is there a massive difference in the quality of kit car chassis in terms of driving experience or is it difficult to tell when driving? its just that some manufacturers are far more expensive than others and wondered if it was justified! having only driven a few 7 type cars i am not experienced in the matter so was wanting some advice. i am hoping to start my first build early next year when the mnr sells and although money will be tight i do not want to compromise on chassis quality/strength. can not afford another mnr or mk indy so what are my budget options?

dan if u want another 7ish car i would try and stick with whay u have got .....if u can afford to......u know u will be hard pressed to match what u already have.......ps.i may be selling mine soon,but only to build another ,(hayabusa turbo) hope fully...

I think that there is a simple formula for this - the more money you spend the less fettling you have to do to make things fit together.

Top of the range - something like a Westfield that's almost a simple assembly job. The further down you go, the more effort you have to put in to get a good result.

Also, the more money you spend the better the customer service will be (will notable exceptions further down the range). You'll get excellent support from Caterham & Westfield, and appalling service from fly-by-night suppliers who I won't name just now.

Caterham are generally regarded as the best as far as handling is concerned - but I'm not sure that it's THAT much better to justify the greatly increased cost.

i want a crack at building one. i have been learning loads and doing loads of research but everyone else is building and i just always buy them.
if i give myself 2 years and "£8k i should be ok.

Like anything each car will have its plus and minus points, caterhams appear to hold the road exceptionally well and dependant on the model are Frikkin fast around the track , however you have to think about the initial price tag and the development years that have gone into their development . most kits excluding the likes of the Catering van and Westfield share common components ie uprights rear hub so will each share the inherent geometry problems. However others are catching up with the usage of rose Jointed wishbones etc allowing greater adjustment therefore improving the geometry settings.

I would say invest in what you have and look at upgrades which have been made . Then theres always the line of what can you handle ? no good having 250bhp if your skills are only good for 170bhp

i was planning on selling mine for as close to £10k as possible paying £5k off my mortgage or towards another house and the rest to start a 2 year build with hopefully £3,000 to £3,500 to complete build and get on road

Dont forget IVA is now around the £500 mark so you're going to need to take into account best part of £1000 to get IVA'd, registered, taxed, other costs etc by the time you take into account an almost certain retest at close to £100.

If you want to save money, keep what you have. It will be very hard (unless you are very good fabricator and can re-furbish lots of stuff) to spend less on a new car build than the amount you will sell your current car for (it won't sell for 10K).

A well built, lightweight BEC with good specification will be more than 8K to build, especially as a novice builder.

Let's face it, 5K on a mortgage is much less than finding £3.5K + over a period of two years (= £150 per month). So unless you are at your absolute max on your mortgage, the cheapest thing you can do is keep the car you have and enjoy it!

If you really want to build a car, then fair enough. But don't kid yourself its a cheaper option - it's not.

- Paul