What is an Indy?
The Indy is a Lotus 7 'inspired kit car designed & manufactured by MK Engineering. The car is built around a box section steel space frame chassis with fibreglass and Aluminium bodywork, making it very strong, but lightweight. The Ford Sierra serves as the donor car, providing all the major mechanical items such as engine, transmission, steering & brakes. Other engines can also be used, with high power bike engines such as the Honda Fireblade being very popular.
Why Build An Indy?
The main reason (for me) to build a car like the Indy is that for less than the cost of a second hand Beige family saloon you can build a 2 seater open top sports car with handling and a power to weight ratio better than many exotic cars costing ten times (or more) the price. This makes it an economical way to have a second 'FUN' car for the summer and perhaps some track days!
Choosing MK And The Indy?
After deciding that I wanted to have a go at building a kit car I soon realised that that was the easy part - I then had to choose which make of car to build. I narrowed it down to 3 manufacturers and set off around the country to have a closer look! After many miles and much tyre kicking I arrived at MK to meet Martin et al and have a look at the Indy. Straight away I felt relaxed at Martin's workshop, tea was offered and drunk and Martin's dad showed us round the workshop explaining all the bits, how they are made and how they fit together. Then it was time to drive the FireBlade engined demonstrator car and not being a bike rider the prospect of 6 sequential gears and twice the rev limit seemed like an amusing prospect. We were strapped in, given some pointers on how the car worked and a suitable test drive route and told to enjoy!
Let's just say I enjoyed it!!! particularly the acceleration and the noise....
After meeting the guys at MK, seeing the kit and driving the car I was convinced that the MK Indy was the car for me. The friendliness of the people and excellent design and build quality of the chassis ran rings around the other manufacturers I looked at.
In the BUILD DIARY you can follow my progress with the project and watch the car taking shape!