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[Edited on 23/11/08 by Herman]

Matt will be along shortly...

i'd flog what you have and buy a previously raced and set up 750mc car. Just my humble opinion

Hi

The fury is not the best of the bunch for out right pace as it never had the development work the Phoenix's or strikers had. secondly a road spec car that has been striped out etc will be off the pace however still able to run in the back 1/3.

The use of the Duratec is not just as straightforward as it seems. The engine if it is a good spec one will be producing around 170-180 Lbft of torque. A Std gearbox will not survive this punishment on the track. Also the gearing will need to be right to be of any use. Ideally you will need a quaife HD with the right set of ratios in.. Diff wise again a STD unit will not survive it will need to be a competition spec built item. NO LSD / ATB ALLOWED by the way.

At the end of the day what you will end up with will be a big compromise. It will not be such a nice road car and certainly will not be on the pace for use in the championship at the front. Ideally it would be best left as a pleasant road car and an already running car that is competitive buying As Hammerhead above has said.

If it is the general shape of the furry you like there are a couple of the more competitive phoenix's for sale. Both are running Zetec though. But one is an absolute bargain given its spec and barley a season old. U2U me if you want details.

Hope this was off some help and not made to sound to disheartening.

Cheers Matt

Thanks chaps. Food for thought and I think, ultimately sensible advice. - Better to find all this out now than after sinking a whole heap of money into it!

Matt I'll U2U for details of that Phoenix. Bearing in mind limited funds, it looks like I might be best off sticking to road cars and track days.

I am not sure i totally agree! The chassis you have is very very similar to mine and Steve Taylors and Jim Goodwins and check out where we are in the results. The minimum weight for a Duratec engined kit is around 625 including engine and you wont be far off that with your car if you strip it our and fit a duratec with a 5 spd. The problem with all this is cost. What you need is a good gearbox and good shockers which are not cheap and fitting a duratec is not cheap either. (probably the wrong side of £4k)
What you don't say is what your current engine is. If it is a crossflow you might be better off fitting a decent xflow and gearbox (pretty cheap second hand) putting in a decent set of shocks, getting matt to set up the car and coming out to play. If you have a good year then spend winter 09 either upgrading or building a new car. My car runs a zetec se which requires specialist knowledge to avoid it going bang but i am happy to share. It can run on carbs and a replacement is only about £250. also if you intend to sprint it it runs in upto 1700 which is handy, so certainly worth a thought, call me off line if you want another competitors view. Mark aw

I have to agree about buying a ready built car having found this out at considerable cost!!!! (hey Matt?)