New track toy :)

Having driven an old Civic with about the same power, I imagine this thing is insane as it's about half the weight again.

You're going to have some serious fun in that.
 
Nick1881 said:
Having driven an old Civic with about the same power, I imagine this thing is insane as it's about half the weight again.

You're going to have some serious fun in that.
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It's great :D

More than half btw... Civic is supposed to be 1300-1400kg

This is just a shade under 500kg... so almost 1/3 the weight
 
Some photos from Silverstone:
001 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

011 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

030 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

014 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

008 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

018 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

023 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

025 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

026 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

029 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

033 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

Zenos_006 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

Zenos_008 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

Zenos_013 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

Zenos_017 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

Zenos_019 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

Zenos_021 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr
 
Stunning. Love the colour combination of dark grey with the orange stripe. Sadly something like this is beyond my budget but I have my eye on an MX-5 mk2 for the same reason. Just a track toy or the occasional blip down some B roads.

Caterham bought the rights from Lotus for the Seven brand but you can still get Westfield replicas for considerably less. If you just want something to blast about on track then it being a replica shouldn't put you off a Westfield.
 
TallPaul1878 said:
Stunning. Love the colour combination of dark grey with the orange stripe. Sadly something like this is beyond my budget but I have my eye on an MX-5 mk2 for the same reason. Just a track toy or the occasional blip down some B roads.

Caterham bought the rights from Lotus for the Seven brand but you can still get Westfield replicas for considerably less. If you just want something to blast about on track then it being a replica shouldn't put you off a Westfield.
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Some of the bike-engined replicas are especially epic... the high redline with a seq gearbox as standard is a load of fun and you can pick something pretty decent up for £9-12k last I looked at that.
 
Diddums said:
How was the Mono? Mate of mine works for BAC. Lunacy on wheels.
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It was great... a really special car... very much like a Formula car just without the aero.

The balance of it is brilliant... little twitches of the throttle and brake really have a massive affect on moving its weight around. The only road car I've driven that feels like it has 3 steering wheels you have to drive simultaneously to make it go quick.

Had some really nice feedback from their test driver and founder too re: my driving, which was a nice ego boost. Apparently in the last session of the day he was really pushing the lead car and couldn't leave me in the dust... which is a damn fine compliment from a pro driver :) I did double and triple check it wasn't an ego-boosting sales technique haha. He wants to race with me again in the future :D

For me though, I wish it had some more aero. I'm also a bit bonkers and would like more power.

I'm guessing the only reason it doesn't is because of road legal regulations re: running down pedestrians.

Would be awesome if they made a track-only version with wings.

In the slow-mid speed corners it had tonnes of mechanical grip... can easily compete with / beat a Radical on slower tracks.

In the higher speed corners though, the front went light which would take more practise to get the confidence level up on those as to compensate you have to shift the weight around... do-able... just something that would take more than ~45 minutes for me to learn. Although I did have it quite sideways at about 120mph which was a brown pants moment until I realised how progressive it was and easy to correct giving me the balls to push it more.

All-in-all... absolutely brilliant car.

Plus it's something that I can tell will take me a long time to learn - which is exactly what I'm looking for. Things like 911s, Imprezas and Lambos, for example, are great cars... but they're the types of car that I can just get in and drive to 95% of their potential straight away because of the confidence they give you immediately. That's a good thing about those cars for sure, just not something that interests me as much as I want a challenge... the BAC Mono is something that would give me that challenge.

Am I going to buy one? I don't think so... not this time around at least... but probably next year or the year after.

I haven't driven the RXC yet, but I know how much I love aero, especially in the faster bits where the BAC left me wanting a sharper front end.

This morning I spoke to Radical and there's a used 2016 RXC Spyder EcoBoost... the 650bhp model with great spec... going for a really good price.

I've told them I'm ready to proceed and put a holding deposit down on the car subject to test... he's just arranging a test day for me although if he can't find one, I've told him I'm happy to rent a/the car for a day to test it in the near future to get things moving.

So 95% certain I'm going to buy that... otherwise if I don't like it as much as I think I will... then I'm going back to the BAC.

It was a really great day... some youtubers were in the same garage as BAC and I made friends with Mr JWW... he took me for some passenger laps in his 458 Speciale - which is a PHENOMENAL car!

That 458 Speciale is absolutely amazing... the engine, gearbox and noise they make combined - as well as the general handling and everything about the car is really something special, it certainly lives up to its name.

I have an appointment this Saturday to finalise the spec of my 720S and it's really made me think - I was eyeing up Speciales on Pistonheads last night... the Ferrari would be the better investment where the McLaren will lose money... but I am still leaning towards the McLaren as even Mr JWW said... nothing outside of hypercars is anywhere near as quick as the 720S.
 
acemastr said:
Blue tinge, rubber peeling back like that, bike tires look the same. They'll be fine but they are probably past their best due to the number of heat cycles.
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That blue tinge is just the compound oils in the tyre, one heat cycle will expose that oil and make the tyres have a blue green tinge. Once that blue/green tinge goes after a run then the tyre is done. Whilst it keeps going that colour it still has the oils that keep it soft and sticky. The reason many think the tyre is done when it goes that colour is that if you significantly overheat a tyre it will show a lot of that discolouration. When they next take the tyre out it doesn't work and they think that the blue/green tinge is an indicator, but it isn't always so.

First drive is likely to be a slow one anyway, so I would be testing those tyres warming them up slowly as you get used to the car, which will be an epic drive!
 
crinkleshoes said:
We were going for a 620R, but the finance company decided that for such a value, they were only prepared to give it to a home owner :( Oh well... QUOTE]
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Damn.... And to think. Not long ago you the shortlist included ferraris, porsches, and cars costing around 50k!
 
Looks great :) Do you drive to the circuits or carry on a trailer?

I'm looking for something suitable for b-road fun and track days but I'm looking at other much cheaper 7-esque cars. It's a complete minefield on what to look for though, the combinations and variety is making it very difficult to know what is a "good" model and what should be avoided.

All I've worked out so far is:

1) Avoid Robin Hood :p
2) Aim for something with a Zetec or Mazda engine (maybe BEC too)

Figuring out the proper value of these cars is difficult, and no showrooms means that it's difficult to look around them properly too. I don't want to waste sellers time whilst I figure out what to buy.
 
Thanks.

Used to drive it there and back... but now we have a company looking after it and supporting the car while at the track... so they keep it in storage, maintain it and truck it there and back. It's a bit weird having support with guys always checking the car over and even holding lid for you while you get in car and helping you strap up - not used to it :)

At the lower end of the spectrum, I really like the bike engined things. Reverse can be a pain with them on the road... but when you're blasting along it's awesome to have a really high redline NA engine with sequential box.

Otherwise I'd go with a Ford engine variant if possible.
 
DAIR said:
Damn.... And to think. Not long ago you the shortlist included ferraris, porsches, and cars costing around 50k!
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It would blow my mind if crinkleshoes buys a 720s without owning his own home. Surely that's an incredibly daft way to spend your money? But to be fair if you want to then it's none of my business!

I wish I could sell my house and spend it all on a supercar :D (but not really)
 
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