Agree totally with the posts to date regards to engine size and power. In my experience the extra power, upto 170bhp, is fantastic on track and warm sunny days and you can really give the car some boot. On greasy days it all becomes a bit of a handful, recent experience with Ginge springs to light, and you cant fully enjoy the car because you are frightened to put the power down. So a larger engine car with more power and torque is going to be similar in the dry, yes it will be great to open it up down a straight but the main enjoyment is to be had blasting it round twisty B roads or on track. As long as you have enough power to safely overtake sunday drivers that's more than ample.
There are some opinions out there that anything above 170hp in a roadster is unusable, for most other then the Stig, and defeats the principles of the roadster. I would certainly agree with this. With my original engine, the 1.8cvh, there was just as much fun to be had.
Keep it cheap and cheerful and you'll be having more than enough fun. The 1.8 CVH on bike carbs is a very well matched engine to the roadster, also an easy and cheap upgrade to more power later on post IVA.
AndyH....
