Wing engine

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Ccarel1
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Wing engine

#1

Post by Ccarel1 »

Can any of you Wingchaps tell me....Was the wing engine ever used in a car by Honda(e.g. Civic etc)or perhaps originate as a car engine?
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Wing engine

#2

Post by Lucien Harpress »

Not to my knowledge, but I do know Honda's automotive division was responsible for a vast majority of it's development. The carburetors for sure are auto carbs- I want to say they were used in the N600 at least? Maybe others.

(This doesn't count the kit cars that came later that used the GL engine, of course.)
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Re: Wing engine

#3

Post by Paola Zago »

the Moto Guzzi V7 engine was designed by Engineer Giulio Carcano, father among other things of the 8-cylinder Guzzi engine, in 1964. The initial idea was to replace the engine of the Fiat 500, but the idea was not Fiat managers liked it, so the only example of the Fiat 500 with the V7 engine was that of Eng Carcano who declared a speed of 140 km / h! Only in 1965 was it installed in a motorcycle frame. This is history, but about the Honda GL engine in a car, as a Honda project, I don't know anything, but surely there would be some documentation to describe the event. mine was just motorcycle news.
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Re: Wing engine

#4

Post by Shadowjack »

I've seen an article in some publication in the last few years about the development of the Wing, with pictures. In 1973, the first version had a flat six engine, and it looked different. Not out of a car.
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Wing engine

#5

Post by Lucien Harpress »

Yeah, the M1 was an odd beast. It gets thrown around as the "Goldwing Prototype", and I guess that's right in a sense. It had certain ideas that made their way to the eventual GL1000.

But on the flip side, it was never really intended as a bike for eventual production- more of a proof of concept to see how far certain motorcycle technologies could be pushed, then later as a testbed for new ideas on production bikes (this is why you'll see that one photo with a GL1100 front end). Still, it was a heck of a machine. Not often you see a bike with a distributor...
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1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- It Runs (Poorly) and Doesn't Leak (Mostly)
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Broke the Chain And Ate the Motor
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Re: Wing engine

#6

Post by Old Fogey »

To my knowledge, the complete Wing engine (all models) was/has never been used in a car by Honda. But there was a derivative of HALF the GL 1100, a twin cylinder 550cc engine used in the Acty micro truck and the Life car. Very little of that engine is directly transferable. That ran from 1980 to (I think) 1986 when it was replaced
by a 3 cylinder unit with no Wing ancestry.
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Re: Wing engine

#7

Post by LuckyEddie »

Pulse Autocycle
Pulse Autocycle
IMG_20170722_135001433.jpg (259.51 KiB) Viewed 286 times
I have been maintaining this Pulse Autocycle for the owner for about 10 years now. It has a GL1000 motor and drive line in it.
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Re: Wing engine

#8

Post by BlueThunder »

The 4 cylynder GL engine is basically a Honda Civic engine flattened. Thus auto designers involved in the development of the GL motor.
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Re: Wing engine

#9

Post by Paola Zago »

Lucien Harpress wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 9:43 am Yeah, the M1 was an odd beast. It gets thrown around as the "Goldwing Prototype", and I guess that's right in a sense. It had certain ideas that made their way to the eventual GL1000.

But on the flip side, it was never really intended as a bike for eventual production- more of a proof of concept to see how far certain motorcycle technologies could be pushed, then later as a testbed for new ideas on production bikes (this is why you'll see that one photo with a GL1100 front end). Still, it was a heck of a machine. Not often you see a bike with a distributor...
this prototype had all the rear, saddle, wheel, cardan transmission and exhausts from BMW. eng. Irimajiri was already planning it in 1974 with 6 cylinders, integral braking, mechanical injection. but it was too heavy, complex and expensive for the time. I found an article where it said that this prototype was then reused, with the front end of the GL 1100 and called AOK, by Honda as a test and had covered over 800,000 km.
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Re: Wing engine

#10

Post by Sidecar Bob »

I heard an unsubstantiated story that an exec from Honda was attending rallies in the US to learn what Americans wanted in a bike when he saw a BMW with a VW engine in it. The story goes that be bought it and had it shipped to Japan and a few years later the first GoldWing rolled off the line.
Whether this is true or not I have no idea but there are certain similarities between the Beetle engine and the GoldWing and the 'Wing does have the shaft on the right like the BMW while most designs that were converted from chain drive have the shaft on the left so there might be something to it.
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Re: Wing engine

#11

Post by Ccarel1 »

Thanx for the interesting replies to my question.I've enjoyed reading through it!
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Re: Wing engine

#12

Post by dontwantapickle »

Sidecar Bob wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 1:50 pm I heard an unsubstantiated story that an exec from Honda was attending rallies in the US to learn what Americans wanted in a bike when he saw a BMW with a VW engine in it. The story goes that be bought it and had it shipped to Japan and a few years later the first GoldWing rolled off the line.
Whether this is true or not I have no idea but there are certain similarities between the Beetle engine and the GoldWing and the 'Wing does have the shaft on the right like the BMW while most designs that were converted from chain drive have the shaft on the left so there might be something to it.
That's the story that I heard too.
Sounds plausible enough.
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Re: Wing engine

#13

Post by redglbx »

The story I was told about 100yrs ago at a show from someone in a Honda shirt in the Honda display was that the Wing engine was developed & based on an irrigation pump motor, whether that’s true or not I have no idea. But I was told that.
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Re: Wing engine

#14

Post by Paola Zago »

https://www.moto.it/news/bmw-volkswagen ... 1-500.html
Mayebe this?? but it is almost 10 years ago! In 1967 i don't know if Honda thought about making great motorcycles!
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Re: Wing engine

#15

Post by pidjones »

redglbx wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 7:20 am The story I was told about 100yrs ago at a show from someone in a Honda shirt in the Honda display was that the Wing engine was developed & based on an irrigation pump motor, whether that’s true or not I have no idea. But I was told that.
I doubt it. There is a Royal Enfield based on a diesel irrigation pump motor. Somewhere I have photos of prototype GL1000 carbs that Pete Body had posted. The float bowl castings still had chambers for accelerator pumps in the bottom of them. Serial #02 certainly had features that did not make it to production. Pete had restored it and I got to see it in person and study it a bit. The gentleman that owned it lived in Idaho, I believe but would ship it to Pete for shows. He was warned not to take it on any more trips over The Dragon on it, however.
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