Build your own Supercar?

Build your own Supercar?

Author
Discussion

GroundZero

Original Poster:

2,085 posts

61 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
Factory Five are an established kit car company and their latest offering does look good.
https://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/f9r-concept-...

You purchase the chassis, body and electrics and then start bolting it all together. The engine (along with a few other elements) are then bought separately by the customer and its a choice of what is able to fit in the engine bay. Choice is based up on how mental you want the car to be of course.

Factory purchase could be well under the £80,000 mark then add in the engine cost and you could have a comparatively cheap supercar.
Building it yourself you'd need the tools, time and space but I read elsewhere that they should be able to be built by the average Joe home mechanic enthusiast. So if you've built a Westfield/Caterham type kit car in the past then this may be your perfect "step-up" wink


nikaiyo2

5,032 posts

202 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
LOL

Would I drive a high performance car build by me? NO chance!

It would take 30 years for a start biggrin

Fastdruid

8,877 posts

159 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
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Ignoring that I'm already building a car...I'd personally be more tempted to go for a RCR Superlite SL-C http://race-car-replicas.com/superlite

kambites

68,437 posts

228 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
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This past November at SEMA 2019, we showed the prototype chassis with a 750 HP V12LS engine that makes 700 lb.-ft. torque and displaces 9.5L!

redface

GroundZero

Original Poster:

2,085 posts

61 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
nikaiyo2 said:
LOL

Would I drive a high performance car build by me? NO chance!

It would take 30 years for a start biggrin
I've spent plenty time helping mechanics when I used to race but I also wouldn't feel safe building something like that myself.
I'd happily give a Caterham type build a go and as long as I become happy with torquing up connections correctly and having them checked out, only then would I venture out on an airfield track day with plenty run off. wink

Building a car Supercar is a different game altogether. I guess the idea behind this company is that the home mechanic does the 'easy' stuff and then hires in a competent mechanic to do the 'tricky' stuff. This will hide an amount of cost that the build will require if not competent yourself..

But I do like the idea of kit cars. They offer a route for high performance cars at a much cheaper rate than manufacture prices. And if you've built it yourself you don't necessarily need to be reliant on paying for dealer/garage maintenance/servicing as you'd have the intimate knowledge of your own build.

Edited by GroundZero on Thursday 10th September 13:52

blue_haddock

3,866 posts

74 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
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Surely it's easier to go with a home build ultima gtr rather than an expensive kit car?

Fastdruid

8,877 posts

159 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
blue_haddock said:
Surely it's easier to go with a home build ultima gtr rather than an expensive kit car?
Er what do you think the Ultima is?

emperorburger

1,484 posts

73 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
nikaiyo2 said:
LOL

Would I drive a high performance car build by me? NO chance!

It would take 30 years for a start biggrin
If you don't trust yourself to build it, there are always some really nice examples for sale where all the hard work has already been done for you.



dom9

8,210 posts

216 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
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Quite like that but prefer my cars with the engine behind the driver.

Shades of LFA meets Corvette, meets Mc SLR? No bad thing.

Drawweight

3,103 posts

123 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
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Why not offer a subscription like https://www.model-space.com/gb/lamborghini-huracan...

A couple of hundred quid a week and your car arrives piece by piece. getmecoat

samoht

6,289 posts

153 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
GroundZero said:
Factory purchase could be well under the £80,000 mark then add in the engine cost and you could have a comparatively cheap supercar.
For £80k you could buy a C8 Corvette and have a complete, finished, thoroughly developed 500hp 6.2L mid-engined supercar.


ESD1711

390 posts

58 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
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Apologies in advance for what’s probably a pretty stupid question - but see when you buy something like this or a Caterham / Westfield / a.n.other kit car for building yourself - do these things come with an instruction manual / guide to keep you right?

Or is it assumed you need to have a level of knowledge to be able to feel your way through it yourself unguided?

I’ve always had it in my head as following a set of Lego instructions but I’m guessing it’s not that simple haha!

kambites

68,437 posts

228 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
Yes they come with instructions. On good kits you can actually follow them without modifying the pieces to make them fit, too.

nikaiyo2

5,032 posts

202 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
emperorburger said:
If you don't trust yourself to build it, there are always some really nice examples for sale where all the hard work has already been done for you.


LOL

I used work with a guy who had a Marcos kit car, that he started building in 1976, when I last worked with him in 2000/1 ish it was still WIP!

mikeveal

4,711 posts

257 months

Friday 18th September 2020
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kambites said:
Yes they come with instructions. On good kits you can actually follow them without modifying the pieces to make them fit, too.
You can? Wow! News to me.

annodomini2

6,913 posts

258 months

Thursday 24th September 2020
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The thing is, the market for kit cars is usually at the bottom end.

Most of the people spending £80k+ on a car, will definitely want it turn key.

Which sort of defeats their business model.

It doesn't make sense

samoht

6,289 posts

153 months

Thursday 24th September 2020
quotequote all
annodomini2 said:
The thing is, the market for kit cars is usually at the bottom end.

Most of the people spending £80k+ on a car, will definitely want it turn key.

Which sort of defeats their business model.

It doesn't make sense
Well, some people - some PHers - spend quite a bit of money on Lancia Stratos and Ford GT40 replica kits, or on high end Ultimas. So I don't think that it's necessarily low end, however I do agree that a kit has to offer something over and above what you could go out and buy for the same money. That could be a recreation of an evocative shape, or just an extreme level of performance that would otherwise cost many times more to achieve.

Fastdruid

8,877 posts

159 months

Thursday 24th September 2020
quotequote all
annodomini2 said:
The thing is, the market for kit cars is usually at the bottom end.

Most of the people spending £80k+ on a car, will definitely want it turn key.

Which sort of defeats their business model.

It doesn't make sense
I know people who have spent much more than that on building GT40 replicas.

While I'm not in the £80k range I've still probably spend about £40k on mine by the time its done. I could have easily "just bought a car" but it's as much in the build as it is owning the car at the end (and indeed many people build them then sell them to start another build).

Thevet

1,805 posts

240 months

Thursday 24th September 2020
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Fastdruid said:
I know people who have spent much more than that on building GT40 replicas.

While I'm not in the £80k range I've still probably spend about £40k on mine by the time its done. I could have easily "just bought a car" but it's as much in the build as it is owning the car at the end (and indeed many people build them then sell them to start another build).
This is true, the following car started 16 years ago, took 6 months to build, 5 years to drive, crash and sell, a tear to rebuild, a further 8 years to be driven, two more years of my time and money to rebuild after engine hara kiri, but it does make me smile (made the wife despair lol) Now I'm just an old vet, with spanner skills learnt from bikes, and the Ultima is pretty straightforward to build, some bits are frightening if on your own but still achievable. And as regards the driving reward...unbeliievable.