08 Oct 2007
Weighing up options and arranging a factory visit

After looking at the best options for a bike engined kit car, Westfield looked by far the best option. We decided that we would probably be going for the Megablade kit as the kit was £1,000 cheaper than the Megabusa kit, but more importantly, the engine and gearbox we needed to use was much cheaper than the Megabusa kit.

We prepared a whole stack of questions and arranged a factory visit to see the cars, check them out for dimensions (we are both over 6ft!), and find out an accurate costing for the kit in case of any hidden charges.

Laurence


13 Oct 2007
Westfield Factory Tour

As already stated, we were interested in the Megablade (slightly cheaper) kit at first and decided the only way to know if this kit was realistic and possible for us, was to visit the factory, have a proper look around the desired model and an accurate price-up of all the parts. Without doing any of this, we would have been unsure of exactly we were getting ourselves into.

We left the house (Croydon) first thing on the Saturday morning, keen to get up there as early as possible with a 2 1/2 hour drive to the factory each way. Arriving at the factory at a fairly reasonable time we saw a line-up of various models outside. We walked in, signed in and were greeted by every member of staff in sight, lovely customer service. As we waited for our tour of the factory, we were far from bored with an absolutely top spec Megabusa sitting in the reception, wheel arches in all available colours on the wall, flyers, Westfield featured magazines, parts and options brochure and a very comfy leather sofa. Steve, the sales manager came out of the office as soon as he could to greet us and began our factory tour.

He was aware straight away from when we made the appointment for the factory tour that we only wanted a bike engine, so we didn't speak too much about the car-engined models. The tour began around the fully built Megabusa sat infront of us in Reception. We talked through various options, costs, self-build information, and the differences between the Megablade and the Megabusa models. Walking through the workshop (a very busy one at that) we were shown round a half-built Megabusa, which made certain things easier for him to explain and for us to understand.

Eventually, we were back out at the Megabusa in reception. We had a sit in, (both fitted in easily, much more legroom than expected) talked through some figures, and once again the pros and cons of the Megabusa over the Megablade....the main being newer engine as 'blade engines must be pre 95 reg, and obviously the better performance.

We were there for around 2 hours, and had a long drive home to think about our plan of action. We had a rough total figure for both the Megabusa and Megablade kits...the Megablade being considerably cheaper, now all we had to do was decide which we were to go for......
 

Matt

A pre-built Megabusa LHD model which really set us thinking. Full roll cage - possibly a little over the top, and 40kg! Engine cover off