17yr old needing advice

[daz_davison]

I am 17, currently learning to drive. I have been looking at insurance for "normal" hatchbacks and found the prices to be ridiculous. I read somewhere on this site that kit car insurance is actually "young driver friendly". Is this true?

Could anyone suggest a cheap-ish kit build. Something not too fast at the moment, but can beupgraded later on for more power.

[Ferg]

Hi,
My son is 17 in October and is slowly building a Luego Velocity with an 1100cc Crossflow engine for which he has been quoted £750 to insure.
Look at Seven replicas with small engines and you should get a good deal.

[daz_davison]

What info did you need for the insurance company and which insurer did you use?

[Ferg]

We spoke to Footman James. Ring them and ask for a quote based on a ficticious car. Go for a fairly small engine initially. Try 1300cc, there are a fair few 1300 Locosts about in the classifieds/ebay etc. They won't worry about what make the car is I wouldn't think.

[daz_davison]

Was thinking of using a mk4 1.3 fiesta zetec with tiger avon lowcost kit. Would i be able to use just the fiesta parts or would i still need a lot of other donor parts? Things like getting another gearbox would be acceptable.

[Ferg]

Fiesta would need a rear wheel drive gearbox and some sort of rear axle arrangement. Tom's Velocity (lovely kit!) is Sierra based so we just went to the scrapyard and got everything we needed. Since the engine was too big (for insurance) we got hold of an Escort 1100cc including 'box to put in.
I think the Avon is Sierra based isn't it? In which case get a Sierra and the engine seperately. OR just get the bits you need, but that will include the V5 registration document if yopu want to get an age related rather than Q plate.
Take a look at ALL the 'Locost' kits. I wasn't very impressed with the Avon. And visit www.locostbuilders.co.uk