Ibis Magic ZK-MGC Re-Engined

I noted on Trade Me recently that the Ibis Magic GS 700 ZK-MGC is for sale and it now has a 100 HP Zonsen C 100 engine up the front:

ZK-MGC has had an eventful life to date.  After being initially registered on 16/11/11 it was damaged in a forced landing near Wanaka in 13/7/20 and was cancelled on 28/9/20 as destroyed.  It was rebuilt by Custom Aviation at Taieri and was re-registered on 23/4/21.  According to Trade Me after the rebuild it was fitted with a high time on-condition Rotax 912.  However that engine has now been replaced by the Zonsen C 100 engine, and it now has 76 hours on it with no problems reported.  I know of one other aircraft in NZ that is flying pretty well with a Zonsen engine, and there may well be more because they are considerably cheaper than an equivalent (carburetted) Rotax 912.

Zongshen is sometimes shortened to Zonsen (I am not sure why) as on the cowling of ZK-MGC.  I always wondered why Rotax never sued Zongshen for copying their engine so closely but it is probably to do with patents. 

Zongshen C 80 and C 100 aircraft engines are made in Chongqing in China.  The Zongshen company is part of the much larger Zongshen Industrial Group which is a large conglomerate in China and is one of the biggest engine manufacturers in the world.  The company made (genuine I assume) replacement parts for Rotax engines for many years before the patents for the early carburetted versions of the Rotax 912 ran out, and then they turned their experience into building a copy of and competitor to the Rotax 912.  Virtually everything on the Zonsen engine is directly interchangeable with the equivalent Rotax engine.