Westfield / Kit cars in general - Opinions?

James_N · 22 Mar 2006 at 03:07

Hi

Ive been looking around at what i can get for around £6k in the kit car market (looking at westie's, Dax, Stuart Taylor etc).

Debating whether i should get one as purely a summer car. They are very quick, pretty cheap on insurance, and fun to drive

Just a decision on what engine to go for as there are lots available, but what are peoples opinions in general? a good bargain buy for the summer? Anything to look out for when buying second hand?

Cheers

Burned_Alive · 22 Mar 2006 at 03:24

Plleeeeeeaaaasssseeeeee get a bike engined one

James_N · 22 Mar 2006 at 03:40

Burned_Alive said:
Plleeeeeeaaaasssseeeeee get a bike engined one

lol i wondered how long it would be before you contributed

I doubt my budget would stretch to a bike engined one but if i saved a few more pennies, anything is possible

Dr Who · 22 Mar 2006 at 05:36

Are you gonna build it yourself or buy one already built?

Bike engine ones are fun (see below) but can get pretty tiring on a longish journey...

If you want a budget car then a 2.0l zetec powered kit is the best all rounder..

2l zetecs can be had from older mondeos etc for very little money, and are easily mated to a cheap 5 speed sierra etc box due to fords policy of not changing the mating faces at all...

Belive me, a 2.0 zetec will be more practical if you decide to do auto tests or cheap motorsport later on...

Mine i a zx12r engined car that cost almost £15,000 to put together, but an r1 engined car without reverse can be had for around £8,000 if you are careful with your budget...

Use 13 inch wheels and then you have access to much cheaper tyres/slicks for trackdays (all the racers use 13 inch wheels)...

I highly recommend MNR for the car, the quality is better than most and the car is one of the best handling out there...

They also lend you cat's etc for the SVA test, and also are about to sell new cortina uprights that have far better geometry than the sierra uprights, which are also far heavier...

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/index.php

is a place that will become your friend

Dogbreath · 22 Mar 2006 at 06:51

My prefered chices would be:

K20 (S2000 engine 2.0L)
Duratec (2.0L or 2.3L)
20XE (2.0L)
Zetec (2.0L)
Toyota 4AGE (1.6L)
Vauxhall Ecotec 1.6L 16v
Rover K series (1.4L, 1.6L 1.8L)

K20 and Duratec will probably be outside your budget as they are expensive engines to buy and tune. The 20XE is cheap and powerfull, the Zetec is even cheaper, more common but less powerfull. The 1600 Ecotec is a cracking little engine, very free reving and can produce 160bhp with stock cam, head with the addition of a set of throttle bodies. The Toyota 4AGE is a very popular choice, it has an iron block but is relatively light and can make good power, though not that cheap to tune.

The K series is the lightest engine in the list, and is perfect for a 7 from that point of view. Caterham think so to and have used this engine in many of their cars. The Rover haters will be screaming OMG HGF!!11!! etc. but the truth is that with appropriate maintenance it's unlikely to be a problem in a low mileage weekend fun car.

In the bargain basment section would be:

Pinto (2.0L, 1.6 not worth bothering with)
Crossflow (1.6L, usualy bored out to 1.7L)

Both old school heavy cast iron lumps, but either can be tuned to produce enough power to make a 7 pretty quick.

Brycheiniog · 22 Mar 2006 at 07:15

Hi,

I have a xflow powered Sylva/Fisher Fury which is fantastic

.

There are loads of cars around for under 6k at the moment. I paid ~4.5k for the Fury, and I have seen zetec engined examples go for similar money.

The main thing to check is that the car is correctly registered. If the V5 still says Escort/Cortina etc then walk away.

Jonathan

Dr Who · 22 Mar 2006 at 07:53

Brycheiniog said:
The main thing to check is that the car is correctly registered. If the V5 still says Escort/Cortina etc then walk away.

Jonathan

Unless its cheap enough and you are prepared to put it through an SVA yourself.

gobbo · 22 Mar 2006 at 08:42

Just out of interest, do you guys use a specialist insurer for kit cars?

Dr Who · 22 Mar 2006 at 08:53

Usually Adrian Flux or Footman James

kaiowas · 22 Mar 2006 at 08:59

James_N said:
Debating whether i should get one as purely a summer car. They are very quick, pretty cheap on insurance, and fun to drive

a good bargain buy for the summer?

When you say 'a summer car' do you mean a car for this summer and then sell it or do you plan to store it through the winter? Obviously if you buy one now and then sell it at the end of the summer you'll take quite a big financial hit.

weeble · 22 Mar 2006 at 13:20

Not knowing much about kit cars at all, but can you get kitcar radicals. As they have a great chassis...

Just my 2 pence worth.

olv · 22 Mar 2006 at 13:31

weeble said:
Not knowing much about kit cars at all, but can you get kitcar radicals. As they have a great chassis...

Just my 2 pence worth.

Sort of, they have recently released a car call the Prosport, or something like that. But it's a track car only, not designed to be made road legal iirc and comes as a rolling chassis, so not really a kit as such.

The other models only come factory built and at around £30k for the cheapest i think.

I'd defiantely go for an MNR, MK, MAC#1 over a westfield or caterham for this budget. You'll get a newer car and the handling and performance is equally on par.

Check out Locostbuilders for lots of ideas, you'll soon be wanting to build your own. You could build a really nice car engined car (CEC) for your budget but you'd struggle to build a BEC for that, unless you a super patient bargain hunter man.

I'd stay away from heavy engines like the pinto and xflox, and stay away from the older ford dohc engine as it sucks.

I'd personally be looking at 2.0 Vauxhall XE, Zetec (1.8 can produce similar power to the 2.0 on throttle bodies, but is less torquey), and 1.6 Vauxhall ecotec. Well they are the 3 engines i'm considering for my mnr, when i've saved enough to build it

Brycheiniog · 22 Mar 2006 at 13:46

I strongly recommend MSM insurance. It is a fairly small company & I always seem to end up speaking to the same person when I need to contact them which is nice.

Jonathan

Enfield · 22 Mar 2006 at 14:29

I can't really contribute much but i've been in my friends dad's Tiger Super Six and that was **** hot! :cool:

I think he said it was a Ford 1.8 although I couldn't hear much of what was said because the exhaust was right next to me and the wind noise

When he booted it I couldn't actually keep my eyes open because of the wind but apparently wearing a cap stops that from happening?

We had a mini race with a Nissan 300 ZX Twin Turbo 300bhp

The car stuck like **** to a blanket around the bends and the noise was just wow, loved it though not the fastest car i've been in.

Dr Who · 22 Mar 2006 at 17:34

olv said:
Sort of, they have recently released a car call the Prosport, or something like that. But it's a track car only, not designed to be made road legal iirc and comes as a rolling chassis, so not really a kit as such.

The other models only come factory built and at around £30k for the cheapest i think.

I'd defiantely go for an MNR, MK, MAC#1 over a westfield or caterham for this budget. You'll get a newer car and the handling and performance is equally on par.

Check out Locostbuilders for lots of ideas, you'll soon be wanting to build your own. You could build a really nice car engined car (CEC) for your budget but you'd struggle to build a BEC for that, unless you a super patient bargain hunter man.

I'd stay away from heavy engines like the pinto and xflox, and stay away from the older ford dohc engine as it sucks.

I'd personally be looking at 2.0 Vauxhall XE, Zetec (1.8 can produce similar power to the 2.0 on throttle bodies, but is less torquey), and 1.6 Vauxhall ecotec. Well they are the 3 engines i'm considering for my mnr, when i've saved enough to build it

OLV stop making rec's and get your kit ordered..

olv · 22 Mar 2006 at 19:34

Dr Who said:
OLV stop making rec's and get your kit ordered..

recs?

but yeah i need to order it. might make a trip up to MNR at easter when i'm home, have a look about. If i can get a decent job over summer then i can afford to build it this summer, if not i'll have to wait until christmas

Dr Who · 22 Mar 2006 at 21:40

recommendations

James_N · 22 Mar 2006 at 22:38

Hi

Id be storing it through winter. I'd like a factory built westie. Theres a nice one on an 04 plate for 10.5k and does 0-60 in 4.1

I dont think id like one with an old sierra engine in, i dont know why, i just wouldnt. I want some reliability.

but we'll see, ive got plenty of time to deciede. Im going to get my CTR sold first.

Burned_Alive · 22 Mar 2006 at 22:43

James_N said:
Hi
Im going to get my CTR sold first.

James_N · 22 Mar 2006 at 22:47

Burned_Alive said:

Had its first service today. £95! compared to £64 at ABP Motorsport in crewe. I opted for the dealer service simply so it would have full Honda service history when i come to sell.

Mechanically, the CTR is genious, shame the rest of it is so shoddy.