Caterham- esque Kit cars.

[Fire99]

Afternoon all,

I've been taking a bit of interest into cheap trackday cars and for ultimate performance per £.

Genuine Caterhams seem to fetch quite a premuim but what are the likes of Tigers etc as Trackday cars? Are there any good cars of that style out there which will perform well on the track but for a fairly modest outlay.

I have to admit I know very little about Caterhams and the assoicated family of cars.

cheers,

Nik

[GreigM]

If trackdays are your poison look for a Bike Engined Car (BEC) - Westfield Megablade/busa if you're looking to spend around £10k or something like a stuart taylor locoblade if less....for the money you'll not get a better track car....

[Fire99]

The bike engined ones do look (and sound) fantastic. Certainly an option.

[leemarkadams]

Hello there, I have a BEC MK Indy and I use it on the road and Track Days. I reckon it is about the equivalent of a Caterham R300 in performance, as a 400 will beat it and an R500 is in a different league altogether!

If the weather is good I will be at the trackday at RAF ODIHAM on Sunday if you wanted to have a look (and maybe even a lap or two as passenger oif possible???).

I would say bang for bucks there is not much out there to beat them, but they are obviously very limited in practicality!

Lee

[t11ner]

If you do get one make sure it's bolted together properly before you try using it on track (or road!!).

There's a huge variety in the quality of the kits and builds and the bottom end of the range are utterly dangerous if you should get into a collision with a barrier etc.

* edited to add *

Other than that they are huge fun and much cheaper to run than almost any other trackday car

This is my Westfield -

Edited by t11ner on Friday 19th February 18:18

[Fire99]

Guys,

Thanks for the info. Lee, many thanks. Unfortunately i'm tied up (not literally) this weekend fixing some more conventional cars for people but at some point i'd love to take a look and get a better idea.

Good points about the safety and potential build quality. I guess, since most are home built, it leaves a great deal of possibilities on how they've been put together.

On the practicality front, well i've been thinking about all this trackday malarkey and what I want a car for etc. I've got a couple of road cars which I like to keep exactly that. OK with the possibility to go round a track occasionally for a giggle but I don't want to start stripping them etc as that will make them rubbish road cars.

Personally, I thought if the car is only gonna be used on the track and the odd Sunday afternoon then it can be pretty extreme (budget allowing) which IMO will make it a much better track car.

I also love Karting and the directness of the feel from a Kart so the same kinda feel for a trackday car would suit me down to the ground.