Gompo

Looked back through the last 60 pages of this section in hope that i dont raise a subject that's already been mentioned with my first post...
So, anyone seen, driven, been a passenger in one of these? They must have been one of the first of the new generation of bike engined cars. They'd still keep up with a lot of the BEC's now wwith their 4.3secs to 60 and 129 top speed, and with a more upto date bike engine they'd perform a bit better aswell (they came with the FZR 1000cc 143 bhp engine not bad, i know).
So, any comments? Not had any experience of one myself

Cheers, Greg.

GaryC

Have been passengered in one (in turn for passengering the owner in my Bike-engined Westie). Very nice, very quick, strange experiance being line-astern, would imagine a great driving experiance..but....

Compared to modern BECs, they are quite heavy (c5-600kg IIRC) and they were very expensive (c£40k - 3 times a megablade and over twice a (quicker) Megabusa). With and XTR2 available for £25k fully built, it is a bit wide of the mark VFM wise.

Gompo

The kerb weight it supposed to be 400kg, but i am not so sure about this. I agree with you regarding the VFM thing, but i am sure XTR2's [along with other BEC's] will gain in popularity so they might worth the extra for exclusivity? I wasn't really asking because i was wanting to buy one, more out of pure interest. I am far from being able to afford one, and infact have never seen one for sale 2nd hand + cant see them depreciating much.
So being a passenger you were sat behind the driver, right? How did it feel, tight fit or...?

Cheers, Greg.

matt d

There's a guy on the evo magazine forum (www.evo.co.uk) who owns one, he seems to love his. They weigh 400kg and are made from bespoke race-spec components (brembo 4 pots, transaxle, 10 speed sequential gearbox, space-frame chassis etc) and are IMO better quality in terms of build and design than a Caterfield (that was also why they were so expensive). Gordon Murray had input into the design, along with a race-car driver who ran the company.

Performance is a bit unclear - technically with 140bhp they shouldn't be much quicker than a Caterham Superlight, however Autocar got extremely fast 0-100mph times in their test a few years back. Some of the in-gear figures were crazy, such as 60-100mph in 2.8s! Not sure if that was a "tweaked" example though - the firm quotes 0-100 in around 10s, with a top speed of around 145mph. There were plans to build a Light Car Company "Lightning", which was basically a Rocket with a V8 engine made from two bike engines, putting out 300bhp and weighing 500kg i.e. a better power/weight ratio than a Formula Palmer Audi race car! (a future project there perhaps?)

The ride quality was highly praised in reviews, and described as similar to luxury cars like the Beemer 5 series. Reviews praised the handling for being very controllable, like a Forumula Ford. Prices are unclear as so few come up for sale, and only about 40 were made, and only 15 kept in the UK. I saw one offered by Caterham in their showroom at £25k. I think it would be hard to buy one for less than 21-22k, and if you don't see any advertised then you might have to "pay up" to persuade someone to part with one, as several are in collections or "not for sale". And don't forget to add on £££ for leather cap, flying goggles & sheepskin jacket for that authentic "Biggles" look!

Have you heard of Jay Leno at all (big-time chat-show host/comedian in the US)? There was a CAR feature on his motor collection, including a McLaren F1. Anyway, Leno reckoned the Rocket was quicker point-to-point! Not sure if that's true, or if it just *felt* quicker. Anyway, I'm trying to line up a test drive of one at the moment, so I'll post back if/when I get a go in one and let you know what I think.

Gompo

Hi Matt, good luck on getting a test drive, I hope to hear from you experience soon!
I have an article where it's the Rocket V's the Super Seven JPE, and although the JPE won [obviously a far but faster] it was still a relatively close run thing i think - will have to read it again.
Yes, I am aware of Jay Leno (seen the show, dont find it that great but anyway...) i am surprised he had the taste or even knew about the Rocket, that guy must have some money. I would agree with the comments regarding being a similar feel to a Formula Ford, i would imagine with the suspension set up properly it would be a superb handler.
Guess no-one else is interested in these, but hope to hear about your experience if you get the chance to drive one Matt.

Cheers, Greg.

Brendan Hughes

Car Mag recently featured Jay Leno, he has a collection of 80 cars and drives ALL of them.