And the decision is?

 Well - it should be pretty obvious I chose Raptor. So - what were the reasons?

Firstly its important to say that every company I contacted has been incredibly helpful. Neil from MK particularly deserves calling out, and had I been living in the south east, MK would definitely have been on the shortlist

In short though, one of the biggest single factors for me was proximity. As you can see from the map, MK are not exactly local, and even GBS are a few hours away. This is the first time I have done this, and the ability to drive over and see the company, ask them stuff, and in an emergency get the car to them for help was too big an advantage to pass up. That said, there are also a bunch of other things that I took into account.

The other main thing was that Andy was equally as helpful and enthusiastic as any other manufacturer (or possibly more!), and spent considerable time with me working out my options.

Firstly the main downside - This is going to cost me a fair whack more than some of the other options in terms of sticker price. However, the difference isn't as much as it seems up front. Given that I would have probably needed to collect other kits, the amount of driving and rental of vans/trailers would quickly have added up, and thats before you even take into account the strain on me for that distance of driving, and any related COVID avoidance issues!

Aside from that, all the other factors were positive. 

The cost being higher is partly because I am going to end up with what is largely a more modern car than some of the alternatives. Yes, there are donor parts from a sierra and and RX8 amongst other things, but the heart of the car, the engine, is a pretty up to date, modern, light, powerful and frugal engine. This hopefully means I will be able to spend a reasonable amount of time driving it and a minimal amount of time fixing it. I'm not someone who needs or wants to spend every weekend in the garage fixing it once it's built - for me it's about the exercise of putting it together and understanding better how a car works, and then driving it!

In addition, Andy and the guys at raptor are clearly really proud of the engineering on the chassis and it all seems really tough and well made, with modern geometry and setup. In general it seems like a really good package. I also chatted to a guy I know who races locost cars, and he strongly recommended Raptor as well.

Its a Scottish company and the only active car manufacturer in Scotland - I feel we need to support that! In short, I was sold.

So - what have I chosen? Behold, the mighty raptor RR235

This is running a ford ecoboost engine with an aftermarket ECU and custom tune that takes it from 180bhp to 235bhp. I chose a car engine because it's less peaky than a bike, and much more everyday driveable - bike engine cars (BEC) can be a bit manic due to the character of a bike engine.

If I decide I want more power down the line, that is doable, but to be honest 235 should be LOADS!

From Raptor's website:

Power Unit = 235 bhp  1.6 Eco Boost  

Top Speed = 152 mph

0-60mph = 3.7 secs

Weight = 555 kg

Bhp/ton = 423 bhp 

So I have placed a deposit on the chassis, and that starts being fabricated in a couple weeks. Then I have the winter to build, IVA and get it registered before the roads start drying out next spring!

If you buy the full self build kit direct from Raptor, it comes in at about £23k. I am trying to get the price down from that a fair whack and I'll let you know how I did at the end. As an example there are a few big ticket items - the most obvious being the seats. The ones raptor spec are lovely (And Heated!) but cost £800 EACH. I have seen on kitcar forums people selling off a pair of GRP race seats (which, incidentally are also very comfortable) for less than £200, so I'll keep an eye on the various marketplaces and grab some appropriate ones when they appear. I may end up upgrading the seats later on but I want to get it on the road first. There are a few other places where I can make some decent savings against raptors retail pricing - diff, driveshafts, propshafts, and there are things on the build list that I don't need (dry sump for example)

I am not trying to cut every last excess penny out however - when it comes to the key items in the car I'm going to ask Raptor to supply them and have done - with the biggest part of that being the engine and gearbox. I want to get the right car for me - my intention is to keep it for a long time, do some trackdays, enjoy the scottish roads and the sunshine when its available! I also want my wife to enjoy it, so it needs to be reliable, comfortable and relatively easy to drive.

After all that rambling, all that needs to be said is that I am beyond excited to get started, and really looking forward to the build process. Next update soon!