished am heading straight to the track to test it out, especially its acceleration which should be able to hit 0-60mph in between 4.5 and 5 seconds!
but once i sorted all the initial problems that your bound to get i`ll take it out on the road
 
Is that car street-legal?

Anyway, I think you should pick up a Honda Prelude engine (should be fairly cheap), even though it's not as powerful as the BMW, it revs high and is just more fun for the light car :) (OK, I know that sounds stupid), and you could also get a turbo/supercharger put on there if you need the power. It'd also be more manageable, since it still has good power, but not as much low-end torque, so you'd have less risk of losing control and you could push the car more to it's limit coming out of the curves, etc.

But since I have a feeling you won't do that (or it just may not be possible/feasible), I'd go w/ the BMW.
 
yeh at one point i was considering a honda VTEC engine but i couldent seem to find one over a 2.0 litre (not sure if they make them bigger than that for production cars) and i wanted at least a 2.5 litre engine because my brother has also made one but his is finished and is equiped with a 2.2 litre engine (so naturaly in the friendly spirit of brother competition i need a bigger unit)
oh yeh and once it goes through a SUV test then the car is completely road legal and thanks for your help am glad so many people have answered :D
 
I'm a huge fan of the Caterham 7 and before you choose your engine,i'd seriously look into the weight to possible performance gains you might get from a larger engine.The Caterham 7 isn't designed to hold larger engine types.To give you guys some idea 1 of it's options is to have the excellent and ultra reliable Rover K series 1.8L engine fitted,this small engine gives a 0-60 time of under 6 seconds.The whole unit weighs only 550 KG's,so adding a larger engine might not be beneficial as you might think and could seriously hamper the car's handling.
However if a larger engine weighs around the same as the K series,i say go for it :thumbsup: :burnout:
And also,well done for choosing such a great little car :)
Caterham Showroom
 
looks like a lot of fun, hope it works when you're done. :)
 
You could probably find a B18C pretty easily on the Internet for a good price, it's 1.8L, but you can find 2.0L stroker kits. They run 178-197hp stock (depending on which gen. B18C you get), and with a stroker kit they should run 205-225hp w/ a wider powerband. At the site below, you can find a 170hp VTEC for $2000, $5500 w/ engine, trans, ECU. You can also find the Type-R (197hp, unless it means Si-R instead of Type-R) package for $5500.

Or, you could pick up an H22 from a Prelude (190-220hp, 2.2L, power depending on what model it came from). At the site below, they run $2850 with engine, transmission, and ECU.

http://members.tripod.com/~Asian_E/index-3.html
 
Originally posted by BMW POWER
yeh as soon as its finished am heading straight to the track to test it out, especially its acceleration which should be able to hit 0-60mph in between 4.5 and 5 seconds!
but once i sorted all the initial problems that your bound to get i`ll take it out on the road
Click to expand...

4.5 - 5 sec? Thats a bit conservative :D
 
Originally posted by Tailslide
I'm a huge fan of the Caterham 7 and before you choose your engine,i'd seriously look into the weight to possible performance gains you might get from a larger engine.The Caterham 7 isn't designed to hold larger engine types.To give you guys some idea 1 of it's options is to have the excellent and ultra reliable Rover K series 1.8L engine fitted,this small engine gives a 0-60 time of under 6 seconds.The whole unit weighs only 550 KG's,so adding a larger engine might not be beneficial as you might think and could seriously hamper the car's handling.
However if a larger engine weighs around the same as the K series,i say go for it :thumbsup: :burnout:
And also,well done for choosing such a great little car :)
Caterham Showroom
Click to expand...


I would go for an engine which is as lightweight as possible. Since the Cat7 has a very long nose and a short butt, it will become the tail-happiest car on the planet !! I would also go for a rotary RX7 engine if I could find one. Small, lightweight and boostable with a turbo or so.Imagine it if you could grab a Garret T3 or T4 boosting you up to something around 395 to 430 HP !! However, I would still recommed a track-approved rollcage for that monster in that case !!
 
Get the biggest chunkiest thing you can afford!
 
On a lightweight roadster ?? This ain't an All-American muscle car !

We are talking about an English style roadster at some 650 kilos !! What engine do you suggest ? A 6-liter moded Mustang engine at some weight equal to the car's overall weight ???

C'mon Gigo, kick yourself back to yer senses will ya ?? :D
 
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