A bike-engined car is a small or light weight car

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 that is powered by an engine

Engine

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion...

 that was designed for use in a motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

. The advantage for car builders is that small car engines in high states of tune are relatively rare whereas large motorcycle engines are frequently designed for high specific outputs. The drawbacks of using bike engines in cars is the lack of reverse gear, lack of low end torque (both characteristics making parking difficult) and that the engines get a short lifespan since they have to pull more weight than they were designed for. Most of these cars use the sequential gearbox from the motorcycle, allowing for faster shifting than a traditional automotive gearbox.

Early examples include the Bond Minicar

Bond Minicar

Bond Minicar is the name given to a series of economical three-wheeled cars manufactured by Sharp's Commercials Limited , in Preston, Lancashire between 1949 and 1966....

 from 1949 which used a 122 cc Villiers

Villiers Engineering

Villiers Engineering was a manufacturer of motorcycles and cycle parts, and an engineering company based in Villiers Street, Wolverhampton, England....

 motorcycle engine. More recently, conversions of small cars such as the Mini

Mini

The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...

 have started to emerge, since conversion kits have become more available. Bike-engined cars are often based around the Lotus 7-type kit car

Kit car

A kit car, also known as a "component car", is an automobile that is available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then either assembles into a car themselves, or retains a third party to do part or all of the work on their behalf...

s, such as the Westfield Megabusa

Westfield Megabusa

The Westfield Megabusa is a British-made Lotus Seven inspired car with a 1,299 cc motorcycle engine, taken from the Suzuki Hayabusa, and six-speed sequential gearbox...

.

The 750 Motor Club in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 runs a national race series for cars powered by road going motorcycle engines (RGB series) as well as Radical Sportscars, who has its own series and in the United States, the Lites 2 category of IMSA Prototype Lites

IMSA Prototype Lites

Cooper Tires Prototype Lites is a 14 race series featuring two classes of single-seat prototype cars racing simultaneously. The series is sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association . Most races are held in support of the American Le Mans Series...

 (formerly IMSA Lites) consists of cars using exclusively the engine from a Kawasaki ZX-10R. One of the most notable series of them all, in a worldwide scale for such is the Formula BMW

Formula BMW

Formula BMW is a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It is positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category...

 single seater series for young drivers taking their next step toward Formula One

Formula One

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

.

Common bike engines used in cars

• Honda Fireblade
  Honda Fireblade
  The Honda Fireblade is a family of sport motorcycles manufactured by Honda since 1992. The first model was designed by Tadao Baba.*CBR900RR, 1992–1995*CBR919RR, 1996–1999*CBR929RR, 2000–2001*CBR954RR, 2002–2003...
  
  
• Honda CBR1100XX
  Honda CBR1100XX
  The CBR1100XX Super Blackbird is a Honda motorcycle made from 1996 to 2007. The bike was developed to challenge the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11 as the world's fastest production motorcycle, and Honda succeeded with a top speed of . Two years later the title passed to the Suzuki Hayabusa, which reached...
  
  
• Kawasaki ZX-12R
• Suzuki GSX-R1000
  Suzuki GSX-R1000
  The GSX-R1000 is a sport bike from Suzuki's GSX-R series of motorcycles. It was introduced in 2001 to replace the GSX-R1100 and is powered by a liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder, four-stroke engine.-2001:...
  
  
• Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa
  Suzuki GSX1300R
  The Suzuki Hayabusa is a sport bike motorcycle made by Suzuki since 1999. It immediately won acclaim as the world's fastest production motorcycle, with a top speed of ....
  
  
• Yamaha YZF-R1
  Yamaha YZF-R1
  The Yamaha YZF-R1 is an open class sport bike, or superbike, motorcycle manufactured by Yamaha Motor Company since 1998.-1998–1999:Yamaha launched the YZF-R1 after redesigning the Genesis engine to offset the crankshaft, gearbox input, and output shafts. This "compacting" of the engine made the...