drew8mc

Sort of a Seven but it's mid-engine. Interesting design. Anyone ever seen this car in the flesh? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Replica-Kit-Makes-Wycked-7-2-dr-/261978684331?forcerrptr=true&hash=item3cff257bab&item=261978684331

Awesome. We have a one way flight on June 30th. I'd love to meet up with a Seven owner and get a ride. I'll be living in Beaverton.

Or worse yet, she'll want to drive it all the time.

So I mentioned the kit for the first time to my wife this weekend. She didn't say no. Well, she did say she didn't want to be "that house" on the street with junked donor cars on blocks. No argument there. When I first started dating her, she was driving a convertible Nissan 350Z. She's more of a speed demon than I am, and loves convertibles. I said we could take it on dates. She didn't say no. The seed has been planted.

Thanks everyone for the responses. Unfortunately we will be moving to Oregon at the end of June so I won't be able to make it down to NJ at all. But someone did PM me locally about having a car. I'll see if maybe he can take me for a ride. The more research I do, the more I lean toward one of the more traditional sevens, rather than the Stalker, although having driven neither, what do I really know?

Thanks Mike, Firstly, it's hard to know what style of driving I would prefer. My current garage arsenal contains two turbocharged fours that like to be up higher in the rev range. (VW GTI, AUDI A4). I wouldn't mind some low end grunt though. While I'm currently in MA, I will be moving to OR at the end of June. Not sure how difficult registration is there. Drew

Thanks Dave. Looked a little at Westfield, and the Honda engines have a great rep. Do you mind sharing the cost of the kit and the overall cost to you? You can PM me if you don't want that public. How was your build experience? How long did it take.

Hello all, I have become enamored with the idea of building a Seven. It is quite an irrational obsession as I have never built anything of the sort, only really just started wrenching on my own car, and don't really have the money at the moment. However, I love projects of various types and making things with my hands is something I enjoy. I am an architect by trade, and the Seven design ethos really appeals to the form-follows-function modernist in me. I have always loved cars especially from a design perspective (I'm a huge Alfa Romeo fan). I know that half the answers to this post will tell me to buy a used one and that would seem to make sense, except I feel I would not understand the car fully, which is the reason for building the kit. I have done a fair bit of research on some of the sevens by reading build blogs mostly on this site and others. This gives me a good idea of the work required to complete a project. There are several areas that are quite intimidating such as wiring. The bowl of spaghetti wiring harness seems hopeless for me. I have several questions for those that have built various kits and those who drive these cars. Firstly, I hope to use this mostly as a fun street car. If someday I could take it to a track day event I would love that. The first questions relate to the design of different kits. 1. I am 6'-2" around 200lbs. What kit would you recommend that I would be comfortable in for weekend cruising? 2. I have looked extensively at the Stalkers and I like the suspension setup and the supercharged V6 drivetrain but I know that some purists think this strays too far from the original Seven. Would a Birkin or other kit which uses the Ford 2.0 be a better choice for a street car where top speed is less important? These questions relate to the actual build itself. 1. What kit is the easiest to build? I'm guessing Caterhams are the easiest, but their price just seems out of reach for me in the near term. 2. It is hard to know how much a kit build will cost. Is there a major difference between the Stalker, Birkin, or other kit? I know there are many options to each kit, and Brunton seems to give the best range from upper 20's to low 30's. On the Birkin USA site they explain that you can get a Build Group 1 kit for $5k and then purchase the other build groups later, but that still doesn't include the drivetrain. Does anyone know the total cost comparison? Is this an irrelevant question? 3. What company gives the best support to someone like me who would probably have a ton of questions? 4. I see there are some people who just cannot finish a build and end up selling their half built kit. What is the best way to avoid this? I'm willing to invest the time and by reading the build blogs I'm under no delusions about the length of time it takes to complete one. 5. How do I tell my wife that I want to take up a spot in the garage by an immovable object for 2 years for a car we can't fit the kids in? Wow! I'm sorry this is so long winded, but you folks here are a bottomless pit of information and would value any insight into this world. Thanks in advance. Drew