Donor suitable cars come up on ebay all the time

BMW 3's seem popular as an alternative, and would probably be the next big donor.

A Scorpio would do for a number of parts, although their engine managment has PATS.

TT

Warm welcome Dan,

Agree with Ronnie there, even if you pay upto £300 for a good donor Sierra you're getting a lot of good quality parts for your money, and an easy base for upgrades for future pant wetting experiences.

Have Fun....AndyH

I have not bothered with a single donor, but I have a number of parts and have managed to source a number of others cheeaply.

Engine £50 from another of my projects
Gearbox £20 ( although I have another that cost £100)
Rear diff, Hubs, Drums £20 of fule as the were free.
Front uprights inc ball joints £45
Front brakes £from stock £10
Column £From Spares stock £10
Wheel £from spares stock £10
Alloys £from Spares stock £50
Clock £from spares stock £5
Servo £from spares stock £5
prop, starter £40

Makes about £265 spent on donor bits, no hassel of a shell to get rid of

Some shrewd work on ebay may see a similar haul for similar money. Your well placed location wise.

TT

mx5's are quite cheap at the minute, westfield do a mx5 based kit,
I'm considering another build with an early mx5 1.6 engine and box.
Hopeing all the injection system will fit under the bonnet so no need for megajolt or bike carbs.
Plan would then be to link that to the sierra rear end (come up on ebay fairly regularly). I'll then source a sierra column and probably buy the front uprights and hubs from Rallye design.
Should have about 120 bhp, if I then need more power I'll just drop a 1.8 in later or turbo the 1.6 there's plenty of kits for the mx engine.

M

You could just buy mine and drive to the track lol!

Lol, thanks guys. Appreciate all the information and help.
Would love to just buy one and drive, but it would never be the same as driving a beast of a trackday machine that I actually made myself.

Cheers,

Dan.

You will not be able to build "a beast of a trackday machine" on the cheap.

Somewhere along the line, you will need to spend decent money.
First off, you need to define cheap. I reckon £150 for a sierra is a bargain.

BUT, with the 250bhp you want, you will need to look at either
highly tuned zetec lump £££££
Cosworth £££££
something totally different £££££ as everything else will need modding.

Once you have your 'cheap' Sierra and 250bhp engine, how are you going to stop it??
Performance cars have performance brakes for a reason.

Assuming you have the power, and the ability to stop that power, you will then need wide wheels to lay that power down on the track, more ££££, or decent tyres, again, more ££££

And even if you managed to get the above at reasonable rate, there is a minutae of things to consider, such as a propshaft that can take 300bhp.

I would be seriously impressed if anybody got a 250bhp roadster on the track (not the road, so saving shedloads on lights, IVA etc) for less than £5k.

People really need to realise that big BHP is not the be all and end all of these types of cars. If you had a 170bhp beemer, and a 170bhp roadster, I would lay money on which is most fun, and fastest around a track.

There is a reason the Caterham R500 is quicker on the top gear track of lies than a £1m Veyron.

Pick one, budget, or BHP

I appreciate your honesty.
In that case, I would prefer the BHP all the way, even if I have to elongate the build a little to suit my budget.

In terms of 200-250bhp I was looking at a zetec or Duratec engine setup and was going to work on the mods for that one step at a time, not go the whole hog right away.

Thanks for the honesty.

Cheers,

Dan.

A well setup BEC with around 150bhp will smash a CEC day in day out round a track, 250bhp is only just usable, by a good driver, in something as light as this.
You won't be able to put the power down without risking theback end stepping out all the time.

I thought about all of this long and hard, and my build isn't exactly budget. I had a deposit down on a 260bhp turbo zetec when the seller pulled out. I am now undecided as to which direction I will go with the car. But, if I have 180bhp I would be more than happy, given the performance capable from a well put together and setup car such as this.

I see you keep going on about 'cheap'. I have been told may times, "Buy cheap, buy twice". Perhaps if you gave people an idea of the budget available for your build, they might be able to provide a more relevant suggestion.

There is a difference between cheap, and good value.

You say your knowledge of mechanics is small, in which case you will be paying someone to get whatever engine it is you chose up to spec. Engine builders are not cheap.

As an example
There is a very easy way to a 250bhp zetec. It's called £7700 +vat from raceline

Or, you have to turbo a normal zetec, which will cost around £2-3k, plus a fair amount of mechanical savvy.

Sorry to piss on your chips, but I think you are being totally unrealistic.
You want 250bhp - why??
You think you can handle 250bhp in a 550kg car?
You want it cheap, yet, by your own admission, you can't do it yurself.
You have chosen to ignore what a lot of people on here have given you as good advice.

This is part of the reason I have stayed off the forum for so long.

• Nobody seems to know how to use the search function
• Everybody wants something for nothing
• Loads of people joining have totally unrealistic expectations eg. 250bhp for "Cheap"

If that sounds like a rant, it's because it is. I'm pissed off with people who refuse to listen to any bit of advice given to them, and keep asking the same question until they get the answer they think they want.

If you want a track day car, look on locostbuilders, there are ex-race cars going for around 4k. Cost and performance is an exponential equation. If you want to go twice as fast, it will cost a f*ck site more than twice the money. Anybody can go fast in a straight line, where big BHP makes a difference, corner speed is where it's at in the real world

I don't see why a big HP car has to cost as lot more,

Brakes from the sierra stop 230BHP XR4x4 Turbo Technics cars so should be up to the job of stoppign a little 7.

There are wngines out there that can produce 220-240 BHP for a few hundred pounds.

Propshaft will not be a problem, sierra props will take BIG power.


But it is all a bit unneccesary..

TT