The Thrill of Driving a Mini Cooper S with a BMW Engine

I'm sitting behind the wheel of a car that's got a bike engine in the back of it, yeah I mean it's like it's got that straight up gear sound so it's a really nice sound when you're driving along. The car is actually quite quiet and not excessively loud like some other cars, like the ZED Mini, which was a bit too loud for its own good. This car, on the other hand, is pleasant to drive in everyday situations.

However, things change when you get behind the wheel of this car. Once you start moving, the sound changes and it's much more engaging. The engine growls and roars as it picks up speed, which is exhilarating. I'd say it's incredibly fast and fun to drive, but not necessarily because it's going very high speeds. Instead, it's the low profile of the car that makes you feel like you're moving at a much faster pace.

One of the most impressive things about this car is its responsiveness. The gearbox is sequential, which means it shifts gears smoothly without any jerky movements. This creates a sense of continuity and flow that's hard to match with other cars. It's like the engine is singing along with you as you accelerate or decelerate.

When I put the car in gear for the first time, I was struck by how light and responsive it was. The steering is incredibly sharp, which can be a bit intimidating at times, especially when cornering. But that's part of what makes this car so much fun to drive - it's like a puzzle that you need to solve as you navigate through twists and turns.

As I drove the car, I couldn't help but feel a sense of respect for its power and agility. It's not like other cars that rely on brute force to propel them forward; instead, this car uses clever engineering and clever design to create a truly unique driving experience.

Driving this car is almost like riding a motorbike, except it's much safer and more comfortable. I've never ridden a bike before, but the closest I've come to that experience was in a simulator room with a 620cc bike that had flat shift on the way up. But even with all its complexity, this car feels incredibly smooth and natural to drive.

One of the most impressive things about this car is its gearshift - it's like music to my ears as I transition from one gear to another. The gearbox is so cleverly designed that you hardly feel any resistance or jerkiness as the gears change.

The engine itself is also worth mentioning - it's a bike engine with a lot of character and sound, which makes it a joy to listen to. And when you're driving along, the sound is really pleasant, but once you start accelerating, the engine growls and roars in a way that's just fantastic.

After driving this car for a while, I have to admit that I'd love to own one - not just because of its incredible performance capabilities, but also because of the sheer joy it brings to drive. It's like a puzzle that you need to solve as you navigate through twists and turns, and once you get the hang of it, it's incredibly satisfying.

If you're interested in driving something truly unique and exciting, then this car is definitely worth checking out. But be warned - it's not for the faint of heart! It requires a certain level of skill and experience to drive safely and effectively.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhere we go good day hey guys and welcome to petrol pet now then at the back end of last year a good friend of mine dave invited me to drive his zed cars mini a classic mini with a honda civic type r engine in the back and that video is just about to hit 1 million views my most watched video on the channel so today today we have two more zed cars to have a look at they may well look like classic fiat 500s but you would be so wrong let me introduce to you the fiabusa and the fubaroo this this is going to be epic so there is much to talk about with these two beautiful cars so i'm going to actually do it in two videos in part one we're going to look at this the fiabusa and in part two we'll look at the beautiful fubaroo over there so yeah in front of me is what looks like a classic fiat 500 or should i say fiat cinquecento and the cinquecento gets its name from the engine capacity 500cc although interestingly the original kerb weight was around about 500 kilos as well and they produced immense amounts of power either 12 or 17 horsepower or if you went for the sas version you might get that up to 37 horsepower not in this car oh no the name fiabusa may well give you a hint as to what's in the back of this car as well as the zed cars complete madness when it comes to converting cars in the back of this is a hayabusa bike engine so first of all we've got an awful lot of power we've got an incredible 11 000 rpm redline but there's loads of really interesting engineering just to get a bike engine in the back of one of these things and to get it to work so let's have a wander around the back and look at the packaging and a few of the really interesting things about squeezing a bike engine into a classic fiat 500 so yep in the back we find a gen 2 hayabusa engine 1340cc and ready for this 197 horsepower a slight uplift from the 37 horsepower of the sas version but the interesting things are some obvious statements here motorbikes have a chain drive and cars generally don't and also motorbikes don't normally have reverse gears so how have they sorted out those two problems so this this is where all the magic happens the top of the engine's up here but the really interesting bit for me is just here so clearly normally on a bike engine you'd have a chain drive to the rear wheel not in this car so you've got a quaff gear drive transfer unit in here with an integrated limited slip diff and what that's doing is taking the drive from the bike engine and then feeding it down and eventually through a couple of drive shafts into the rear wheels bike engines don't normally have reverse gears unless you're looking at something really big like a harley-davidson or something so that's where this little actuator comes in and it's a really clever thing so you basically put the car into first gear and there's a button on the dash that moves this actuator and what it basically does is it takes first gear and changes its direction from forward to reverse depending on whether you want to go forwards or backwards really really clever solution to not having that reverse gear i love things like that though but this car's all about that engine in the forward gears going up to the 11 000 rpm redline i'm not quite sure what it's going to be like to have nearly 200 horsepower going through the rear wheels of a fiat 500 epic i think is the word but let's jump in the driver's seat and i'll just show you around the inside of the car because that's very cool as well this car is so dinky i don't know how dave and i are going to fit in it if i'm honest but a couple of really interesting things here it's got a bike engine and that means that it's not quite as straightforward to drive as a normal car so it's got a six-speed sequential gearbox but the way in which you drive that so certainly in first to second gear you're going to use the clutch but once you've got a little bit of momentum in the car and if you're higher up the rev range then you can flat shift on the way up but on the way down you'd still use the clutch in terms of the the instrument binnacle there off of the gen 2 hayabusa bike i noticed that the speeder goes all the way up to 180 miles an hour this car the gearbox has a longer gearing just to make it a little bit more suitable for road driving but that still doesn't dampen the acceleration at the end of the day we're talking about a car with massive amounts of power that doesn't really weigh a great deal so i think the next thing to do is try and work out how on earth i'm going to fit cameras in here and me and dave and we're going to go for a bit of a drive up the road and just experience this quite frankly bonkers car but i must say it's a little bit intimidating as well now then mate welcome back to the channel youtube a bit of a squeeze welcome dave back to the channel no match this time mate no no um well we have this habit of meeting in really really small cars well it's half the fun i think so so um dave's gonna have a bit of a drive first of all and if i'm a really lucky boy i might be allowed to play this thing because it is ridiculous why not so right this isn't quite your car because we talked about your car in the last video yours is in build yes i i couldn't get some down to you before uh september so literally we're hoping it should be ready fairly soon yeah but a bit of a way to go but we'll be there in the end right so startup procedure so ignition and then you need to make sure she's in neutral here we go that's it so you put into first base yeah and then really slow uh slow clutch yeah just behavior on the first couple of years exactly yeah you just take it easy it's sequential gearbox so yeah it's it takes a little bit of getting used to yeah i'm still getting used to it as well so of course you just call back you don't kind of go through the eight track like normally yep that's ridiculous already it's not six gear wow a lovely sound straight up here it's like so beautiful it's quite noisy in here as usual i have to shout so it's a real knack to that yeah it's still a still learning process but i guess it's it's a very quick revving engine right yeah you get up to about eight thousand revs and you change so you don't have to use the clutch at that point so while we're going a little bit more slowly and a bit more quietly this it's got um uprated brakes right yeah it's got a little wood brakes and so it's very vented on the front and saw disc on the back yeah certainly uh it's any good stopping power yeah better than the original i'm sure so well oh yeah very good it's such an alien sound bike engine in the back of the car yeah i mean it's like it's got that straight up gear sound so it's a really nice sound when you're driving along yeah and it's not i mean it's not it's not like the zed cars mini where it was excessively loud this is actually you can drive this way quite normally yeah and it sounds good but when you get on it that's then the reds start to red yeah you know grow and you have a much different sound you quite like getting on it there you go it's just it's incredibly fast i'd say it's lovely when it's unsolved though it really is and absolutely thing is you might not believe this we're not actually going that fast you know but it feels like you're doing a million miles an hour because it's so low i mean though it's so tiny the noise of that is ridiculous yeah i mean you've got that great sense of speed being low down to the ground yeah and minis they're just driving slowly um but you know you got that great sensation if you think 40 you feel like you're doing 80. yeah that's the thing that's a good thing about it wow you can drive sensibly but you still feel like you're going a hundred miles there so do you want to give it a go i'd love to yeah and then that second you're putting it it's just put into the first is forward for first and all the rest right okay touch it here here's okay so very light yeah you need to need to modulate yeah you want one yeah that's it it's so high ready all right here we go oh wow i need a sequential gearbox in my life steering's really really sharp oh that gearbox changes i can hear it popping and banging as well oh man take it easy in the corners because it's short wheelbase your wheelbase and the wheel push unless you're powering it in wow this is nuts man you're in fifth so drop down oh here it's it's intimidating like no other car i've driven because this this the gearbox is different the engine's so ready yeah it's not like a powerful rear-wheel drive car where you think you're going to get the back end out just different yeah very much so let's see one of those cars that you just have to respect a little bit yeah very different to your car now i'll wait till i get around this corner it's good it's all high up isn't it there's nothing down low oh yeah it's all high reps yeah i've never ridden a motorbike so the closest i've got to that is their 620 arcade room that had flat shift on the way up but it's so smooth with the transition from as you change up the gears you can hardly feel that feel the gear going in exactly i mean that's that's the way most bikes are now especially 1000 cc upwards yeah sequential box it's like you know wow here we go bonkers it's got so little mass in the flywheel it spins up so quickly yeah third oh like i'm gonna dream about that gear change when i get home tonight isn't it that is that's magnificent i'd buy one of these just for that gear change yeah it's i think once you you can you can do so much of this car it's so fun car like it's magnificent yeah i mean it's it's a tricky gear box to get my head around but i love driving challenges right well once you get in rhythm with it you get it just takes a little bit of learning oh we got a second oh good and first hey i didn't stall it or anything good man you've really got a banging in with your clubs the only problem with it is by the time you're in fourth you're going really fast so so i reckon we head back and take the other one out guys i hope you've enjoyed that i'm not sure how much you've been able to hear this is just a masterpiece of engineering but a real challenge to drive yeah but once you get it and i think you need a lot of scene time before you take on a trap there or something absolutely it's just that it's that that you can feel the weight distribution it's just amazing anyway i hope you enjoyed that massive thank you today and said cars as well for bringing the cars over very very special morning but if you've enjoyed that i'll put that cost details below give them a follow on social check out their website mate thank you very much see you i'll see you on the next one i hope you enjoyed that guys if you did give me a thumbs up comments below are always welcome and if you haven't done so already please subscribe to petra fed for plenty more content to come and i'll see on the next field take care guys drive safe hmm you\n"