Honda Elise vs Megabusa
Discussion
Ok, I know you can't really compare them, but the above are the two main contenders for my next car.
Missed my S2 Exige since I sold it, but it always felt a bit 'lardy' after a go in an S1 Elise, and promised myself something lighter/more basic next time round.
Usage will be track days and occaisonal sunny blasts. Having sold a car with mods that I paid for and never saw the money back at resale, would prefer a car with all that done already.
SELOC has a SC Honda (was cat D) with mods galore up for sale (as an example) askign approx £15k, which doesn't seem entirely unreasonable, although not sure if I need/want a SC Honda (vs NA)
This http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1074028.htm looks pretty tempting too..
I am pretty useless with a spanner so would expect bills on either route, although I suspect the 'busa being a little 'simpler' inherently would be lighter on the wallet.
I know I need to drive both really, and only I can decide for myself. Being generally indecisive doesn't help! Any thoughts/experiences of people on here who have perhaps jumped from one car to another on track days, or even better, owned both.
Missed my S2 Exige since I sold it, but it always felt a bit 'lardy' after a go in an S1 Elise, and promised myself something lighter/more basic next time round.
Usage will be track days and occaisonal sunny blasts. Having sold a car with mods that I paid for and never saw the money back at resale, would prefer a car with all that done already.
SELOC has a SC Honda (was cat D) with mods galore up for sale (as an example) askign approx £15k, which doesn't seem entirely unreasonable, although not sure if I need/want a SC Honda (vs NA)
This http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1074028.htm looks pretty tempting too..
I am pretty useless with a spanner so would expect bills on either route, although I suspect the 'busa being a little 'simpler' inherently would be lighter on the wallet.
I know I need to drive both really, and only I can decide for myself. Being generally indecisive doesn't help! Any thoughts/experiences of people on here who have perhaps jumped from one car to another on track days, or even better, owned both.
I don't know what your split is in terms of track/road mileage but that 'Busa looks the canine's conkers. Its something of a bargain as well when you look at the money that gone into. I can tell you from experience that building a car to that sort of spec is not cheap!
I think if it were me, I'd take the Busa. Always think of Elises as more of a roadcar that can be tracked, where as something like a MegaBusa is a trackcar that will be fun for occassional road use.
I think if it were me, I'd take the Busa. Always think of Elises as more of a roadcar that can be tracked, where as something like a MegaBusa is a trackcar that will be fun for occassional road use.
Gad-Westy said:
I don't know what your split is in terms of track/road mileage but that 'Busa looks the canine's conkers. Its something of a bargain as well when you look at the money that gone into. I can tell you from experience that building a car to that sort of spec is not cheap!
I think if it were me, I'd take the Busa. Always think of Elises as more of a roadcar that can be tracked, where as something like a MegaBusa is a trackcar that will be fun for occassional road use.
Hmmm, good input. I think I'm just about leaning that way at the moment...I think if it were me, I'd take the Busa. Always think of Elises as more of a roadcar that can be tracked, where as something like a MegaBusa is a trackcar that will be fun for occassional road use.
As said above, it massively depends what you are going to use it for. I drove my honda elise (currently for sale in PH classifieds) to a few thousand miles Marbella and back from Glasgow, and have done a couple of trackdays in it where it was amazing fun and performed superb. You couldnt do that in a megabusa.
jke11y said:
As said above, it massively depends what you are going to use it for. I drove my honda elise (currently for sale in PH classifieds) to a few thousand miles Marbella and back from Glasgow, and have done a couple of trackdays in it where it was amazing fun and performed superb. You couldnt do that in a megabusa.
Looks very nice.... Sadly budget doesn't stretch at the moment. TBH, I don't think I'd be exactly disappointed with either. The fact that the Elise is so much easier just to jump into and have a quick blast (or even a longer jaunt) def goes in its favour. Also, I suspect I'd need a trailer with the busa, so that needs to be factored in too....
also bear in mind that a Honda Elise is generally very reliable and can do dozens of trackdays, 20-30K road miles a year, just with regular maintenance
a bike engined car is likely to need a rebuild once a year if you use it as intended
of course, this a moot point for 3K road miles at a weekend, Busa engines are cheap so its no big deal if you are handy with the spanners
Ive driven a couple and they are great cars, great fun, just remember the engine was designed for something with 1/2 the weight though.....
a bike engined car is likely to need a rebuild once a year if you use it as intended
of course, this a moot point for 3K road miles at a weekend, Busa engines are cheap so its no big deal if you are handy with the spanners
Ive driven a couple and they are great cars, great fun, just remember the engine was designed for something with 1/2 the weight though.....
megabusa is one of those trackday weapons that you never see at trackdays
why ? well because firstly they're not that quick and secondly, not very reliable either.
either get a proper Caterham SLR/R300/R400 of go for the honda elise every time IMO. If you really have to have a westfield then get a zetec or duratec car.
why ? well because firstly they're not that quick and secondly, not very reliable either.
either get a proper Caterham SLR/R300/R400 of go for the honda elise every time IMO. If you really have to have a westfield then get a zetec or duratec car.
mrh3113 said:
bogie said:
Ive driven a couple and they are great cars, great fun, just remember the engine was designed for something with 1/2 the weight though.....
I assume you mean thats an issue in terms of wear on the engine as opposed to feeling slow 
jackal said:
megabusa is one of those trackday weapons that you never see at trackdays
why ? well because firstly they're not that quick and secondly, not very reliable either.
either get a proper Caterham SLR/R300/R400 of go for the honda elise every time IMO. If you really have to have a westfield then get a zetec or duratec car.
Just seen a 200bhp durex Westfield advertised so might have a look at this too; about the same price as a 'busa - thought it might attract a premium... why ? well because firstly they're not that quick and secondly, not very reliable either.
either get a proper Caterham SLR/R300/R400 of go for the honda elise every time IMO. If you really have to have a westfield then get a zetec or duratec car.
Out of interest, the Honda I saw was cat D; doesn't really bother me but is it likely to have the usual cat D issues at resale, or less so with it being such a specialised niche anyway...?
mrh3113 said:
bogie said:
Ive driven a couple and they are great cars, great fun, just remember the engine was designed for something with 1/2 the weight though.....
I assume you mean thats an issue in terms of wear on the engine as opposed to feeling slow the 2 guys I know who have owned them, didnt keep them for more than a year or so, due to longetivity/reliablity issues e.g. you wear them out quick
Depends on why it's cat-D and what documentation there is. It will always be worth less than a non-cat-D car because there will always be non-cat-D cars out there which people will prefer.
If it's stolen and recovered and there is evidence that this is why it was written off, it shouldn't hurt you much. If it was accident damaged and repaired, I'd want to see photos of the rebuild and data from chassis alignment checks, etc. Even with all these things, it'll probably be worth a a bit less than it otherwise would be.
If it's stolen and recovered and there is evidence that this is why it was written off, it shouldn't hurt you much. If it was accident damaged and repaired, I'd want to see photos of the rebuild and data from chassis alignment checks, etc. Even with all these things, it'll probably be worth a a bit less than it otherwise would be.
mrh3113 said:
I assume you mean thats an issue in terms of wear on the engine as opposed to feeling slow
Do a search on the Kit Cars forum... we have a bicker about this subject once every couple of months on average. For example here is the last time. It's been discussed to death, to be honest, but it's always fun winding the fanatics up a bit. They're not slow, but they are fragile and as Bogie says, you've got to work them hard to extract the performance. Personally, regardless of the reliability issues, the constant high revs get on my tits for anything more than 15 minute track sessions, but there are those who swear by them.
mrh3113 said:
Yeah, just a had a look over there. Quite amusing threads. Reminds of the K series vs Yota threads on here 
Might be leaning away from them having done some more research, the Bogie statistic about keeping them for less than a year is telling....
why do you think that the best, most reliable, top performing, respected, weekend toy track cars have mass production CAR engines in them ? ...like the old Rover K and now the Duratec Might be leaning away from them having done some more research, the Bogie statistic about keeping them for less than a year is telling....
ask a Radical owner what the time between rebuilds is on a highly strung bike engine in a sportscar - 30 hours track time if you are lucky - that could be 6 trackdays for you
so as long as you only want it as a weekend car, and rebuild costs are built into running costs (no need for yearly servicing though as rebuilds will likely be more often LOL) then sure, they are great, inexpensive way of getting the thrills
otherwise just get a fast Elise, at least you can actually use them daily, go to work in them, on holiday, thrash it round a track at a weekend, and it still lasts for years (generally)
bogie said:
mrh3113 said:
Yeah, just a had a look over there. Quite amusing threads. Reminds of the K series vs Yota threads on here
Might be leaning away from them having done some more research, the Bogie statistic about keeping them for less than a year is telling....
ask a Radical owner what the time between rebuilds is on a highly strung bike engine in a sportscar - 30 hours track time if you are lucky - that could be 6 trackdays for youMight be leaning away from them having done some more research, the Bogie statistic about keeping them for less than a year is telling....
jackal said:
...bear in mind busa in a radical is a transverse install and longtitudinal in a westfield...
It's now pretty much universally accepted that the Busa engine needs to be dry sumped when used in a longitudinal installation and, to be fair, most Busa-engined BEC's are suitably equipped.You certainly don't even want to think about buying a wet sumped one, though.
Edited by Sam_68 on Wednesday 15th July 20:58
Well, after much umming and ahhing this way and that, I eventually decided I was going to buy a turbocharged MX5 (for reasons of cash reserves and romance-we used to have a basic one years ago). Although I knew in my heart of hearts I really did want a Honda Elise..... I was just trying to ignore the little voice.
Anyway, today was decision day re MX5s. And what should arrive in my inbox last night but an email from Andrew saying his Honda Elise was now up for sale - and it looked superb. I took it as fate and thought f*ck it - you only live once. I'm picking it up on friday and I am, shall we say, a little excited!!!
Sorry. Just had to get it off my chest!!
Anyway, today was decision day re MX5s. And what should arrive in my inbox last night but an email from Andrew saying his Honda Elise was now up for sale - and it looked superb. I took it as fate and thought f*ck it - you only live once. I'm picking it up on friday and I am, shall we say, a little excited!!!
Sorry. Just had to get it off my chest!!
Edited by mrh3113 on Tuesday 28th July 18:47
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