Reverse gear options for bike engine car?

So I started building this at christmas as an autox and track day car using an R1 engine for power and a miata for hubs,brakes and a diff.Been mucking about trying to find a cheap/simple solution for adding reverse as required in the rules.My plan is to use a gear between the diff and driveshaft driven by a civic starter I have,having trouble trying to source a gear to use.Not stuck on the civic starter,thought about garden tractor or marine options but have no experience with either to know if theres enough oomph to drive this. If anyone has an idea that would be great,btw I've been searching the locost forums both here and overseas with no definative solutions,had forgot about you guys untill today so thought I'd ask.

http://s117.photobucket.com/albums/o50/kevlarcorolla/?action=view&current=DSC00791.jpg&newest=1

include a hole in the floor pan, put your feet through it, disengage the clutch, and push

IIRC the one that keeps sticking with me involves a gear on the drivetrain with a starter motor for an electric reverse. Dont have any info or sources handy for that though.

I've seen a pic of an electric hand drill used as a reverse.. So the starter should be fine for flat land. Look into the cranking capacity.

winch?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92860

Miatabusa! http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/1519/project-miatabusa-part-1-what-the-hell-we-are-thinking.aspx

Also, I'm sure you know Quaife has a reversing box for ~$1500.

Taking this in a slightly different direction but has anyone looked at the shaft drive bikes? I always thought at this lent its self to a car type application. It may not be better than chains but for some reason I like it. I also seem to remember that some of these actually had revers gear in them making it even ore conducive to car use.

Anyone have a list of shaft drive bikes and or any known limitations to using them?

Honda Z600, shaft drive motorcycle engine, RX-7 running gear

I always thought a late-model Goldwing with reverse & shaft-drive would be cool in a locost-ish car, but when I searched there didn't seem to be many available & the prices were kind of high.

Probably wouldn't fit in a stock locost frame anyway.

http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/1519/project-miatabusa-part-1-what-the-hell-we-are-thinking.aspx

It's a different approach than what you're looking do to but I thought it wouldn't hurt to share.

petegossett wrote: Probably wouldn't fit in a stock locost frame anyway.

Hay I have a sazall and a welder. Anything will fit!!!!

jaxport used to make a rev gear box that hooked on the drive shaft flange i've got the number here somewhere..

http://www.jaxports.com/

I have no worries about the starter having enough power,nor am I looking to drop a bundle on a ready made reverse box or to change my engine choice to a slow revving,low hp,highish weight shaft drive unit from a touring bike.I've spent months reasearching/planning/designing and just can't find the exact recipe to make this work. Just looking for grassroots/locost ideas on making this work as easily and simply as possible.The reality is the reverse will likely never be used anyways so.....

http://www.zcars.org.uk/index.htm

Zcars makes high HP bike engine mini's. They use a starter motor backwards as a reverse. Look at them...

We are not trying to change your plan we are just exploring other options.

I so wish this came to the states.

Shaft drive 173 HP at 9250 with 110ft lbs at 8250. I have no clue if it has reverse (I dough it). I just really like how it looks

BMW K1300R

I have a similar project on the back burner for now, but my solution was to use a stater motor with pulleys mounted on the differential and the starter motr with a v belt. Use a pivoting mount for the starter and engage it when you need reverse. The principle is not unlike the drive system for riding mowers.

I've seen a 12hp mower motors ring gear off the fly wheel used and the 12v starter ring gear was bolted to the pinon yoke with a bracket fabed to hold the starter.

And then I go and find this. I am having very bad thoughts

Add a mega or microsquirt Reduce CR from 11.5 to say 8.5 Add a small turbo.. .. . Ok a medium turbo Add ?????

Stock these had about 100 HP but with forced induction I bet you could get north of 150.

You know if I could find a rust free first gen RX7.

The really sad part is that for all that it does not have revers gear so what to do? A starter on the diff? I actually like that option. Put a gear on the flange that the rear U joint would mount to on the dif and then mount the starter to the diff housing. Wire as needed to get the proper direction of rotation. I am thinking that you would probably need to add some cooling for the starter or just go get one from a cummins turbo diesel.

OK I will stop I have hijacked this thread way to much.

I think newer Honda Goldwings have reverse.

I found a 1991 Vmax motor on Ebay last night with around 17K miles complete with trans.

Shaft drive goodness with 140 HP out of the box and they take very well to forced induction. I bet you could get to the 200 hp mark with that motor with ease and they are cheep compared to modern cycle motors. But again no revers. I wounder if you could put two of these in one car? Duel motor 4 wheel drive goodness with close to 300 hp (probably more like 240 at the wheels).. .. . .

Dang it I have to stop thinking... . .

Back on point:

Could you take a starter motor and operate it with a lever that had a button for engagement to the drive line and the control the speed by the movement of the lever. The more you pull on the lever the faster the motor would turn and the more speed you would have?

A very interesting problem.

fifty wrote: Miatabusa! http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/1519/project-miatabusa-part-1-what-the-hell-we-are-thinking.aspx Also, I'm sure you know Quaife has a reversing box for ~$1500.

Can I just say, people laughed at me when I introduced the board to motoIQ in this thread linky and I must say. It's turned out to be one hell of a website.

dean1484 wrote: We are not trying to change your plan we are just exploring other options. I so wish this came to the states. Shaft drive 173 HP at 9250 with 110ft lbs at 8250. I have no clue if it has reverse (I dough it). I just really like how it looks BMW K1300R

I've never been into bikes.... This could change me!

just go the miatabusa route... fabricate something to adapt the bike motor to a car trans output... preferrably to a clutch/flywheel combo first. ;)

Side note: that Z600 is awesome.

In reply to petegossett:

I thought the same thing and search for a few days, never found one. I wonder why.