nelmo

Hmm, a tad disappointed by GBS - they've sent me a spreadsheet of costs for a full kit which comes out to just under £13k WITHOUT the GT chassis or wet weather gear, which alone adds £2k to the price. Yet their website shows a full kit 'from' £11k INCLUDING the wet weather gear. I questioned this and they have apologised and said their website is a work-in-progress! Bugger.... I have 3 options - wonder what others think is best? 1. Get the GBS starter pack and source as many bits as possible myself (sorry, not going to strip a donor car but most bits seem available on eBay etc at reasonable costs). 2. Asked Roadrunner for costs - they came back with cost for a 'comprehensive' pack of £6, 500 and the suggestion I should budget another £4 - 6k for the rest (I'll still have to get donor bits). I'm not sure why so much for the rest but I've asked for details of what is in their comprehensive pack. PROBLEM: as it is a GRP body, they don't do a widened chassis. I absolutely do NOT fit in a standard Caterham and Roadrunner are a 500 mile round trip for me - long way to go to find I don't fit. 3. Tiger Avon? £13k for a full kit, including a new 160bhp Zetec engine, wet weather gear etc. No donor parts to find but possibly still width issue (I've asked them for dimensions).

Thanks Zach...I owned an MX6 back in the mid 90s - great car and excellent engine...

Thanks but I have some weird desire to build from scratch myself - much cheaper to buy, I know but not what I want.

I was going to do a blog but why do you need them for registration?

Might be best to walk before I can run....

Yes, but only 80bhp. I'm not fixated on speed but I weigh 115kg myself - I'm going to need at least the 130 or so of the 1.8 Mazda engine....

Yeah, that put me off totally as well - it comes half panelled, loom wired in...wheres the fun in that?

Ah, their website still says that they are working on the windscreen. I was looking at a Tiger Avon but what put me off was the video from an on-board camera - the bonnet was flapping about like a sail at speed . Possibly a one-off but I read his build blog and he seemed to do a very thorough job... I then went down to the Caterham dealer and sat in an ally panelled Caterham and it felt lovely; solid and unflappable. But cant justify the £20k + for a Caterham, which is darn annoying as the dealer is 15 minutes down the road

Thanks, that's about what I was thinking. I've sold it to my wife as costing £12k, so either get some of my own bits or learn to hide invoices

RichardL - thanks (and great blog by the way, spent a very enjoyable few hours reading it ) CMA - the Roadrunner seems too race oriented for me and i would prefer the ally panels rather than GRP. Ali - yes, thought about that but space is limited and I should explain that I work in IT, have minimal mechanical skills (I service my motorbike myself but thats it) and I have no family or friends even vaguely mechanically-minded. I'm totally on my own so stripping a car could take me as long as building the kit and I don't want to spend my time doing that. Ive asked GBS for a ballpark cost - what do you all think i should be budgeting for? I need the GT chassis and i want the full weather kit....

Hi, I've been lurking on here and other forums for a while, trying to decide on which kit to build. I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to the GBS Mazda Zero but before i trek up to the factory (I live in Surrey), I wanted to ask some questions. I have mailed GBS directly but these are questions they may not want to answer... Im happy with the look of all their kit but, following on from another thread that suggested GBS will charge a high mark-up, would it be significantly cheaper to source the Mazda engine/diff/gearbox myself, rather than accept GBSs offer? I dont know what they will charge for it yet but i am sure it will be more. However, maybe there are mods needed to the engine that GBS will do, so the extra cost is worth it? (I tried to email Zac but can't seem to do that from his blog?) Many thanks for any replies.