Newbie with too much ideas and low experience

[mrcool2k]

Hi,
My name is Miguel Reis and I'm from Oporto in Portugal.
I rebuilt a Suzuki Swift GTI, and participated in some track days here in portugal. But now I'm considering in selling all my stuff of my swift GTI to go further building my own kit car.
I'm thinking in making my own kit car because what I've seen were that the kit cars are too much concentrated on the kind of motor they have, for example the 2 most appealing kit cars I saw were the Merlin 5exi and [PRM] Promo-Racing Fun-Boost, the first because excelent support for VW 1.8T engines and Honda K20 engines and gearbox, and the second because has sequential gearbox and Motorcycle engines.

But both has +10.000€ for the basic + engine, and I wanna know if anyone knows or thinked about a concept kit that could provide a standard kit to the basics for a middle engine with RWD or 4WD support and indepedent engine and gearbox, supporting any kind of car or motorcyle but providing the chassis and bodywork, interiors and maybe a standard ECU.

Please give me your ideas and thoughts and give some light on where to go to do a good work that can give more to all of us.

Thanks in advance.

Miguel

[chrislandy]

A lot of kits will fit most engines, you just need to remake the engine mounts and exhaust. For example, I built a Shelsley T2, I have the standard 2 litre turbo rover engine in it (which is supported by the company), other supported options include the Rover K-series and Audi 1.8 turbo engines.

There are however other engined Shelsley's about, someone has put a duratec engine in one and another is using a porsche engine so as you can see as long as the engine fits in the bay and you can get everthing to align correctly you can install it in the car.

Chris.

[mrcool2k]

Originally Posted by chrislandy

A lot of kits will fit most engines, you just need to remake the engine mounts and exhaust. For example, I built a Shelsley T2, I have the standard 2 litre turbo rover engine in it (which is supported by the company), other supported options include the Rover K-series and Audi 1.8 turbo engines.

There are however other engined Shelsley's about, someone has put a duratec engine in one and another is using a porsche engine so as you can see as long as the engine fits in the bay and you can get everthing to align correctly you can install it in the car.

Chris.

Thank you Chris, for sharing your experience.
I'm thinking in using a Honda K20Z4, what should the best low cost solution to get a kit car that easily support this kind of motors, with Middle Engine, RWD and Left hand steering wheel?

Another silly question, that is any low cost solution to make a normal Honda K20Z4 geabox in a sequential gearbox ?

What is the best low cost and easy plug in aftermarket ECU for a Honda K20Z4?

Best Regards,
Miguel

[Chris Cussen]

Hi Miguel,

I'm thinking of moving to Portugal (near Caldas da Rainha) and have a Marlin Kit car. How difficult is it to register a kit car in Portugal?

Chris

[mrcool2k]

For my experience anything you buy on aftermarket is almost always illegal since there is an empty space on the law and what is legal and ilegal is very gray and totally arbitrary (perhaps you pass on the annual inspection but the police can charge anything only because they can).
There is some companies that do some legalization on modifications, but for a new car you have to provide all the technical and engineering information that only big manufacturers has, or if you have that knowledge you have to make yourself and sign the project and pay hard to get it done and approved. After paying to get a legalization for your car, you have to pay hard on taxes, for example an Civic Type R FN2 pays 20.000€ in taxes because emissions and cc.

So I think that is'nt the easiest idea, but if you want, we can talk about it and I can help you when you come to Portugal.

Let me know when you are here.

[Chris Cussen]

Thanks for that!
Maybe I'll keep it on British plates!