£5k to spend, a few choices.....

[Pekwah1]

Hi Guys,

Well i think i've decided to enter the kit car market.
I have 5 grand to spend on a working car.

I've narrowed down my choices to the following:

MK Indy
Raw Striker
Westfield
Tiger
Mac #1

The two at the top would be my first choice on looks and reputation.
I am also 6'3" so am slightly concerned with fitting in a striker, i know they're not exactly the roomiest.

So any opinions would be great, i'm buying to primarily drive on the road but will also go on track days with it.

Regards,
Andy

[Ecosseven]

Striker with zetec engine, although you may stuggle to find one for 5K.

Good luck.

[Chris71]

Ecosseven said:

Striker with zetec engine, although you may stuggle to find one for 5K.

Good luck.

That'd be my choice too. Make sure it's a good'un though.

Could also look at the Fury and Stylus.

[Pekwah1]

will i fit in a striker?
also will the acceleration of a striker and an indy with a 2.0 pinto be comparable?

[Tim.C]

If you plan to sell-on at some time, you may be best placed with a Westfield, although if looked after, at this level depreciation shouldn't be much more than £1000 on any of these in the medium-term - providing you get a sound deal to start with obviously.

The Striker is a good car. Don't rule-out a X-flow. My old live axle Striker fitted with a 1600 on twin 40s (and built to a basic spec) would hang on to my mate's IRS Striker which was fitted with a 1800 Zetec and lots of heavy bling. The swab seats are comfy and you may well fit - it's impossible to say as some people are longer in the leg and others in the body etc. The footwell is however small. So you may struggle if you wear canoes as shoes. Avooid the Pinto if you can - heavy and not as tuneful as he X-flow. I've seen a couple of CVH Strikers which are a bit of an unknown to me, but apparently quite tuneable - think XR2.

I would view the Mac#1 and MK as essentially the same proposition. Mac#1 started by building MKs before building their own kits which are very similar. Neither car is the last word in driving dynamics. However the LA Striker also suffers with axle tramp, particularly in standard form. All are fun and you'll only ever get frustrated by the chassis' failings if you start doing trackdays with Caterhams and so on.

As for Tiger - I know Jaffa-all about them. They seem to have a number of models ranging from the dog-ugly and generally crap to the genuinely desirable.

Cheers
TC
(Former MK, MNR, Striker & Locost owner.)

[Chris71]

Pekwah1 said:

will i fit in a striker?
also will the acceleration of a striker and an indy with a 2.0 pinto be comparable?

They are one of the smaller Sevens externally, but the only way to see if you'll fit inside is to try that particular example for size. People have all sorts of different seat and pedal box arrangements, but a person of vaguely normal stature can probably be made to fit.

The Striker is said to be one of the lightest Sevens for a given spec, so performance is guaranteed to be lively. Some people tend to frown upon the Pinto though - especially for lightweight Seven-type cars - because it's quite heavy and not especially powerful in standard form. The Ford Zetec or Toyota 4AGE (or Rover K-Series if you have a bit more budget) are all well thought of. The crossflow dates back to the ark, but as long as you don't mind tinkering with carbs (and you're not planning to attend any track days with low noise limits) they're still pretty potent in tweaked form. The Fiat/Lancia twincam is another fantastic engine (also rather old-school).

Edited by Chris71 on Wednesday 17th February 13:57