By Dean Larson

Photos: Seller, eBay

**The seller has since removed this listing from eBay**

Even if you’re not a bike guy, it’s tough to argue the mechanical excellence of modern street bikes. Their function — speed — dictates form, and lightweight performance is the guiding principle behind all of their mechanical and cosmetic elements. It’s raw performance in a compact package that tops most challengers on wheels, but it comes at a price — safety.

Indeed, most of us are more comfortable on four wheels with some sort of protection surrounding our bodies, more than a jacket and helmet anyway, and rightfully so. But that doesn’t mean our four-wheeled vehicles can’t take a lesson from stripped-down rockets, and this MK Lotus Seven recreation on eBay is a flawless marriage between the two.

The original kit, an MK Indy R, is one of many U.K.-based exos and Seven-style cars that are designed to work with popular sport bike powerplants. This one utilizes the popular Suzuki Hayabusa donor, which has been a flagship sport bike since its debut in 1999. Suzuki has made small alterations to the bike over its 20-year production run, but its defining characteristics have been 1,299 to 1,340 cc DOHC four-cylinder engines and ridiculous outputs of 172 to 197 hp.

The engine used in this build was sourced from a 2008 Hayabusa, which kicked off the second generation of the bike. Its 1,340 cc engine made a stout 197 hp with a 12.5:1 compression ratio, and a top speed electronically limited to 186 mph. The engine used here is dressed up with all sorts of extras, including a coil-on-plug upgrade, SBD Motorsports throttle bodies, an upgraded clutch and stainless headers.

With the engine mounted up front in a longitudinal format, a custom lightweight driveshaft runs to a Ford Sierra limited-slip differential. But there’s some even more impressive things going on with the driveline. For one, this car possesses a feature that eliminates one of the largest downfalls of a sport-bike-powered car; the lack of a reverse gear. Near the gearshift, there’s a small knob that actuates a Jaxsport reverse box allowing normal reverse function — which sure beats pushing!

Additionally, the builder has installed electronics from a company called FlatShifter, which eliminates the need to use the clutch pedal after you get moving. According to the seller, the system also controls revs to simplify shifting without the clutch at high speeds.

“On upshifts the system cuts the ignition for a millisecond (actually sub millisecond) to relax the transmission and allow the gear to slip to the next one. On downshifts the system will blip the throttle to the correct RPM for rev-matching (again watch one of the videos listed below). All of this is done by just pulling or pushing on the gear leave. It absolutely rocks...”

All together, this MK Indy R is a potent machine, boasting 11,000-rpm capability and a curb weight of just 1,224 pounds. Figures like that help explain the owner’s claims that the little Seven can best Corvettes, GT-Rs and other exotics on the race track, as evidenced by his videos. Unfortunately, the car has not been registered for street use, but the seller states that components are included to make the car road legal, should the next owner want to do so.

See the seller’s ad here on eBay.

**The seller has since removed this listing from eBay**