ok here goes im new here and i signed up because all of you on here seem to be very knowledgeable and most of you willing to help .

im looking to build or buy a lotus 7 inspired kit car as my first car because i aodre the look of them and insurance even on a 1.8 would be 1/4 the price of insurance for a 1.1 ford fiesta for a 17 year old first time driver .

i dont mind if i buy or if i build but price is my real limiting factor as its limited to however much i can earn between now and january + however much i get for xmas and my 17th birthday.

+ however much i can borrow off my parents lol

anyone got any advice ???

whats the cheapest option / route to go down ?

thnx in advance

Andrew

ps i know the cheapest option will not be the highest quality but as a first car i really cant afford to spend too much ..

you can often find cheap locosts for about the 2k mark.

Best time to buy seems to be immediately after Christmas

S

Welcome to the nuthouse!! Be scared..... be very scared!!

Well if money is tight then you can either build a kit like an MK or whatever and use all the donor parts from the Sierra including the wheels. This will get you through SVA and cost about £3500 ish depending on how much new stuff you buy and what bargains you pick up from Ebay etc. There are people on here that have built very nice cars for no alot of money.
Building yourself also means you will know every inch of the car and have the satisfaction of having built it yourself.

The other option is to save up and buy a built car. Advantages are that you won't have to put it through SVA but the disadvantage is that it won't be the colour or spec that you want.

Another option is to buy an unfinished kit which saves money and you can still put your mark on it.

Whatever you decide we will be here to help.

Good luck

Check your insurance companies FIRST...

My Lad is nearly 18 and has been quoted £2500, by three Co's and £2250 by another for a Jago jeep (escort based jeep clone). Most wont touch him, and he has a clean licence, albeit a provisional.

I think you may be in for a nasty shock.

Keep the engine size to a Minimum as small as possible. You can always change it later! Thats the beauty of home built cars.. you can make it into what you want!

as steve says, the cheapest finished 7 replicas are locosts, and you might even get a good one for 2k. There are a few i know of for sale by members. Building one is going to cost probably twice that, even on a budget.

Whereabouts are you?

stevenage in herts

i spoke to the people leugo and they told me that thrid party fire and theft would cost about £400 for a 17 year old .. i cant remember the company off the top of my head but i did ring them to check that this wasnt a mistake on leugos part and they confirmed that would be around what it would cost depending on final car spec

also quantum cars said a similar thing

Hiya and welcome to the nut house. Don't worry you'll be one of us soon mwahahaah...

Your options have been listed previously... but if you decide to build from scratch or buy a part finished car you might want to look into the option of getting a 1.25 zetec engine from a fiesta. You can often pick them up 2nd hand for a resonable price. I suggest this engine because due to the small size when finished it will help keep insurance costs down and they also provide a reasonable amount of power for their size.

Good luck with whatever you decide to build.

It all depends on what equipment you have, i.e have you got a welder etc... If not, then it's generally cheaper to buy a chassis and then do the rest yourself.

I built my chassis and the rest of my car.. but it takes time! lots of it.

You can get the metal for a chassis for about £150 i think, a welder £200+, grinder, paint, etc etc...
You can buy chassis's for around £600 i think (not sure as i've never bought one ).

If you have the kit to make a chassis......make one, if you don't you would be better off buying one. Although it's nice having built a chassis it takes time and will have cost you more than buying one.
I would say for your first kitcar that buying a starter kit from the likes of MK, Mac#1 etc would be your best bet unless you can find something on ebay.

Cheers
Mark

An advantage of going down the self build route is that there are no really large one off bills to foot.
Yes it will take longer to get on the road but you can decide exactly how you want to build it.
The route I adopted was to buy a welder, buy some 25x25x2 ERW and from it make a table to support a 25mm thick sheet of MDF.
Then I bought the steel for the chassis and made that.
Any time I come into some spare cash I save it and used this 'fund' to purchase items as required.
I'm still a long way from finishing the car but as you'll probably realise I'm a great believer in actually building my own car rather than assembling someone elses kit.

On the other hand, if you want to be on the road quickly then the self build route is probably not for you.

Mick

[Edited on 25/9/05 by Mix]

How about fitting a bike engine?
E.G. a 'blade engine is approx 900cc and produces same power as stock 2ltr zetec.
Should help with insurance quotes, having 900cc on your reg doc!


Andy.

Messenjah,

As others have said, I'd look really carefully into the insurance side of things. There've been a couple of people on here recently who couldn't get insurance at all once the car was built.
The other option is to deviate from the plans loads... like me, it'll take you so long to finish you'll be old enough to insure by the time it's finished!

quote:

---

Originally posted by andrew.carwithen
How about fitting a bike engine?
E.G. a 'blade engine is approx 900cc and produces same power as stock 2ltr zetec.
Should help with insurance quotes, having 900cc on your reg doc!


Andy.

---

Jame's avatar is of him when he started the build, this is him now
Rescued attachment oldman.jpg

Anyone'd think you were trying to have a pop at me!

We all know the truth that yes that is James... but it's Hicost James after you'd 'navigated' him down to France isn't it?!!!

Cheers,
James

[Edited on 28/9/05 by James]

The only company who would quote us for my 17yr old was Footman James. Most would not touch a driver under 19yrs.

Under 1000cc, £850. 1250 Zetec, £1008.

Now trying to fit a Briggs and Stratton, or maybe Vespa, till he's 19!!

I'd like to know who can do it for £400, and so would Jr.

the people at luego told me to contact sureterm direct and that it would be somewhere in the region of £400 ...

thats what im going on

ah, the ones who 5 months ago told me they won't touch anyone under 21.

got ya.

i'd be having words with luego if i were you. i'd be seriously peed off if i bought i kit on the strength of their claim to find it's total tripe when it actually comes down to it, not that you neccessarily did, but it's irresponsible for them to say stuff like that.

i'm with FJ, (the only one of 6 companies i tried that would even quote me) and still pay £827.40, for all of 1500 recorded miles, with a 1.6 pinto. 19, driving just over a year, clean licence.

still cheaper than a tin top eurobox though, so who cares
tom



[Edited on 28/9/05 by indykid]

jeez it was just a few years ago i was on the other side of this one, now im an old bastard with a few years NCB and its dropped to £275 already! I got quoted £2500 to renew my trade policy a few years ago!