Kit car owners – talk me out of buying one…..

That’s the advantage of a bike powered kit car. Mine has a 1994 Honda Fireblade. If it goes pop I could get another for very little compared to a tuned up car engine, plus you get a 6 speed sequential gearbox for free. Mines only 900cc but will still do 0-60 in about 4 seconds.

Yeah but how much money have you spent on it?

Depends who’s asking…..

But about the same again on upgrades, tweaks, repairs etc but most of that spend was driven by track days, either replacing things that wore out, brakes, tyres, suspension, engines, gearboxes, or upgrades to make it faster, suspension brakes, tyres, engines etc.

If it was just driven on the road, it would have cost a fraction of that amount to keep running. If you’re handy with the spanners and have some spare time, they’re remarkably cheap to run.

I do all my own servicing, and most repairs. I leave the complicated stuff to the pros, like engine rebuilds and gearbox rebuilds, but most other stuff, oil, filters, cambelt, brake pads, new steering rack, new radiator, new wishbones, fuel tank etc. I’ll do myself.

I had a Tiger Cat E1 with a Toyota 4age engine, then a few years later a Tiger R6 with 2 litre zetec on Weber 45’s with a straight cut gearbox kit and massive brakes.

The Cat was ok but most are home DIY jobs with a lot of Sierra in there – the R6 was much better. Less Sierra in it (not sure what was under it tbh) and it was bonkers quick to accelerate and just felt nicer than the Cat. No soft top or sidescreens – just a windscreen.

Sold it for more than I bought it for (R6) if I remember correctly. I lost a chunk of money on the Cat e1 though.

Always fancied a Raw Striker with a bike engine but never got round to it.

If money no object I’d go Caterham or Westfield – but you’ll pay a lot less generally for other brands so there’s less money to lose.

I then wrote off my 5L TVR Chimera at Castle Combe on a trackday.

Ouch! Quarry, Tower or Old Paddock? Seen those locations bite many people in the ass whenever I’ve been over there. One memorable occasion during morning practice I saw a Formula Libra lose an entire wheel with hub on the approach to Quarry, the wheel go tearing across the infield, across the front of a car exiting the corner, hit the embankment, bounce about thirty feet in the air, and come down in the spectator car park!
Fortunately nobody was injured or property damaged. Not a circuit to be treated lightly.

I crashed my honda s2000 at castle combe, went sideways into the barriers and dented every panel down the drivers side.

never driven castle combe but did meet a tyre barrier at cadwell once. think a brief lapse of concentration and dropped it onto the grass which was still wet from the mornings rain.

incident is at the end of the vid.
was fixed and driven round oulton park a week later, luckily very little damage.