RE: Picco P-zero 0.8cc
Excellent article by Mark Rudner.
If there is a REAL niche to be exploited it would be to take the $30 Picco and figure out how to make it reliable to 30,000+ rpm so that you could price it at an amount that makes it worth your while.
If it takes 2 hours to machine the crank, plus more time monitoring heat treatment of an entire batch of parts, reassembly and test firing the engines..that would seem to put the price of the engine at $100.
All this speculation comes from a guy who knows nothing about being a machinist / shop owner. I think $100 gets your "foot in the door" with guys looking for "high performance without a high performance price tag".