172 Cup, What do I need to know?

[Yadizzle1]

I fancy selling my Panda 100HP and moving up a class to a 172 Cup. Now I've heard a tonne of horror stories from mates who have worked on one, but went out for a thrash in a mates one last night and it's left me very impressed.

Are they really that bad for electrical gremlins?
What should I be looking out for if I want to buy one?

[Dinoboy]

Use mine for Hillclimbing, fantastic to drive. Really noisy on road, I wouldn't want to drive it any distance. Main thing is to buy one that someone else has just spent money on, cam belt etc are expensive.

[anonymous-user]

Had mine for 4 years now and not had any issues with electrics - just a minor issue with a faulty sensor.

Belts and water pump need done at the same time to be on the safe side and cost quite a lot even at an indie. This cant be skimped on.

Make sure the gearbox doesn't crunch because they are costly to refurb.

The engines are strong. It should pull hard from around 4K revs. Pay attention to any clunks, knocks or bangs on test drives also but they needed be too much of a worry because suspension and bushes are cheap enough to replace.

In fact, they are generally pretty cheap pocket rockets to run and return decent mpg.

I recommend them to anyone. They are still very underrated by many.

[Zarco]

They are not known for electrical gremlins.

Gearbox went on mine.

Standard exhaust rot. Most will have after market stainless by now I expect.

Cambelt change is relatively expensive so budget for that.

Great cars but I imagine most have been thrashed to fk by now. I had an 05 182 a year ago and it felt quite tired. Like it was going to break if I gave it too much stick. For £1200 it wasn't bad though!