Hi there guys

Im after some advice. Having been a fan of these fantastic cars for some time ive decided it may well be time to take the plunge and buy one. First off I have come across one for sale from a friend of a friend. It is a MK with a 1100 Bluebird engine. He has said that he bought the car as a non runner at a bargain price, got it running for next to nothing and would sell it to me at what it owes him - approx £5k. It seems like a good price, but things I have noted that may affect the price are the following:

It doesnt have reverse
It is a Q plate
The speedo is in KM and even then doesnt seem accurate (I supposedly did a reported 280kmh in it yesterday!)
The Fuel gauge is very inaccurate
It has no wet weather gear or Windscreen

He tells me the car was built in 1990, the bike engine fitted in 2000. It is 30% Dutton and has this on the VIN plate. It has nice condition alloys on it, tyres are in good condition. The body work in immaculate, the interior is ok as well. Has 4 point harnesses, fibreglass seats. This was the first time I had driven a bike engined car. I noticed that when you change you do get a clunk from the back end. He tells me this is the 'dry' diff I think he said (as you can tell im not exactly mechanically minded, hence the need for advice!)

So do you think this is a good buy? Im desperate for as much advice as possible as I want to avoid a similar experiece to my last disasterous buy that cost me thousands.

Thanks in advance
Mark

any pics?

Only on my phone unfortunately.

quote:

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Originally posted by nick205
any pics?

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Hi Mark,

If you have any pictures then that would help greatly.

Do you just want a fully built car or would you like to build a bit yourself, it may be worth looking around for a part built car as you will get alot of satisfaction from the build, if you just want to buy and drive then it may be a good buy although I have seen alot newer cars for similar money.

The KMH thing tends to suggest that the car hasn't been SVA'd so you would need to check what it is registered as, there are alot of cars out there running around as escorts or sierras which is fine until you have an accident and the insurance company may refuse to pay out.

Probably also worth confidering what sort of driving you will be doing, if it's regular daily driving then you may be better with a Car engine as BEC's are very extreme and I would have thought using it daily would become hard work, if you intend to use it as a funtrack car then BEC's are great.

HTH,
Rich.

HTH,
Rich.

Based on the age i'd also suspect its not 30% dutton but actually a dutton. It may have been modified by adding MK (Martin Keenan - aka http://www.mksportscars.co.uk/ who started out doing locosts) bits to it. Take some people who know what they are doing with you to look at it - getting it wrong could be an expensive or painful experience.

i think you just have to make sure its sva'd, q plate isnt the end of the world, as said above with out that reverse box makes using it as an everyday runner difficult

allthough as long as its been sva'd the hard works been done technically if something breaks like a noisey rear diff you can replace it for next to nothing, normally a bike engined mk would go for much more than this but as this is some strange conversion thing it reduces the price, no reverse box doesnt nessarally reduce the price it just doesnt add to it, nout wrong with fiberglass seats they are lighter, have a look around first matey see what else is avaialble at that price and with what engines then decide if your getting a good price

nice looking avon for sale in the for sale section if you can fit in it

It would be relatively easy to add an electric reverse, if it bothered you that much, and clunks on gearchange are quite common in BEC's because on the bike they use a Rubber Cush drive between the sprocket and wheel, stop this - on most BEC's no cushioning is fitted although you can get a propshaft that has cush rubbers built in.

IMHO 5k may be a bit optimistic and you could just be buying someone elses trouble, if as you say your not mechanically minded, it would be a good idea to take someone with you who is to give it the once over - might be worth asking on here if anyone is local to you and would cast an eye over th car.

if you have the reg number, try the RAC website you can put the number in and it will tell you what the cars registered as might give an idea if it has been SVA'd or not.

Ray

[Edited on 15/8/05 by rayward]

considering the age, it won't have been sva'd as that was only introduced around 2000 ish. You could take the car for an SVA to confirm its ok - but if it fails i'm pretty sure you have to fix it before you drive it.

Guys,

If it IS an MK-modified Dutton, was built in 1990 and is correctly registered then SVA is NOT APPLICABLE

Key things to check before considering whether it is worth the money are:

• Is it correctly registered?
  
• Has the engine change been registered?
  
• Is it roadworthy? e.g. Valid MOT from reputable source
  

come on, MOT doesn't prove its road worthy, it proves on the minute it was tested that the brakes worked, it wasn't rusty, the steering ball joints are ok, lights work and the emissions are ok.

It doesn't really check brake balance, construction, safety etc etc.

If he told you this is what it has in it I would check his credentials mate. 'Dry' diff sounds a bit of a strange term, is his name Arthur?

[Edited on 15/8/05 by Peteff]

Get somebody who know what they're looking at to check it over .... and not the AA man!

And I would also suggest that as a daily drive BEC's are not a good idea....

i just assumed that was a typo / forgotten the name.

(i'm guessing from blue bird you actually mean blackbird)

yeah probably At this point I had just driven it and had trouble concentrating - the adrenaline was still flowing!

Same goes for the dry diff comment! Perhaps I should go along again and this time ask questions before driving it.

Thanks for all your advice guys. Luckily this guy is a good friend of someone I know, so he wouldnt knowingly sell me something dodgy. I know I should still check it out. It would be a sort of every day car. I have another that could use for practical reasons, but likely to use this more often than not. I only work 5 miles up the road so the commute is no problem. Im used to running these sorts of cars every day having just come from a S2 Elise - although I realise this is just a little bit more extreme!

Just another couple of questions:

How and where can I source a screen/wet weather gear? Cost?
And the speedo? I really need to get that converted and calibrated. Where can I get that done? And cost?
One thing I did notice is the turning of this car. It seemed you had to turn the steering wheel quite a lot to get the turn, where as my Elise seemed only about 1 1/2 turns lock to lock. Is this normal? Is there a way of reducing this?

My 'toy' fund would be a little stretched by this as it is so need to budget realistically for this.

Thanks again for all the tips, the knowledge available on this forum is certainly a plus side to buying one of these.

Mark

quote:

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Originally posted by MikeR
i just assumed that was a typo / forgotten the name.

(i'm guessing from blue bird you actually mean blackbird)

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uprated steering racks (dependent on what was fitted) cost around 100 to 120 pounds to buy, then you've got to fit it which is an easy job.

this is nothing like an elise. that is a fast production car. This is a very fast home built car with a slighly debatable history. don't expect the reliability, comforts, ease of ownership you have with the elise (and if you claim i'm wrong with any of those i'd say try owning it. I've got plenty of friends with BEC's. they love them but service them themselves probably twice a year)

I could sort the screen out for you so dont panic there. wet weather hood ......a flintstone hood would sort ya out since its a five min commute. But pictures please and some one to go with ya to see what it is you are looking at.

Ps blackbird engines need the plate stuck in the sump to keep the oil pumping..........otherwise its toast....
cheers

Thanks for the info. Could you give me a rough idea of costs?

quote:

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Originally posted by mangogrooveworkshop
I could sort the screen out for you so dont panic there. wet weather hood ......a flintstone hood would sort ya out since its a five min commute. But pictures please and some one to go with ya to see what it is you are looking at.

Ps blackbird engines need the plate stuck in the sump to keep the oil pumping..........otherwise its toast....
cheers

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Mark,

I sold my Elise to build my BEC and there is no comparison between the two as far as a daily driver goes.

I found the Elise fine as a daily driver in all conditions (even snow!) although a BEC in the snow would be mad imho.

I'm not saying you couldn't do it but it would be quite uncomfortable at times I guess!!

Rich.

hi mark
have a look at my mk indyblade that is advertised for sale and look at photos in archive and compare it with what you are getting for your money

Just seen you ad, looks nice - would you take £5k for it?

quote:

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Originally posted by tim windmill
hi mark
have a look at my mk indyblade that is advertised for sale and look at photos in archive and compare it with what you are getting for your money

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What about mine Mark ? I would do you a good price

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BIKE-ENGINED-MK-INDY-R1_W0QQitemZ4568441998QQcategoryZ29750QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Cheers Drew

i have to say, there are some serious things to consider here. If it is a dutton, modified by mk, its unlikely to be worth 5k. Might be though i suppose, due to the engine. Or it could be a real mk being driven on a dutton logbook - this wouldnt really be legal. Not quite

The first issues you mentio arent really problems - most sevens dont have weather gear, many BECs dont have reverse, etc (cant remember the rest!)

Just make sure that the engine and chassis numbers match the logbook. If it looks like a real 7 replica, be cautious - duttons usually dont look much like them, unless theres a version ive forgotten.

Some would argue that you could legitimately rebody a dutton with an MK chassis, but it would be dubious - rebodies are meant to be similar AFAIK.

ok, ignoring the people trying to sell there cars. I just want to take a moment to say hi to Mark and applogise that we all seem so negative. You've started your post with a "i don't do mechanicals" type opener and i think lots of us are sitting here thinking "hmmm, this car has the potential to be trouble".

When you do buy a seven type car we'll all be a lot more positive - honest. We're all just trying to offer advice and be helpful even if it seems we're all a bit negative.

Keep asking questions, we'll keep answering them and i'll even offer to buy your elise off you for 5k

(come on, it was worth a try!)

Hey - Im a 'Junior Builder' now

Thanks again guys for all the reponses - very helpful. Seeing as I dont know enough about these cars to really judge whether this particular car is worth the money im going to give it a miss. Especially as my last car purchase is looking as though it is going to cost me a packet I think my best bet is to buy off of someone on here. At least there is a better chance of not getting stung with a dud!! Just need to finance buying one of these babies and pay for the repairs to my current car so I can sell it! (I know, I know - I should repair my car first, sell it then buy, but I dont want to wait!! )

Subk2002? How much would you let yours go for? Looks good.

Thanks again - hopefully one day I will be a proud owner!