lotus7 questions?

[rn-85]

whats it like to live with day to day?

[Billzilla]

whats it like to live with day to day?

Good in the dry, not so good in the wet.
It's just like driving a racing car around, but legally.

[rn-85]

this is gonna sound stupid but boot space and drive comfort? drive noise? does the real long nose make it hell to drive in parking spaces?

[Billzilla]

this is gonna sound stupid but boot space and drive comfort? drive noise? does the real long nose make it hell to drive in parking spaces?

Small but enough for a few shopping bags.
Drive comfort? As comfortable as you want to make it.
Loud.
They're easy to park.

[jezza323]

the nose may look long, but compared to a normal car.......they are still short

cant imagine parking being any sort of issue at all

[deviant]

Its an individually constructed vehicle. You can legally put any size engine in.

Biggest I've personally seen is an LS1.

As long as the engine meets current ADRs, then its fine.

The 20V no longer does. Most people are now going for the Ford Duratec / Zetec from the Focus and Mazda 3.

I think westfield can provide a special ECU to get the 20V through emissions testing and then you swap it back afterwards.

The downside of building a kitcar here is the ADR stuff....its considered a new car so must meet the latest ADR especially on noise and emissions which bumps the cost up

In my opinion.

Locost : $15000-$25000
Westfield : $25000-$40000
Fraser : $35000-$50000
PRB : $40000-$55000

Thats a pretty basic car, on the road. As Bill said.. goes up from there Some of the top Hayabusa powered vehicles change hands for about $65000 second hand.

Westfield told me the cheapest you can put one of their cars on the road is $35,000 with a 20V and live axle rear end. You can do it less than that though if you source parts yourself.

I have seen Hayabusa powered ones go higher than that and Westfield in Perth recently sold an SR20DET powered car (with lots of other toys) for $120,000....

Those prices are absolutely stupid....go to Westfield in the UK and you can buy a Megabusa kit minus the wheels and engine for 10,000pounds!!! They also do a Ford pinto powered 'car in a box' for 6,000pounds-ish...its literally everything you need to complete the car in a box!

As I said though meeting the ADR requirements and getting the thing on the road seems to be the cost builder

[clemmie]

Hi All, In answer to some of rn -85,s questions I use one as a daily driver and have driven over 68,000km in a bit over 3 years. Agree with Bill its not real flash in the wet, but that doesn,t seem to be much of a problem these days with prolonged droughts etc. Mine has been driven around Oz as close to the coast as the bitumen goes and handled that well without any major dramas. See my website www.kymroundoz.com
I'm currently building another with a 4agze motor for supersprints and hillclimbs.

Cheers
Kym

[rick q]

Hey Kym - how are you?

Yes - you can use them as everyday drivers, but it's like riding a motorbike (noise, wind, weather etc). Very little storage.

Lots of people don't see you, got to be careful where you park (damage from others who don't see it etc) - but they're an absolute hoot.

Parking is easy (they're tiny). The top of your head is just level with the bottom of the side window of most cars. AND ... comments from others are always positive

[rn-85]

cool cool im wanting one cause im moving to nz possibly for good soon. and instead of my g/f getting a bigger motor bike she can have a lotus 7 simlar feel in the corners it good enough for me in the hills and she hates big cars. now i'll hve to get one of those big orange flags the cycleist have of a real loud exhaust.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...494257.htm?p=6

im impressed with how many people have them and the responce frome the toymods community

[deviant]

ahhhhh I think you will find things waaaaaaay easier in NZ. Me and the missus have been mulling over moving there so obviously the first thing I did was begin to check out the car scene there.

Clubmans can be built with pretty much any engine over there and the system to get it on the road is far less stringent(sp?) than here....I know one manufacturer I spoke to said that the old Ford Crossflow and Pinto engines are still popular.

[rn-85]

i was under the impresion it would be harder. cause the have the warrent of fitness every year and their rather fussy about what goes on the road over there.

[WDE_BDY]

Fussy about quality of workmanship (to a point), but once a mod is checked off as legal through certification you are all set. General safety requirements but no emissions issues (yet). The WoF is just a safety check for tyres, suspension, rust, seatbelts etc.
You will see a massive number of LEGALLY modified cars compared to Oz, particularly hot rods as we don't run with limited mileage rules. Same for rally cars as well, legal is legal.

Callum

[deviant]

*sigh* if only oz had a similar system....much fairer and easier to work with.

[rick q]

I've a mate who races a Fraser in NZ. It's a very serious piece of kit with all the fruit - 220hp 3SGE, dog box, proven history etc etc.
He went to sell it and the best he could manage was about $NZ24K - the equivalent over here would be $35 - $40,000. Trademe seems to be a good site over there - keep looking !!!

[Billzilla]

Finally got all the paint on the Fraser and I reckon it looks pretty good now.





Still lots of mechanical stuff to be done, but that's pretty much how it's going to look for good now.