I am building a motorbike (gsxr1100) engined locost, with stuart taylor IRS to hillclimb. It will not be road legal. Please can you tell me if these prices are fair and what else I should put on.

Adam

I dont want to be the bearer of bad news but I would triple your overall budget if you're currently working on getting a car built for £2000.

Taking a quick glance I see you havent budgeted the £1k or so the engine is going to cost, plus another £300+ for an exhaust. Youve only put in £100 for wheels, I assume second hand but what about tyres? Also what about uprights for the front / rear suspension, and a diff / driveshafts

I cant pick out much else specifically in your list but there are also lots of hidden costs in building a car, buying things like paint, grease, gaskets, nuts/bolts, rivets, ally sheet etc etc etc, they all add up to significant amounts at the end.

Chris

[Edited on 25/3/04 by ChrisGamlin]

Sorry, should have metioned it, they are all in the package I bought in the first place ,'chassis and others'. This is the budget to just get it drivable, a couple of sets of wheels I am looking at are including tyres (not very good though).

Adam

some people like to allow a budget for tools you'd need to buy. i've had to buy a welder, amongst other things. grinder discs, wire brushes, paint, oil, lubricants, grease etc.

does the pedal box include master cylinders at that price? if so sounds very cheap. are you using donor bits? have you already got a donor car?

does the chassis include a rollbar? or cage?

as chris says there are a huge amount of relatively insignificant little bits such as nuts, bolts, gaskets, bits you pop out to halfords for and pay through the nose because you need them and don't want to wait a few days for screwfix to get to you etc etc that all add up. i've got a list of what i've spent so far on my website if you wanna take a look. i've got lots of engine bits, but my car still isn't at rolling chassis stage yet, though i should now have all the bits to get there.

Ned.

Ah ok, so its a part built car youve already got and the budget is to finish it off? If so then the prices you've drawn up dont look too bad I guess, but i'd still budget for say £500 for odds 'n ends and other bits you're bound to not think about until time comes to fitting them.

Chris

I have changed the budget for the rest of the build to £2500. Thanks for that tip ned, I had forgotten to add the master cylinders onto the list. I think I have enough nuts, bolts, tubular steel and sheet steel to build another three locosts, Uncle has loads of stuff in his shed from when he fiddled with cars (well, more lived with cars). Landrover Series 2/3 Brake caliper bolts anyone!

Adam

It's nice to have a budget - but yet to meet anyone that has kept to it

Remeber once you start racing you can double the budget again many years of building cars/karts for racing has taght me that there is no such thing as cheap in any kind of motorsport!!!
cheers
p.s spent @£6k on my st so far and will probably end up at the £8-10k mark but don`t tell the wife!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a thought but someone told me you had to have reverse fitted for motorsport purposes, although you dont have to for road ??????
Not sure wether this is right or not

I believe the rule on reverse is that its needed on some track races but is not required for hillclimb events, nor road use.

[Edited on 25/3/04 by Oliver Jetson]

[Edited on 25/3/04 by Oliver Jetson]

None of the single seaters have reverse boxes, so I don't expect you have to have one.

All the single seaters i`ve driven and owned for circuit racing have had reverse. In the rac blue book for circuit racing it does specify having reverse.Never done hillclimbing so couldn`t answer that one.

[Edited on 26/3/04 by sting]

Sorry, I meant BEC single seaters like Jedi and OMS 2000.

Adam