Suggestions Please

[cramman]

No doubt this has been asked before but I’m getting confused.
I’m seriously interested in buying 7 style car. A built one, with the intension of doing bits and pieces to it my self. Ideally a Westfield and to eventually get the FW shell for it, but I don’t know how possible this will be. Also, I’m starting to like the look of the Tigers now also.

What is a good one for around 6 grand max?
I’m 6’2”, I’m not a house end but not like a rake, probs average build.

Also, I know this is going to be impossible to answer but genneraly, a Tiger S6 style car with, say, 140 BHP; what sort of figures would that giver 0 – 60 etc.

Does any one have any info involving different BHP values to what that equates to in reality.
Any advice/info would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[Sam_68]

cramman said:

Ideally a Westfield and to eventually get the FW shell for it, but I don't know how possible this will be.

No reason why not, I don't think. It would be easier to fit the 'FW' shell to a 'virgin' chassis, rather than re-body an existing car, since you'd have to deal with all the holes drilled to fit the first body; either by welding them up and painting to avoid corrosion or by trying to line the new body fixings up on the old holes (tricky!), but it wouldn't be impossible. The 'FW' bodyshell is really just 'FW-style' - it wouldn't fit on a genuine FW400 tub - so it was designed to work with the standard Westfield SEi chassis which hasn't changed much for years.

cramman said:

Also, I'm starting to like the look of the Tigers now also.

What is a good one for around 6 grand max?

Tigers are good cars, if a wee bit on the heavy side, so either a Westfield or a Tiger would serve you well and should be available within your budget. Avoid the Tigers with bulges in the front of the rear wheel arch, however (ie. the Tiger Cat/E1 models), as they are budget versions which use the Sierra semi-trailing arm suspension complete. The Sierra suspension was obviously designed to work with a mid-sized family saloon and doesn't give the best handling when applied to a lightweight 2-seater.

cramman said:

I'm 6'2", I'm not a house end but not like a rake, probs average build.

You should have no problem fitting in an Westfield SEi, but you might need to try the Tiger for size before deciding.

cramman said:

Also, I know this is going to be impossible to answer but genneraly, a Tiger S6 style car with, say, 140 BHP; what sort of figures would that giver 0 – 60 etc. Does any one have any info involving different BHP values to what that equates to in reality.

People tend to exagerate the performance of these cars, but 140bhp should get you 0-60 in around 6.5 seconds, realistically.

Remember that they have lousy aerodynamics, though, so don't expect too much by way of top speed or top-end acceleration. Acceleration will be getting a bit blunt at much over normal motorway cruising speed and the car will be flat out at about 115mph (again, people - and speedos - tend to exagerate!).

The rawness of the experience means that even 140bhp is plenty good fun on country lanes, though!

[cramman]

Thanks for that, some really usefull info there.

I think I'm just going to have to start looking at a few soon.
The garage should be finnished in a few weeks so no excuse now.

Thanks again.

[h8wyn]

On a Type 7 car, anything over 130 bhp at the flywheel will give you a thrill ride assuming the weight is 500kg or less. I have built a MK Indy R1 with the 2006 engine. With power commander and ignition module it gives 142 bhp at the wheels! This gives serious accelleration with 0 to 60 in well under 4 secs. The car weighs 465kg. I have uploaded a dyno video yesterday, have a look it will appear on the TV bit over the next couple of days. I will be selling the car soon to fund another build - Interested?

Wyn.