upgraded cyclecart motor?

OK. lets say that a fella was building a pretty, aluminum skinned cyclecart, had no intent to race it, and wanted something more interesting than a Chinese-made lawnmower engine (Honda clone) to power it. Figure a max HP of roughly 10, because with a high cg, narrow track and iffy brakes, a Fireblade engine would be a ticket to the intensive care ward. Air or water cooled. Single speed. Does Lamborghini make any really tiny tractor engines? Do Vespa motors come that small? Or should I just lash a couple of chainsaw engines together (I'm trying to be pre-emptive towards the inevitable gonzo suggestions)?

Outboard motor

Chainsaw engine?

Old dirtbike motor? Includes a sequential dogbox! Most of those are passively air cooled and need to be in the wind though.

Large displacement scooter engine? Those are all either fan or water cooled and CVT.

Goldwing.

No seriously, outboard motor.

http://www.hotrod.com/feature_stories/1312_zephyr_radio_flyer/

In reply to moparman76_69:

160 CC flat 4! You aren't kidding! Now that's just the sort of inspiration that I'm looking for.

The outboard is a neat idea, they used to run them in midgets.

Briggs flathead or a Predator engine will easily make the HP you want.

trigun7469 wrote: Briggs flathead or a Predator engine will easily make the HP you want.

Not to be a dick, but I specifically excluded those options.

Chinese ATV engine?

Reverse, and semi-automatic gearbox. Compact, efficient, up to 250cc if you need more go, available with water-cooling, etc... This is probably what I'll end-up putting in mine, when I get around to building it.

What about the V-twin 20hp briggs? Cool sound just twice your power desire. There used in Slingshoot race cars.

But any chainsaw motor will make 10hp theses days the hard part is a clutch...but the sound would be great with a nice tuned pipe

In reply to 44Dwarf: Chainsaw wouldn't fit the image of the car, and would be very difficult to use without a flywheel. The 20 HP Briggs is a good-looking motor once you get past that ugly black cover. The problem with varying from the tried and true with cyclecarts is that when you put more power into it, you start to need to upgrade the brakes, and the wheels, and the chasis, and before you know it, you've got an ATV with a retro body on top.

My personal approach would be a chinese-knockoff of the Honda GY6 engine (150cc 4stroke scooter engine). Bonus points because it comes with around the hp you're looking for, is reliable, relatively quiet, comes with a tunable CVT thing on it, and can be had on a broken down chinese scooter pretty damn cheap. My .02