Kit cars

R

RussellP

Member
Has anyone here got a kit car or hill climb car, I am looking to buy an unfinished Kit car, possibly a Robin Hood or similar and wondered if anyone on here uses one at all that could shed some light on the ins and outs of owning one?

Russ
 
Guilty!

30042010223.jpg


91187890-90a3-421f-a4e6-aa7c57d3e3db_zpsa11568b1.jpg
 
I've had one and my son has a Dax Rush.

PICT2056sml.jpg



PICT1978sml.JPG


The problems are that they are basically a money pit :thumbsup:

Andi.

BTW Both built by us.
 
I've owned my current Westfield since 2003 (my first one came to a sticky and painful end). Despite being used almost exclusively on the track, it's reliable and fairly easy to maintain. As it is very light, consumables such as brakes and tyres last forever despite harsh punishment. Generally speaking, you can spend as much or as little as you want on a Seven - Caterhams, for example, are an extremely expensive way of owning a kit car without any clear advantage over cheaper Westfields. Both are generally well respected and most examples (if constructed properly) offer fantastic performance, even those with smaller engines. I've heard good things about MK Indy and Dax, especially those with bike engines, but I've not driven either myself. The numerous other manufacturers of Sevens are often regarded as being a bit second rate (including Robin Hood I'm afraid).
Mine has the same power to weight ratio as my ///M, but weighs much less than half as much. This translates into a marginally quicker 0-60 time, and far better braking and cornering ability. Flat out it struggles to reach 120mph as aerodynamically it is a brick, but its strengths lie in changes in velocity and direction, not straight line speed. The chap who built mine had a 996 GT3 and he told me that on tighter tracks, the Westfield was a markedly faster car.
If I were to replace my Westfield with another track car, I would buy either a bike-engined Westfield (Hayabusa) or MK Indy (Hayabusa or R1), or a Westfield with a tuned Ford Duratec engine or a 3.5l Rover V8. There can be problems with using a bike engine in a car. Since motorcycles lean through the bends, cetrifugal force mimics gravity, maintaining the line of force parallel with the vertical axis of the bike and hence effectively keeping the engine upright (at least with respect to the forces it experiences which are largely parallel to the vertical axis of the engine). Since cars do not lean into corners (rather they roll away), a bike engine will be subjected to lateral forces it is not designed to experience. The net effect is that oil supply can be an issue. Also, bike engines can lack torque, necessitating high revs to get usable performance which can make driving on the road somewhat frenetic. There is some compensation for this though, as they are generally fairly light.
I would recommend looking at Pistonheads.com. In the classified adverts they have sections for bike-engined cars, kit cars, Westfields and Caterhams.
Whatever you buy, you'll have enormous fun - suffice it to say, I've owned my ///M since 2009 and I still take both my Westfield and my ///M to most trackdays :driving:
 
Sold mine last year and bought the Z4. A real head-turner, great noise and blisteringly quick, but impractical. A few pics.



BMW M30 engine...


Injection system removed and 3 Weber DCOEs fitted. Less horsepower (but with a kerb weight of 850kg, still plenty to spin the wheels in any gear!) but much better noise and that great smell of petrol!!
 
Yes - mine cost me around £130 fully comp - Insured for 4000 miles p.a. Cheap because they know you're likely to look after them, and if you do have a prang, likely to fix it yourself, so avoid the £££ labour costs.
 
DR-Z said:
Yes - mine cost me around £130 fully comp - Insured for 4000 miles p.a. Cheap because they know you're likely to look after them, and if you do have a prang, likely to fix it yourself, so avoid the £££ labour costs.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dr Z, that sure was a cracker you had there, I came through Ashbourne last weekend from my brothers in Leek, beautiful weather for the top down, headed for Matlock but was way to busy on the roads!
 
Give me a shout if you come through again! Call in for a cup of tea.
 
Some great cars. Would love a Caterham and with my newly acquired welding skills have added "build a Lotus 7 kit car" to my "things to do before i die" list.
 
Got a Westfield I built in 2002. It is a 1.8 Zetec running a pair of twin 45's and weberAlpha ignition system. I recently weighed it at 580kg which included fuel, oil etc so not too bad. I built it to be the lightest possible and for a while ran it without windscreen etc just to save weight but soon got fed up wearing a crash helmet. I eventually bought a screen but still run it quite bare -no carpets, trims etc. got carbon dash, cycle wings, rear cover, transmission tunnel etc. Only trouble with being light is its pretty hairy on a rough road. Performance wise it's fantastic. You can overtake whatever whenever up to about 100. It runs out of breath and hits the limiter at about 128 ish. Passengers complain they can't breath above about 60. Go kart handling fantastic.. :D
 
RussellP said:
Bit of a longshot, does anyone have a kit car they may want to sell?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Here's a few to start with :thumbsup:

Caterhams:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/caterham/all-models

Westfields:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/westfield/all-models

Bike-engined cars:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bike-powered-cars/cars

Others:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/kit-cars
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom