CONSIDERING A 7 TYPE CAR, QUESTIONS
Discussion
Its got to the time where i have sold my golf to my sister as i have no real need for a day to day car.. i now have about 4-5 grand.. hence... 
i want to buy a 7 type kit car, i would be using it maybe every few weekends, all year round (rain or shine) . prob 1500 miles a year MAX, this will me mostly alone A-B twistys around my lovely somerset but also once or twice a year the 150 mile trek to london. will be stored in my garage. the only experience with a real wheel drive car is the 2 dozen times ive drived my mums z4 3.0.
a) how much for a ok ish one that wont fall apart? tiger, locust, robin hood..
b) will i kill myself in the wet? or are they ok to drive all year?
c) whats insurance like?, im 23, 4 years no claims. no points or accidents.
d) what goes wrong? what do i look out for when buying?
e) is it possible to drive 150 moterway miles in one or will it shake you to bits?
f) what is the wet weather gear like?
g) is this a good idea?
Cheers
Chris
i want to buy a 7 type kit car, i would be using it maybe every few weekends, all year round (rain or shine) . prob 1500 miles a year MAX, this will me mostly alone A-B twistys around my lovely somerset but also once or twice a year the 150 mile trek to london. will be stored in my garage. the only experience with a real wheel drive car is the 2 dozen times ive drived my mums z4 3.0.
a) how much for a ok ish one that wont fall apart? tiger, locust, robin hood..
b) will i kill myself in the wet? or are they ok to drive all year?
c) whats insurance like?, im 23, 4 years no claims. no points or accidents.
d) what goes wrong? what do i look out for when buying?
e) is it possible to drive 150 moterway miles in one or will it shake you to bits?
f) what is the wet weather gear like?
g) is this a good idea?
Cheers
Chris
koolchris99 said:
Its got to the time where i have sold my golf to my sister as i have no real need for a day to day car.. i now have about 4-5 grand.. hence...
i want to buy a 7 type kit car, i would be using it maybe every few weekends, all year round (rain or shine) . prob 1500 miles a year MAX, this will me mostly alone A-B twistys around my lovely somerset but also once or twice a year the 150 mile trek to london. will be stored in my garage. the only experience with a real wheel drive car is the 2 dozen times ive drived my mums z4 3.0.
a) how much for a ok ish one that wont fall apart? tiger, locust, robin hood..
b) will i kill myself in the wet? or are they ok to drive all year?
c) whats insurance like?, im 23, 4 years no claims. no points or accidents.
d) what goes wrong? what do i look out for when buying?
e) is it possible to drive 150 moterway miles in one or will it shake you to bits?
f) what is the wet weather gear like?
g) is this a good idea?
Cheers
Chris
a)you should quite easily be able to get a nice seven for your 4-5k budgeti want to buy a 7 type kit car, i would be using it maybe every few weekends, all year round (rain or shine) . prob 1500 miles a year MAX, this will me mostly alone A-B twistys around my lovely somerset but also once or twice a year the 150 mile trek to london. will be stored in my garage. the only experience with a real wheel drive car is the 2 dozen times ive drived my mums z4 3.0.
a) how much for a ok ish one that wont fall apart? tiger, locust, robin hood..
b) will i kill myself in the wet? or are they ok to drive all year?
c) whats insurance like?, im 23, 4 years no claims. no points or accidents.
d) what goes wrong? what do i look out for when buying?
e) is it possible to drive 150 moterway miles in one or will it shake you to bits?
f) what is the wet weather gear like?
g) is this a good idea?
Cheers
Chris
b)you might kill yourself in the wet, but that just makes it more fun! just take it easy if it does turn wet.
c)insurance is very reasonable-if you get it on a limited mileage policy you'l only be looking at a few hundred a year. I have a tiger cat E1 with 2l pinto, doing 3k miles a year, I was about 23 when I got mine and it was £400 ish, Im now 26 and paying £200!
d) not much goes wrong, as there isnt much to go wrong! you must remember that most are built at home by budding DIYers and amateur mechanics so quality varies greatly so make sure you have a good look round and speak to the builder to check its not bodged together!
e) I drove mine from preston (lancs) to lemans and coped! no aches or pain after
f)I dont have wet weather gear so couldnt tell you
g)yes
Edited by bumrar on Thursday 6th August 17:41
i've gota tiger Cat briefly owned a 'r/hood'. hoods - i think you'd need to learn the diff suspension setups as the one i had was weird, am sure that not all have the same front set up.
Tiger. love mine. bought 2nd hand. what have i learned ( bearing in mind im no mechanic and cvant do anything apart from simple jobs....
1/ ideally buy one with decent build history that is documented, better if buy from orginal builder as he'll be able to answer whatever questions you have.
2/ claims about power/engine uprated/infact uprated anything - make sure its backed up by receipts or rolling road figures. some sellers may genuinely believe what they tell you - cos thats what they were told!
3/ weather gear - forget it. hood had full gear , drove it once in teh rain, made driving position awful as had to hunch down to see under the top of screen - and i'm not tall. i have aero screen, wind in the haor/face is way to go, and less buffeting that with a full windscreen.
4/ buy one with as many clealry documented/visible extras as poss, buying bits afterwards adds up ie/ a decent set seats is £250-300, decent f/brakes another £400 - so tyake this into account when you buy it.
5/ if you arent mechanical bear in mind that sometimes what shd be a simple job for a garage may take 2x as long as they cant trace simple wiring, or have to fettle something to fit. ( just had a nasty bill cos some idiot bodged the ecu wiring, meant time to investigate voltage loss and then time to run cple new feeds.
6;/ will it kill u in the wet - depending ion what you buy they have the ability to do that in any weather. learn to drive smoothly. carefully and it'll be fine, drove mine 29th dec at -5 roads were icey, was fine, as i was careful.
7/ insurance no idea what you;'d pay.
8/ if you buy one, get a nut + bolt check afterwards by someone that knows what they are doing. would you want to be be hammering a motor that someone else screwed together without checking.
9/ do it, brilliant fun, leads to new circle of car buddies, and other things like track days, local shows etc. crack on.......
Tiger. love mine. bought 2nd hand. what have i learned ( bearing in mind im no mechanic and cvant do anything apart from simple jobs....
1/ ideally buy one with decent build history that is documented, better if buy from orginal builder as he'll be able to answer whatever questions you have.
2/ claims about power/engine uprated/infact uprated anything - make sure its backed up by receipts or rolling road figures. some sellers may genuinely believe what they tell you - cos thats what they were told!
3/ weather gear - forget it. hood had full gear , drove it once in teh rain, made driving position awful as had to hunch down to see under the top of screen - and i'm not tall. i have aero screen, wind in the haor/face is way to go, and less buffeting that with a full windscreen.
4/ buy one with as many clealry documented/visible extras as poss, buying bits afterwards adds up ie/ a decent set seats is £250-300, decent f/brakes another £400 - so tyake this into account when you buy it.
5/ if you arent mechanical bear in mind that sometimes what shd be a simple job for a garage may take 2x as long as they cant trace simple wiring, or have to fettle something to fit. ( just had a nasty bill cos some idiot bodged the ecu wiring, meant time to investigate voltage loss and then time to run cple new feeds.
6;/ will it kill u in the wet - depending ion what you buy they have the ability to do that in any weather. learn to drive smoothly. carefully and it'll be fine, drove mine 29th dec at -5 roads were icey, was fine, as i was careful.
7/ insurance no idea what you;'d pay.
8/ if you buy one, get a nut + bolt check afterwards by someone that knows what they are doing. would you want to be be hammering a motor that someone else screwed together without checking.
9/ do it, brilliant fun, leads to new circle of car buddies, and other things like track days, local shows etc. crack on.......
This is interesting for me too, I'm planning on selling my G40 to get into this kind of motoring and looking at the classifieds it seems that Westfields are the way to go...Am I missing something cheaper/better? What sort of performance should I be expecting from a boggo 1600 crossflow Westfield type kit car?
A 1600 Westfield should give you 0-60 in around 6 seconds, top speed around 120mph (maybe).
Just remember that sevens are noisy, harsh, draughty, can be uncomfortable, and can be treacherous in slippy conditions - all of which makes them heaps of fun to drive! Really, they're at their best on twisty country A-roads, as motorways are just hard work after a while. It can be a bit unnerving to be looking up at lorry wheel-nuts all the time...
Like all things in this world, you get what you pay for - Robin Hoods are the cheapest, but they use whole Sierra suspension parts, which aren't light. They also take a lot of work to make a good finished car. At the other extreme are Caterhams, which cost a lot, but are probably at the peak for this type of car. Westfields are much nearer to Caterhams than Robin Hoods!
There are loads of good makes in the middle of the range, such as Mac#1, MNR, and so on. It's worth going to a good kit car show to see what takes your fancy.
Just remember that sevens are noisy, harsh, draughty, can be uncomfortable, and can be treacherous in slippy conditions - all of which makes them heaps of fun to drive! Really, they're at their best on twisty country A-roads, as motorways are just hard work after a while. It can be a bit unnerving to be looking up at lorry wheel-nuts all the time...
Like all things in this world, you get what you pay for - Robin Hoods are the cheapest, but they use whole Sierra suspension parts, which aren't light. They also take a lot of work to make a good finished car. At the other extreme are Caterhams, which cost a lot, but are probably at the peak for this type of car. Westfields are much nearer to Caterhams than Robin Hoods!
There are loads of good makes in the middle of the range, such as Mac#1, MNR, and so on. It's worth going to a good kit car show to see what takes your fancy.
Edited by Jerkins on Friday 21st August 08:56
Edited by Jerkins on Friday 21st August 08:56
Deffonatly try and get to a kitcar show.
- Have a look at them, talk to the owners, crawl under peoples car even (with permission) and generally ask ask ask and take in all you can.
At the end of my placment year last year in the middle of uni i has scraped together about £4-5k as you had and also wanted a seven.
I went to a few MK indy trackdays at Bruntingthorpe as well as stoneleigh and newark kitcar show (stafford sho is also coming up) and started looking at cars on PH classified and autotrader.
I looked at a few MKs that came within budget and there was quite a few, mainly with pintos in them, that we very nice. Also saw a few with early zetec in them, but these where mainly scuffy looking. Most of the bike engined ones where out of my range, and by now i had decided to go car engined. I also look at a tiger avon, and a pinto'ed westfeild, before stummbling across the car i finally bought through a thread right here in pistonheads kitcar section.
When to veiw it with a freind, looked over it, went for a passenger ride, talked to the owner, looked at the documentation and liked it. Went home and slept on it. Went back the next day and bought it and drove it home. So far im very happy indeed.
Since ive had the car i've done a few bits and spent a bit on it, but nothing stupid, and while ive found odd bits i haddnt seen before i bought it im generally very happy indeed.
- Seats i replaced, from the stock flat padded ones, to more confortable and weatherproof grp bucket seats (£170 for the pair off ebay from fredcarbon)
- I had to get a new set of tyres, which i did from someone on the WSCC forums who sold me four part worns for £10 each. Plus £25 to have the put on the wheels locally. (also another £30 for set of capri alloy wheels that i actually put them on, so have a trackday set using the old now non-road-legal Yoko A48's)
- Ive also presurewashed off much of the chassis paint and the underseal that was ontop of that prior to repainting. As the chassis paint while not awfull, was showing it age (17yo) and i want to be able to use the car on salted roads without to much worry.
- It also needed a new pair of rear dampers which i haddnt really spotted before i bought it, which was an unforseen £200 for a pair of Protechs from Procomp. Although i could have saved by using secondhands here if i wasnt planning to track it a fair bit. And £40 for replacment rubber bushes all round for the rear while i was at it.
- But i think thats all about it. Little bits like oil changes and the like but thats about. And also for £900 i bought a shabby but functional covered trailer for it, in which it can live both while at uni and at home (and when i move out proberbly too) as well as being usefull for trackdays.
But yeah. £3750 for a very well perfoming, relativly light (520kg), cvh engined engined westfield SE (narrowbody, live rear). Which assumming i dont stuff it, will set for that all day long, should i ever need the money back again. Insurence through sureterm is around £500 full comp for 3k limited miles stored on a drive (in the trailer).
Daniel
- Have a look at them, talk to the owners, crawl under peoples car even (with permission) and generally ask ask ask and take in all you can.
At the end of my placment year last year in the middle of uni i has scraped together about £4-5k as you had and also wanted a seven.
I went to a few MK indy trackdays at Bruntingthorpe as well as stoneleigh and newark kitcar show (stafford sho is also coming up) and started looking at cars on PH classified and autotrader.
I looked at a few MKs that came within budget and there was quite a few, mainly with pintos in them, that we very nice. Also saw a few with early zetec in them, but these where mainly scuffy looking. Most of the bike engined ones where out of my range, and by now i had decided to go car engined. I also look at a tiger avon, and a pinto'ed westfeild, before stummbling across the car i finally bought through a thread right here in pistonheads kitcar section.
When to veiw it with a freind, looked over it, went for a passenger ride, talked to the owner, looked at the documentation and liked it. Went home and slept on it. Went back the next day and bought it and drove it home. So far im very happy indeed.
Since ive had the car i've done a few bits and spent a bit on it, but nothing stupid, and while ive found odd bits i haddnt seen before i bought it im generally very happy indeed.
- Seats i replaced, from the stock flat padded ones, to more confortable and weatherproof grp bucket seats (£170 for the pair off ebay from fredcarbon)
- I had to get a new set of tyres, which i did from someone on the WSCC forums who sold me four part worns for £10 each. Plus £25 to have the put on the wheels locally. (also another £30 for set of capri alloy wheels that i actually put them on, so have a trackday set using the old now non-road-legal Yoko A48's)
- Ive also presurewashed off much of the chassis paint and the underseal that was ontop of that prior to repainting. As the chassis paint while not awfull, was showing it age (17yo) and i want to be able to use the car on salted roads without to much worry.
- It also needed a new pair of rear dampers which i haddnt really spotted before i bought it, which was an unforseen £200 for a pair of Protechs from Procomp. Although i could have saved by using secondhands here if i wasnt planning to track it a fair bit. And £40 for replacment rubber bushes all round for the rear while i was at it.
- But i think thats all about it. Little bits like oil changes and the like but thats about. And also for £900 i bought a shabby but functional covered trailer for it, in which it can live both while at uni and at home (and when i move out proberbly too) as well as being usefull for trackdays.
But yeah. £3750 for a very well perfoming, relativly light (520kg), cvh engined engined westfield SE (narrowbody, live rear). Which assumming i dont stuff it, will set for that all day long, should i ever need the money back again. Insurence through sureterm is around £500 full comp for 3k limited miles stored on a drive (in the trailer).
Daniel
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