formula ford advice please

formula ford advice please

Author
Discussion

hawke

Original Poster:

1 posts

191 months

Sunday 7th December 2008
quotequote all
Hi all, I'm hoping that I can get some information from your goodselves regarding which way to go purchasing and running a formula ford for the 2009 season.
We've heard so many conflicting stories about kents, duratecs and zetecs i.e running costs, cost of parts and so on, that we are uncertain which way to go.
Our budget is around £5000-6000 for a complete and ready to go car, but a bit of a project would be considered. We are looking to do a full semsec season at lydden and brands, but also want the option to look at other club racing i.e 750 monoposto and other racing.
We've heard that the ff1600 kent engines are now getting expensive to rebuild and obtain parts for, and that the duratecs and the zetecs are becoming more popular and is the way to go. Is this correct?
Also, we're led to believe that the duratec unit will only sit in a newer chassis from about 2000 onwards so would put us out of our budget. Again, is this correct?
The zetec seems to be the more viable option from what we've heard, but we wanted to see if anyone has any advice or indeed experience of the above and can point us in the right direction.
Looking to purchase asap, any info greatly appreciated

Thanks all.


lewis1

311 posts

195 months

Sunday 7th December 2008
quotequote all
for the budget you have i would say a zetec.
they arent as popular as kent and this means they are cheaper to buy and the engines are alot less effort to keep running.
there is a few other championships but you wont get a good kent car for the cash and you definatly wont find a duratech for that cash./
i would go for a van diemen around 98 if you can find one!

andy97

4,741 posts

229 months

Monday 8th December 2008
quotequote all
I also don't think that Duratec are eligible yet for F4 or Monoposto. Will almost certainly be outside the budget, too.

Go with a Zetec car - the engines are bullet proof and plenty of people in Monoposto 1800 find that they don't need to touch the engines (apart from routine oil changes etc) from one year to the next!

Plenty of places to race them, plenty of parts, second hand tyres are easily available from the national F Ford teams - all very affordable.