Kit cars
 

I'm starting to think that my quest for RWD + good handling + power to weight will lead me down the path of building a kit car. Does anyone here have any experience with kit cars? I'm especially interested in hearing from people that have completed cars and drive them regularly.

The Shelby Daytona Coupe and the Lotus 7 are the ones I'm most interested in (for now...).

My uncle had an old Lotus kit car. They look like the original but it ends there. If you could have all the features of the original for the price of a production chassis and fiberglass body the real thing would not cost so much. You will never get even close the real features from a kit no matter how much some owners will tell you.


If you want average people to stare at you going down the road, car guys to laugh at you going down the road and to spend loads of cash then a kit is for you.

fraid I may have to disagree with you
 

If you're talking about a kit car based on a fiero or an mr2, then granted, you are probably correct, but kit cars based on tubular chassis' can easily be made to outperform stock super cars.

Jaden

And cost just about as much as some of them. Not to mention the fun of getting tem registered for the road.

I was longboarding a few days ago and found some old dude about to take out his kit cobra. ohhhhhh my god that was a sexy car.

http://www.factoryfive.com/kits/project-818/design/

http://i.imgur.com/CQmw3YC.jpg

http://www.factoryfive.com/galleries...18/818c-coupe/

http://i.imgur.com/w2L7j9S.jpg

https://www.flyinmiata.com/exocet/

http://i.imgur.com/KFrav9E.jpg

https://www.flyinmiata.com/catfish/

http://i.imgur.com/gjCI6H5.jpg

http://www.customcoachwerks.com/550-spyder-kit/

http://i.imgur.com/vJNa4QP.jpg

http://www.hawkcars.co.uk/hf3000/index.html

http://i.imgur.com/Sd0erI9.jpg

Factory Five GTM supercar is no joke.

One word of caution in buying a kit car and I will base this on my experience at looking at the Factory Five 33 Hot Rod Kit. Before I bought my BRZ I was seriously interested in buying/building this kit. I live about an hour from Carlisle and in 2012 they were supposed to be at the All Ford Nationals. Went to the show and they didn't come. They apparently had been to the Kit Car show and decided not to come to the Ford show.

So I drove up to Mass. and went to their yearly open house. They had a ton of their kit cars there and some of them were utterly stunning. So I went and sat in 3 of the 33 Hot Rod kits. 2 automatics and one manual. Totally disappointed. The foot box is so small I could probably not have driven the car for more than an hour or two without stopping to stretch out my feet. With a manual transmission....forget it, nowhere to put your left foot. No deadman and could not slip it under the pedal. Next, my knees were halfway up to my chin. No leg room, seat only goes back so far. SO GLAD I went and test fit it and didn't just buy it.

So if you're really serious about doing a kit, go and test fit one before making a big mistake. If it's a fiberglass kit, you'll need to know how to finish fiberglass because they come with rough bond lines and no finishing to the body at all.

Factory Five also offers a 3 day class where you can go and actually build one of their cars (with a group) and you get a discount on the kit. As with everything there are basic parts and of course 'upgraded parts' available. Outside of the kit you need to supply an engine, tranny and a rear end I believe.

Attachment 118607
This car has been primed as they come out red from the molds. Note the body join seams.

Attachment 118608
And this car shows just how far and how much money you can put into one of them.

Sorry, just another armchair quarterback but I've explored the same avenues.

Will cost as much as a modern affordable production car or a used higher end production car (i.e. Cayman or real Elise/Exige) with none of the niceties of a OEM auto builder (see pedal box complaints above, fit and finish, not having a radio or A/C seems ok now but I know for me it's a 2+ hour drive to some tracks the drone and exposure to the elements would wear thin).

I would love a Caterham or 550 Spyder, but at $30k-$50k to get one on the track (either turn key or ground up/one that needs work) a Cayman or Lotus or actual racecar (much cheaper than a quality kit @ ~$10k-$20k) and trailer and tow vehicle and actual wheel to wheel racing are more appealing to me right now.

If I'm in a position where I have the money to throw around and a big ol' barn to store my toys in I'll probably pick up a dream car in kit form (aforementioned Caterham or 550 Spyder).

Since it wasn't mentioned yet, my realistic dream car: Beck Spyder (although I think I'd pick up a '60's 911 first...) http://www.beckspeedster.com/general...eckspyder.html

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6079/...2c356381_o.jpg

A friend of mine recently completed Factory Five GTM. He documented the build with 80+ youtube videos over the course of a couple years.

For those who are interested it can be found here. Its an incredible amount of work.

https://www.youtube.com/user/fastthings

Factory 5 is the best if you want it to look good. If you want a cheap track monster look up exocet. It's a tube chassis that accepts miata suspension and drive train. Can be ordered to take an LS v8 or other engine swaps. Very cheap, you can walk into any auto zone and get a balljoint, wheel bearing swaybar bushing etc. It kinda looks like an Ariel atom.

I can relate with my non-kit car. My Detomaso Pantera has a footbox so small I need to wear my racing shoes to drive the car. A fat tennis shoe will cover all 3 pedals!

Still, it is what it is, the Pantera is my favorite (obtainable) car since I was maybe 12 or 13. Sure, there's other million dollar cars I'd choose first, but that'll never happen. Right now, I have "Snow White", my white Pantera sitting in my garage, and in some ways she'd give someof those supercars a run for their money. She's set up for road racing, slicks and all (335x35rx17 rears) with a stroked 351 to 408 with IR's, EFI, and 650hp to the wheels. No special goodies like AC or traction control, but I only drive her fast on the track anyways.

I'd also give a consideration to safety, especially if you plan on driving it on the streets. I was involved in a minor fender bender 2 years ago when a woman, who was texting, didn't see us slowing down to make a turn and got rear ended. Even though it was a "minor" accident, my girlfriend is still having back pain/issues. I would not want to be in any car during an accident at street/freeway speeds, especially a kit car. They may look cool and may even be really fast, but everything comes at a cost. Just my .02 cents.

I'd feel safer in this chassis than anything made by OEM manufacturers, as long as I was wearing proper 5 point belts (which ALL cars should have anyways, and would probably save 90% of all car carsh deaths).

This is the GTM chassis. Pretty burly if you ask me.

http://www.factoryfive.com/kits/gtm-...chassiscontent

I can't say anything about the Cobras, I know they are bada$$, but Cobras, MG's, little Austins, all thos little open-top roadsters seem like little death traps to me, especially if you flip them on their heads.