I am thinking of buying a MK Indy and was wondering if anyone out there has bought one from SportsPowerDrive.

I would like some feedback on reliability, build quality, after sales service etc, before I take the plunge.

Have a look at "why's this happened?" under the BEC section - fairly recent post of a car which went very wrong.

No idea as yet who's to blame, but useful reading.

Adam.

Also see the 'MK copies' thread:

http://locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=7618

useful reading also..

Ned.

my own personal opinion would be, is there a reason not to buy it direct from MK? must be cheaper by going direct, and by all accounts the service is very satisfactory.

is the SPD car much different from the MK? also they arent using MKs chassis now apparently.

Mk have never supplied Chassis to Sports Power Drive.

The SPD car is just that, an SPD car.

Whether it is a copy is a point for the lawyers.

Cheers

Chris

SPD bought a couple of kits off martin then had the F#####g cheek to market them as their own. do a search for sportspowerdrive.com to see the original posting. Before we go blaming chassis welding we need to consider how a soft bastar# with no engineering ability might connect a blade motor to a diff get that wrong and you've got a nice metal leg and an engine torn out of it's mounts nowt to do with welding.
with an indy from martin it's all tried and tested
form your own conclussions to what my point is
tony

it seems obvious that, either SPD built it and described it as an MK indy to the SVA so it would sell better, or they bought a basic chassis of MK and then stuck the engine cradle in themselves.

either way SPD seem to be responsibly for the final car. something clearly wrong, either the welds or the design. maybe the prop wasnt balanced and shook itself off, but you would expect to feel the vibrations if they were that bad.

my personal opinion, as a guess, is that the chassis was probably made by MK, and the engine cradle and gubbins added by SPD. it would be VERY foolish to describe it as an MK if it wasnt, cos you would DEFINATELY get sued for that.

but like you say tony, (at least i think it what you mean), it probably boils down to SPD being at fault. woodster will hopefully let us know what response he got from SPD.

as i originally said, if you want an MK, go to MK. if you want ball ache, sit on ice for half an hour.

ps you do do very cryptic posts tony, you have to read them 5 times to make sure you have the right end of the stick!

[Edited on 10/10/03 by JoelP]

Kev,

Are you thinking SPD as you are from the midlands and don't want to travel "up't north" for the kit?? If that is the reason, forget it, its all part of the fun, driving 100 odd miles with a chassis on your roof rack at 40mph on the M1!!

Go straight to MK, top stuff!

I am sorry to see so many people throwing claims about when they have not dealt with me. Here is the true version of events between MK and SPD.
I went to Martin and said i build cars and if i bought enough kits would he discount me. He said there was no discount, but he would supply me with customers. After having bought 5 kits from him he got into a slanging match with MAC1 and said that he was not going to supply to builders like ourselves, that he was going to build his own. I said well if thats the case i will build my own kit. The university of Wolverhampton and myself designed both our 7 and Snake using cad designed drawings and stress tests which is what we sell now.
I have only supplied 2 complete MK's on the road so if the owner of the so called car would get in touch i would like to talk with you. Anyone else who would like to contact me please feel free to call as we are open 6 days a week.
Please also read the retraction from "Which Kit" October's issue where they admit that they made the mistake for not doing their homework and finding out the true facts about my chassis's.

wonder if this is the same uni that says indy's handle better with the top wishbones on upside down. thank f##k i learnt my trade a cammel lairds we only welded the conning tower on upside down on a nuclear submarine .... yes it's true upside F#####g down thats what the plans said that's wot they got
ain't no injunshere just

quote:

---

The university of Wolverhampton and myself designed both our 7 and Snake using cad designed drawings and stress tests which is what we sell now.

---

all these people throwing sh*t about have you measured a spd chassis to able to say its idenitical to a indy i think you will find more differences than just wishbones

i also think unless you have bought any thing from spd than how can you slag them off

every 7 style kit is very similiar

there is on true unique kit out there they are all a copy at some point as

for the car that has had a problem did its owner contact spd before going to mk if not why not if they built my car and i had a problem i would go to the builder first to give them to chance to see what went wrong

Thanks for your input mr SPD

Chris

if the last comment is for me

small minded springs to mind

i am not mr spd


but someone who has bought one of there kits

and is happy with what i have bought

i will judge the kit as i build it not jump tp conclusions

and not follow the sheep who only see their point of view and no one elses

You'll find that Chris has his own very distinct points of view on just about everything....

A sheep he isn't.

He'd be scared of Jon Ison if he was...

figured out how to post my e-mail adress so now included

is it called a snake cos it slithers and slides all over the road
names abit of an insult to an AC COBRA the greatest snake in the world

as one of Mk's biggest fans IMO this aint the place for any of the above, it aint doing anyone any good.

my 1st and last word on this subject on here

the damage to the car was due to a prop shaft failure ..... i would like to thank everyone for their help and best wishes ... a big thank you to martin and mk engineering for offering to repair the car and thank you to sportspowerdrive for kindly offering to pay for the repair ......THANK YOU ...... im now looking forward to driving and enjoying what is a fantastic car !!!!!!