GU5

That kit car on Top Gear, MR2 into 'Ferrari', got me wondering. How much do you have to change the original base car for it to be considered as a kit car? Could a few 'slight' body kits be enough to get the insurance on a scoob down to kit car levels? Would be good if the cash spent on insurance could be spent on changes and mods, but still be insured

GU5

Yeah, but what is the minimun differences to the base car for it to be considered a 'kit'? Could you put the wide arch kit on a P1 and call it a 22B replica? and get cheap insurance?

Badger Stuffer

I think that the insurance will always be based on the donor car so it will always be an Imprexa even if you put a Sherman tank kit on it.

GU5

That's a bummer, would be nice to use a mini as a donor into an Impreza kit, then upgrade the engine.

Badger Stuffer

You could do that as long as you always use the Mini's subframes and hence retain it's VIN number.

GU5

Can you cut it about a bit and incorporate it into a new sub frame or does it need to be kept as a copmlete unit? As Baldrick says "I have a cunning plan"

Badger Stuffer

You can modify the subframe if you want but any work like that then you will almost definately need an engineers report for the insurance to verify the quality of your work.

GU5

So how much of the sub-frame do you need? Does it need to be welded in or just bolted on?

Badger Stuffer

I'm not sure. There would come a point when it would be a hybrid.

as long as it's safe I don't see that there would be a problem.

Best to check with someone that knows for sure though.

Good luck.

Jason....

Hoppy

The insurance difference thing was badly expressed.

What Clarkson meant was that an MR2-based kit car is cheaper to insure than a Ferrari 355.

Trying to claim your modded Scoob is effectively a kit car will send your premiums through the roof

Richard.

GU5

Another one of JC's massive exerations then

FASTER MIKE!!

is top gear repeted on sky as the video stopt at the feckin bently bit[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

mike

Brendan Hughes

I can only talk the other way round. Most kit car builders who build replicas desperately try to avoid the dreaded Q plate, which is pretty much a dead giveaway for a kit car. To do this they have to retain a high proportion of the original main parts, like engine, gearbox, suspension, back axle, erm... And it's usually up to whether the inspector who comes around got laid that morning anyway . It seemed to vary at minimum from county to county.

However, kits are themselves approved, I think by SMMT, and kit insurers have a list of kits - oh yeah it's a Dutton etc. So you turning up with a bodged impreza is probably going to double your premium, not halve it.

You could buy a dodgy Dolphin though....

Badger Stuffer

I used to have a Ferrari Testarossa kit that was based on a Pontiac Fiero. 3.9 Ltr, sounded awesome and looked identical when I parked it next to the real thing. It only cost £320 fully comp on the insurance and was very, very fast and sounded great.

I got rid of it eventually as I hated the left hand drive and was afraid to park it anywhere.



[Edited by Badger Stuffer - 5/12/2003 11:03:20 AM]