[Video] Someone put a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R engine in a Fiat Cinquecento
Yes, you’ve read the headline correctly: someone stuffed the engine from a Kawasaki Ninja in the back of a Fiat Cinquecento. The result is a truly preposterous machine.
Why is it preposterous? Well if you’re unfamiliar with the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, it isn’t the fastest Ninja you can buy but nevertheless it is ballistically fast. With an in-line four-cylinder engine chucking out 200PS (197bhp) at 13,00rpm, the 206kg ZX-10R can, with a brave rider, get to 62mph in 2.9 seconds. That engine, thrown into the back of an old Fiat that’s been converted to rear-wheel-drive, given a wider track and blessed with a sequential gearbox, has created a machine that can hardly keep all four wheels on the ground through a corner. It seems to accelerate with the kind of speed you’d expect to see form a single-seater.
Why don’t more people put bike engines in old Italian hatchbacks?