Which Kit car?

[Bonus]

Hi,

Right, I'm going to have a spare Engine soon, and wanted to do something with it, so I thinking about building a kit car to put it in!

It will be a 1.4 16v Corsa SRi engine. Are there any kits out there that the engine would fit in? What sort of price are we talking? Any pictures would be a great help, im very new to the Kit car world!

Many thanks

Chris.

[liszt]

Hmm not sure on exact models.

The normal answer given is it is better to choose the model before the engine. Sell what ever it is you have then use that to finance the project.

Do you prefer a Lotus 7 style motor, Cobra, Elise sytle coupe or a GT car/Ultima?

Common engines used are Ford (pinto[sierra], Zetec[mondeo], Duratec[mondeo], Cosworth, Cross flow(also Known as xFlow) plus others), Rover (v8, k series) Chevy V8, Ford V8's and some Vauxhall DOHC (not sure what)

Power starts at around 100 bhp rising to 500+ so kit choice varies.

A bigger factor is what budget do you have? It is invariably never enoough but that is part of the fun.

Locost type (lotus 7 style) start at about 3-5 grand (at a pinch) The range of styles broadens out between 7 and 12 thousand and serious kit can cost between 15 and 60 grand(yes really!)

What will you use it for? Sunday blaster or track days or weekend tourer or everyday motor?

Welcome to the forum. Don't be put off by lack of knowledge. We all started with silly questions so don't be afraid to ask. The more you ask the more likely you are to succeed.

[spartan_andy]

I have to agree with liszt budget is probably the biggest factor when deciding what kit to do, but the other thing is do you want to build it all yourself or not. There are loads of part built projects going for a song comparatively because the owner ran out of time, money, dedication, or circumstances changed. Buying one of these and fitting a different engine i.e. yours, may be an option.

Welcome to the forum I myself am relatively new but I feel I know quite a lot of these guys. The majority of them are very friendly and will gladly give any assistance they can. Also if you don't ask questions how do you find out.

[Bonus]

Thanks for the replys!

I know normally you choose your kit car before the donor! Reason I’ve got it this was round is that I’ve got the engine in the corsa at the moment, but will be changing it for a bigger engine. The 1.4 16v engine will then be spare. Instead of selling or scrapping it, I wondered if there would be a kit car I could build fairly cheap just to have a bit of fun in really. Probably more of a Sunday blaster to start with, though maybe a track day car later. The Engine standard is around the 100bhp mark, and there’s plenty I can do to give it a few more ponies.

Im really looking for something light and therefore quick with that motor in. I thinking along the Super 7/westfield style of kit.

My budget would probably be around the 2k mark, so not mega money. I’d like something I could build at home, as I think this would be half the fun!

Thanks again for your help so far!

[liszt]

Hmm. Tough one. That is a *tight* budget. Are you up for a bit of welding? Recommend selling the engine for a couple of hundred quid. Buy a sierra which will supply your engine, gearbox, steering, front hubs and carriers, prop shaft, diff, halfshafts, rear hubs, all of your brakes and electrics.

Then need to sort out a locost chassis, which you can build yourself. Refurbish your parts such as brakes then buy body parts and seat. Anything left use to tune your engine with.

The other alternative as mentioned would be to by a part built kit. Strip it down and rebuil it so you know it is A) put together right and B) you know how it fits together for future maintenance.

[spartan_andy]

you could try an MK indy, their deluxe starter kit is around the 2k mark, or robin hood sub k £995 but you would still need a donor sierra for the bits other than the engine. Having said that the cheapest way of aquiring the bits is to buy a knackered sierra but then you get the engine as well. You could sell that one or sell you're corsa engine to fund the kit and used the "free" engine out of the donor vehicle if you find the right one the engines are very tunable

[PeetBee]

Sounds like you're looking at the locost or robin hood subk market to get one on the road for £2k and to be honest, with those you are going to need a donor vehicle (probably a sierra) for the running gear and the donor will more than likely come with an engine of it's own.

There is also the issue of SVA, I don't know the age of your engine, but if it's after a certain age ()see sva post at top of forum) then you need to worry about a catalytic converter to pass, far better to use the olde worlde engine to pass sva and perhaps do a swap after, but the 2.0 Pinto in a sierra comes with approx 100bhp anyway (or of course you could buy a Dutton and stick it in!)

enjoy and welcome!

edited to say, curses I typed too slow, Andy beat me to it!

>> Edited by PeetBee on Friday 28th November 14:30