Hi,

I know specialisedengines.co.uk's prices are probably a little out of date - but they advertise standard x-flow engines remanuactured for £351. Even when you've paid for the overbore it still works out to around £500 - not sure if this includes the head or not, but worst case scenareo, you get a fully rebuilt, overbored 1300 for about £650-700. Would this do for racing (at the back of the pack) and if so, why are people talking about spending £800+ on parts alone to rebuild a standard engine?

Cheers.

I dont know about the crossflow or the rules for the Locost series but there are poeple who spend well into 4 figures for a technically standard 1000cc Mini engine to use in a class 1 autograss car. They are still within all the tolerances for a standard engine but the power output definatly aint!
Despite this I know a bloke who has built his from a big heap of used engines with very few new parts & he gives the big money boys a hard time.

Specialised Engines website is more than a little out of date. When I last spoke to them the basic price for a reconditioned 1300/1600 Xflow was £580. That was 3 years ago. I suspect that if you used one for racing, you'd fall off the back of the pack.

David

Cheers for that folks - been quite an eyeopener. I'll have to cost everything up before I do anything else.

Budget for around £2,500 to get a Randall fully installed, running and rolling roaded.

In circuit racing terms. Very cheap

I think considering what is written above, I should throw my 2p in on this one.

First of all, we have had one engine returned, for which we took responsibility for what went wrong, and gave a full refund. So there was no wasted money, just some time, which was regrettable, but as with anything mistakes can be made and we hope the party concerned understood.

Secondly, I have used one of our engines for years, and have led races and got fastest laps, including a 56.9 second lap of Mallory, which has the highest average speed of any circuit we visit, so we must be doing something right as I am no Schumacher behind the wheel!
We do not pretend to be as good as Randall, we simply dont have the equipment, but our engines are cheaper as a result, and if driven well can be competitive, as I hope I have shown.

To answer the original post, realistically those prices on Specialised Engines website must be out of date, and I would say that if you want a properly sorted engine fully installed and set up, somewhere around the £2000 mark would be what you are looking at.

Regards,
Matt Cherrington

To be fair, Randall's engines need a constant level of supervision too.

To run at the front, you need a crossflow expert to keep an eye on things and a rev limiter!

Si

I can't vouch for TMC Motorsport Engines as I've never bought one but I can vouch for their levels of customer service.

Earlier this season they updated my roll cage for me. They measured up at one race meeting, made the parts and fitted them before scrutineering at the next meeting!

Tony and Matt couldn't have made it easier for me. They even brought spray paint with them so they could paint the newly welded sections. Tony then stayed and helped me with the battery strap I was wrestling with. (My arms weren't long enough to reach the outside of the bulk head and the inside of the passenger foot well at the same time! lol)

The additions to my cage must have been one of the smallest jobs TMC Motorsport have done for anyone this year but they really looked after me and made everything very easy.

Vicky

Locost #71

Both Matt and his dad have a hand in keeping a lot of cars running at race weekends. Even the Randall engined ones!

Not sure where you aimed that one...

Customer service is as equally important as product. Faulty equipment/batchs are not uncommon amongst other engine builders in 2006.

Having TMC helping out would be most beneficial to a novice.

I would have Swifttune build my engine if Nick could be bothered and I could afford the cost and the 300 mile round trip every couple of months.

HI just to please you all then i will delete my posts whith reference to TMC and thier engines.

cheers matt

Hi there you go nothing but glowing reports about TMC MOTORSPORT.

cheers matt