MK Indy

Purchased November 2005

This is my track day toy. It's an MK Indy with an 893cc Honda Fireblade Engine. 893cc might not sound a lot, but when you consider it revs to nearly 12000rpm, that makes racing car material!

Specification

The specification of the car is as follows: -

• MK Indy Chassis, with independent rear suspension
• 893cc Honda Fireblade engine
• 6 speed sequential gearbox
• 11750rpm rev limit
• Fibreglass shell seats
• ETB Digidash
• 116bhp measured at the wheels and about 460Kg, equating to > 250bhp/tonne
• 0-60 in about 4 seconds
• Geared for top speed of about 120mph

The Kit

The car is a Kit car made by MK Sportscars in Worksop. I didn't build the car from kit form, I cheated and bought one that had already been built. I did this for 2 reasons: -

• It takes a lot of time and patience to built a kit car, neither of which I have in droves.
• I'm not much of a mechanic, but buying a pre-built car is a good way to learn through tinkering.

101 use for a kit car

The car is road legal, so on a nice summer's day I take it for a spin around the moors. However, it's impossible to get anywhere near to the limits of the car on the public road, so track days is where the real fun is to be had.

This car is quick on track. Very quick. It's happiest on corners where it sticks like glue both to the track and the the car it's following. It's very quick off the mark, too. Where it falls down is in the top end. Because it has a motorcycle engine with less torque than larger engines, and is as aerodynamic as a breeze-block, acceleration tails off once it gets over about 100mph. This makes it less suitable for larger circuits because the larger engined cars pull away on the straights.

The 6 speed sequential gearbox, clutchless upshifts and 12000rpm red line make this car a whole lot more fun, and closer to a real racing car than anything else on track, and it will show a clean pair of heels to cars costing many times more than it did.

Track days I've done so far are: -

• Elvington Airfield
• Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit
• Oulton Park
• North Weald Airfield (for driver training with www.carlimits.com)
• Teesside Autodrome (twice)
• Anglesey Circuit