To Build or to Buy?

[AshRS250]

Looking for some price guidance or build costs from people that have gone this route.

I've been looking at the various different Kit Manufactures websites but cant quite work out what the kits exclude / include for the kit price? From what i can make out the kits include everything i need apart from the engine and gearbox?? (but then i read it again and then not too sure) maybe a few phone calls this week are in order to determine a starting bases

i'm looking at either the MK Indy, Mac #1 or MNR Vortx. BEC!!

So my first initial guess at a budget is £6k to £8k for the kit + £1k to £1.5k for the engine/gearbox.

Am i on the right tracks or completely out?

Any other things i should be aware of?

Thanks

[Steffan]

I have been building and enjoying Kit Cars for 40 years currently own eleven Kit Cars.

It will definitely be cheaper to buy a car than build one in the current market.

If you shop around you would get a Westfield with Duratec for less than your budget. Or a number of other decent completed Kit Cars.

Be very careful with checking the registration of the car.

Many Kit cars are not registered properly and still have the Sierra details in the V5 or whatever. Avoid those totally.

I personally like building Kit Cars which is why I am building and restoring five currently. With a number waiting to get started.

You could buy Kit Cars for much less than your budget. Duttons and Robin Hood, even properly registered are fetching very little, I saw a pretty decent 4.2 Dutton recently sell for £2,200 and this was a very quick car.

However big engines in Kit Cars do not Good Handling make.

High powered engines make light cars snap into oversteer very easily. OK on a circuit: on the road an acquired taste. Especially with a live rear axle!!

Good Luck to you there are bargains abounding currently.

Whatever you do take a real Kit Car man with you to check any prospective cars. The slightest damage to the lightweight chassis can ruin the cars so easily.

Saw a Westfield yesterday with a wheelbase that was 3 inches (shows my age) shorter on the nearside than the offside. Obviously something was seriously amiss in geometry terms. I would also check the welding on any chassis very thoroughly. Far too many tack welds never get strengthened in the build.

Above, all enjoy yourself. its FUN!! I am sure you will.

[AshRS250]

I thought it would be cheaper to buy then build but I was thinking that it may only be a £1k -£2k difference. Or is this a larger gap? Which would make sense to buy then tweak to suit.

But I quite like the Idea of building my own car from a comprehensive kit and I now also have the space to do so.

[lewistrott]

I was in the same position as you a few summers ago I decided to buy a MK Indy that needed a bit of work,with the price & hassle of the iva it was a no brainier for me,I have since changed the smoky old pinto to a 2.0l zetec fitted a full rollcage & changed a lot of coponents,that's the good thing about kitcars you can change just about anything,I have taken just about everything off the car and done a lot of things different so in a way I have built the car,just saved ££££ doing it to a car on the road,like already said just make sure the car is correctly registered or it's a whole world of pain.

[Steffan]

AshRS250 said:

I thought it would be cheaper to buy then build but I was thinking that it may only be a £1k -£2k difference. Or is this a larger gap? Which would make sense to buy then tweak to suit.

But I quite like the Idea of building my own car from a comprehensive kit and I now also have the space to do so.

As lewistrot says it is easier to buy one completed first time around.

I do not want to put you off building a Kit car for yourself.

I have built literally dozens over 40 years. It is brilliant fun and I thoroughly recommend it. The only thing which is more fun is bringing up small children in a family IMO. That aside Kit cars have given me my greatest pleasures.

The sense of achievement is fantastic. The opportunity to stamp the project with your own unique style is brilliant. Driving a car you have built is wonderful fun.

But IVA and the bureaucracy of Kit cars now is a very costly requirement.

You could try building a Kit car that genuinely does not require IVA.

The MEV X5 range does just that. There is no requirement for IVA because the underlying MX5 chassis is retained unchanged. There are three distinct Body styles the Coupe, the Spyder, the Superlight and the Coupe.

Stuart Mills the man behind MEV is a real enthusiast and very helpful. You could build one of these cars complete for significantly less than £6500 all in and there is no need for IVA. That is a really excellent build cost and I thoroughly recommend the NEV range. Mills Experimental Vehicles can be found at www.mevltd.co.uk 01623 655522 [e-mail].

Nothing else on the UK market at this price that I know of. I should state that I do not work for MEV. I am a retired Chartered Accountant. Good Luck.

[AshRS250]

Just had a quote back from one of the suppliers . . . . A full comprehensive Kit for £16.5k!!!!

The buy and tweak route might have to be the way forward especially as there seems to be a £6k + saving to be had. That's alot of tweaking.

[smash]

Steffan said:

Said good stuff about MEV

Um, doesn't the superlight use a "bespoke...tubular chassis" therefore requiring IVA?

OP - forget the squished Elise and stick with your L7 style plan - they are hilarious fun - a proper tonic when used for the weekend blast and should be available on the NHS. I paid £4k for my Rover V8 Robin Hood (poor relation) 2 weeks ago - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... (near the bottom)
with the Toyo proxes it's very planted - maybe a yank small block Dax could seriously catch you out but don't believe the hype above when theres a mild Rover lump under the bonnet. That's not to say it's not quick...(not BEC standards tho - although I don't have chain/clutch issues to worry about). I've no BEC experience - the only thing I remember reading relatively often about drivability is difficulty getting them off the line around town without bogging or scalding the cat

Edited by smash on Monday 26th March 15:36

[mikeveal]

smash said:

ve no BEC experience - the only thing I remember reading relatively often about drivability is difficulty getting them off the line around town without bogging or scalding the cat

Getting a BEC off the line quickly is not something a sane driver would attempt around town.

Yes, if you want a full launch in 1st gear it can be difficult, you bog or wheelspin, but that's not because you have a BEC, its power to weight ratio.

If it's the traffic light grand prix you're interested in, it doesn't really matter, just get the car rolling and gradually apply throttle, most BECs have enough grunt to out accelerate all but the automotive exotica.

Driving round town is fine. Performance below 7krpm in my car is comparable to a standard elise, perfectly adequate. Yes, if you want to really fly, then you have to wind the revs up. If you compare performance below 7Krpm with that above, then below feels sluggish but that doesn't mean its undriveable.

My car has a 2002 R1 lump and weighs 350Kg.

[ch427]

buy and tweak would the best route,there are some real bargains out there.
think of a budget and double it for self build!

[rovermorris999]

Built is a lot cheaper usually but build quality is everything. Last year I bought a Sylva Riot SE fitted with a Puma engine, about 5 years old but with only 6k miles. I was a bit worried about buying a kitcar as I've never owned one before but after doing a bit of research I found that Jeremy Philips, the designer of the car, lived nearby. Great chap that he is, he welcomed me to his home and showed me a couple of cars and luckily knew the car I was on about and also who built it. He was able to reassure me that the car was built to high standards and when I finally saw the car it was indeed superb. So I bought it. And the point of this meandering story is that I paid about half what it cost to build and it still looked as good as new.
It depends what you want. It will be more satisfying building a car to your own spec (at least it will be if you do it right!) but it will certainly cost more. The basics look cheap enough but it's all the little bits that push the price up. 20% VAT on anything new you buy as well which is cash straight down the drain.