Here’s what happened when man swapped Mazda Miata engine with one from a superbike

A man decided to take the engine out of his Mazda MX-5 Miata and replace it with a 2008 Honda motorcycle one instead. 

The MX-5 launched back in 1989 and is the best-selling two-seat convertible sports car in history with more than one million units sold worldwide. 

But have you ever wondered what would happen if you took out the engine and substituted it with one from a 2008 Honda CBR1000RR?

No? Well, neither have we – but YouTube content creator ReedMakeCar did just that. 

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The Mazda MX-5 Miata was given a new motorcycle engine

This isn’t the first odd engine swap we’ve come across – how could we forget the man who dropped a WWII tank engine into a Ford police car?

Or the guy who created the first-ever V8 Tesla by swapping out the motor for an engine?

If neither of those is bizarre enough for you, then let’s take a closer look at Reed’s MX-5 Miata/motorcycle hybrid. 

The Miata comes stock with a 1.8 liter engine that can produce 140 horsepower and 119lb-ft of torque. It can hit 7,000rpm and does 0-60mph (0-97km/h) in around eight seconds. 

Meanwhile, the Honda’s 1.0 liter four-cylinder has a power output of around 180 horsepower and can hit a whopping 13,000rpm. 

And here’s how it ended up

Once assembled, the YouTuber puts the car on the dyno where it shows the new motorcycle/Miata hits 160HP at 11,500rpm with 80lb-ft of peak torque at 9,200rpm. 

Given that the car is a helluva lot heavier than the original bike would have been, those aren’t bad numbers. 

But how does it drive? Well, noisily. Very, very noisily. 

So much so that Reed even popped in some earplugs when he took the car out onto the road, but even that didn’t seem like adequate protection from the noise the motor made. 

Reed is able to get the car up to 60mph in first gear and admits that it actually feels faster.  

“It definitely feels faster than you think, being a small engine moving a pretty big car,” he explained in the clip. 

“That being said, the next time this car is on this dyno, it will have a turbocharger.”

Best of luck with that, pal.