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Café Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Enrico Marais enjoys building motorcycles in his garage in South Africa. One of his recent creations is a custom Café Racer powered by a 1600 cc flat-four from a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle. Enrico started with a backbone from a 1970’s Honda CB750K and modified it to fit the motor. On top of that he installed a 1979 Kawasaki Z750FX fuel tank and custom seat. Enrico built a centrifugal clutch from a car drum brake and used a 90-degree gearbox from a Robinson R44 helicopter tail rotor to transfer power to the chain drive. You can view the build series on Enrico’s channel.

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

Cafe Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four

3 thoughts on “Café Racer with a VW 1600 cc Flat-Four”

  1. What does he use for a transmission or did I miss something ? The Robinson drive is presumably single speed and just allows a 90 degree change of direction for the power.

    Somewhere out there on the interwebs is a forum on VW powered bikes. I think they marry up the VW engines to BMW transmissions though. I love this stuff.

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