So far I've only had normal cars. Tuned ofcource, but after a while things start to break and you need new bearings, headgasket, diff/lsd, master cilinders, brakes etc etc. All costs and the car needs to sit in the garage for a while. I'm starting to get fedup with it. Is it any different with kitcars? Do things breakdown or need replacement?

yes and fall off whilst driving lol

Yes they do!

But in general most components in a kit car are much lighter loaded than they would be in a saloon car.

For example wheel bearings may only be carring a third of the weight they were designed for, things like brakes and clutches don't have to work as hard.

The one thing that might work harder is the engine, it depends how heavy your right foot is, but in general when people have performance at hand, they want to use it!

Kit cars also tend to use common and therefore cheap, mechanical parts.

Overall I'd say that properly maintained kit cars are likely to be cheaper to run, but if they're open top, with hardly any luggage space, would you be able to use them year round?

Cheers

Chris

[Edited on 23/10/07 by chrisg]

Plus there are no hills in Holland. Its as flat as the Cambridgeshire Fens (Drained by Vermuyden in the 1600's)

Cheaper than a normal car, as said previously less load and strain, and less miles driven.

My car weighs 40% of the car all the drive train brakes etc came off.

Plus you can repair 99% of things yourself, so a big saving on mechanics fees.

^^^^ and since you probably built it in the first place, you probably have a good idea how to take it apart and refit it.

Don't forget insurance is seemingly cheaper compared to a production car with the same performance; petrol consumption will be better due to less weight to chug about.

Another factor has got to be the condition of the donor parts and how much time/ effort and cash you put into reconditioning donor parts before fitting them to the kit

If you build the kit with the minimum of work to the donor parts before you fit them, then they will probably be no more reliable than the car they came from

but if you take some time (and cash ) to rebuild/ recondition the donor parts then you should have a more reliable car (assuming you do it right and use good quality parts of course)
I've spent ages getting all my mechanicals re-built and its not been cheap (I couldn't resist a few upgrades along the way, which didn't help the budget ), but I'm hoping the car will be allot better for it

[Edited on 23/10/07 by mcerd1]

also much cheaper insurance than a highly modded road car

In the UK it may be cheaper, but here in Canada, my insurer won't insure it at all. Not to say NOBODY will, but it isn't a given.

It takes a lot of legwork to educate the insurance people. It may not be easy in Holland either; good idea to check into it though before you start. You aren't the first, though.

Reliability is a function of attention to detail during build stage. The only bits to cause me minor grief are the 2nd hand parts that i took a chance on.

If you enjoy doing mods and tweaks yourself expect some snagging to solve which you can put down to R&D. With a site like this you can research what the common pit falls are in advance and countermeasure them up front to a point. If you spend more and buy most bits proven and off the shelf then snagging can be minimised.

Most people will agree that these cars take some spannering to keep them tip top but most of the spannering will be because you wont be able to keep your hands off the car (ongoing hobby etc) and you do find yourself inventing jobs to do.

Things that broke on my kit:

Some bolts came loose where I didn't use threadlock.

One of the suspension brackets failed.

The big end bearings in my engine went.

The second hand sierra brake calipers leaked a bit.

One of the front camber adjusters became worn and loose.

I have an oil leak.


Expect it to behave like an old sports car. It is a sports car made of old bits after all.

forget the running costs its the fun that counts. re fuel work on about £20 every time you take it out lets face it we tend to drive thes things in the upper end of the revs. its not pounds per mile just grins per gear change

[Edited on 27/10/07 by phil.shelton]