After the visit to the factory, it was time to crunch the numbers to see whether or not the 'busa was realistic instead of the 'blade. Obviously either would be great, but if the higher spec could be afforded then we would obviously be going for that...its how the car world works lol. In order to keep costs down we have decided to source our own engine, gearbox, wheels and tyres. All of these can obviously be supplied by Westfield, but they charge in the region of £7,000 for a 'busa engine and gearbox alone, as they buy a new Suzuki Hayabusa and then break the bike. Doing our research we have recently found companies that can offer virtually new Hayabusa engines for in the region of around half that. With this in mind, the 'busa kit was looking like more and more of a reality.

Insurance....

Being 25, Laurence would find a nice cheap quote, however, at 20 it was more difficult and I could not be added as a named driver. The only way I could get insured comprehensively would be to have the policy in my name, and add Laurence as a named driver on my policy. This put it up a fair bit, but its the only way, and lets be honest, its well worth it. Oh and believe me, its a lot lot lot less than what my insurance was on the Clio Trophy at 19, so I am only too happy to pay it.

Garage.........check, Insurance........check, Funds...........check

"Hello? Westfield? 1 Megabusa Please!!!"

We decided what options to go for and then called westfield to order the kit on the 18/10/07.

We decided to go for: Westfield Megabusa, Lime Green paint, AP Racing 4-pot front brakes, Quaiffe Limited-slip Differencial, wider front track, long range fuel tank, black front cycle wings, detachable rear arches, and a set of chassis stands...very necessary for the build. Deposit taken, and a collection date given of 5th-7th December 2007. The wait begins...

A week ago we sent a letter in to westfield with a cheque for the second installment as requested by them, and to confirm all of our options and to request the build manual early so that we could make sure we had all necessary (and spare) tools, screws, nuts, bolts, anything and everything that would avoid lengthening the built time due to lack of equipment.

We recieved an email today to say that they have received the cheque, the build manual is on order and will be with us soon and to confirm that the order is in build and to confirm that all of our options have been added, even our request for them to put the roll cage mounts on the rear of the car to save us doing it should we choose the full roll cage at a later date.

All is well it seems and they should be sending us some progress pictures of the built of the foundations of the kit.

As requested by us and as promised by Westfield, the build manuals came through early today, two big folders of them. Having a quick read through they are very very detailed as expected. Most importantly, looking at the 'list of all tools needed' page inside the folders, most of everything required we already have....at least to get started anyway. The only things we need are a fair way down the build progression line, meaning all is well and we are still on course for the kit to be ready for collection from 5th December 2007.

With just under a month until collection, Westfield today confirmed that our space-frame chassis was built and ready for power coating. They kindly attached a picture of our frame and informed us that we are still looking good for collection at around the first week of December. It's all starting to take shape, so this weekend should be spent cleaning out a nice space for it in the garage...

We have decided to get our engine from Yorkshire Engines. Malcolm (the owner) seems very popular on the kit car forums, and clearly has a good reputation.

He is quoting a really good price for a brand new 2007 Hayabusa engine with zero miles covered. This engine is complete with gearbox, wiring loom, and ECU. He shifts these engines all the time, and says he can get hold of one in 2 weeks maximum for £3,400.

There are much cheaper engines out there with around 4,000 miles on them out of ex-race cars and other Westfields etc. but I think it's far better to pay more money and get a brand new engine, and give a guy with a great reputation the benefit of the sale. Better still, if the engine goes bang after 10 miles, a company is always better to deal with than an individual.

Also, who will we be phoning when we're stuck with wiring for example? Malcolm will have no problem spending 2 minutes on the phone if he has been given the benefit of the sale. This kind of thing is always worth paying extra for.

So now the dilemma 2007 spec or 2008 spec?

The Suzuki Hayabusa has just been revised for 2008 and the new Hayabusa engine is now increased from 1,299cc to 1,340cc, and is also up from 178bhp to 198bhp. 20bhp is a massive gain in such a light car. However, the following problems are present:

• Wiring - the 2008 spec has a much more complicated wiring loom and all will need fitting/adapting to the car.
• Compatibility - No one at Westfield has fitted a 2008 spec engine yet, so we don't even know if it will fit the Megabusa chassis!
• Reliability - The 2008 spec engine is 2 weeks old and is so far unproven in a bike engined car. Malcolm has sold 2, but they are not running yet in cars yet.

So do we play it safe and stick to a 2007 spec engine, or go for the 2008 spec and gain another 20bhp? We have to add the Westfield dry sump kit on top which is another £1,300 and Malcolm is not sure if it will fit the 2008 spec engine, but he is using a 2008 spec engine himself in the next 2 weeks so will have a lot more information to give us on the chassis/sump compatibility and the complexity of the wiring.

We'll reach a decision in the next 2-3 weeks, but I would like the extra 20bhp if I'm honest.

Westfield called us yesterday just to confirm that the final payment was needed for the expected finish date of Wednesday 5th December 2007. They mentioned that they may be able to push the kit forward to Saturday 1st December, but that would have been a bit too much for them so they comfirmed the 5th once again. The 1st would have been great but we were not too disheartened seeing as we were originally prepared to pick it up Saturday 8th since putting the order in anyway. We can go Wednesday 5th but due to work commitments we decided to leave it until the Saturday. 

Anyway, the final payment was made over the phone today and we also ordered the Westfield Sump Kit too. The excitement is really starting to kick in for both of us now, time has gone so fast in the previous weeks that we have not had time to look forward to it, but we really are so close to picking the car up now that it is hard to think of much else to be honest, especially with the 'Racing Car is Born' Westfield build on Discovery Turbo.

Not long now....

Today the kit is ready, westfield have sent us through 2 pics of the chassis, now powdercoated and ended the email with the words 'see you Saturday,' which is nice to read. The kit is paid for in full already but having specified the Westfield Dry Sump Kit a couple of days ago, we had to contact them to pay for it before we arrived on the Saturday morning.

Over the last few weeks we have been in talks with Malcolm at a company called Yorkshire Engines and we are so so happy with the service he has provided to us. He has given us so much information as to which route to go down and eventually we have purchased an engine from him.

We were unsure as to how new we wanted the engine, obviously common sense would dictate the newer the better but there were a couple of problems with that....We were looking at the brand new 2008 Hayabusa engine, its brand new (obviously), bored out, more power and torque and other advantages too. However, when this idea was brought up with Malcolm he recommended we stick with a 2007 engine, the main reason being as the 2008 engine is new, it is untested in the bikes, let alone in the Westfields. Nobody knows enough about the engine, it might not even fit into the Westfield, so the best bet was to go for a 2007 engine which a number of other owners have gone for and had successful results.

We then thought about a brand new engine, but talking to another Megabusa owner (see their site at www.megabusa.co.uk) he recommended getting one that has some miles on it already, so that we do not have to run the engine in when the car is fully built.

With this information on board, we got back in contact with Malcolm at Yorkshire Engines and have purchased our engine. It is virtually brand new, a 2007 Suzuki Hayabusa Engine with only 830 miles since new. The best of both worlds, and we have been informed it will be with us next Wednesday. Top service from Malcolm and he is highly recommended by us.

Anyway, here are the basic stats of the engine:

2007 Suzuki Hayabusa Engine, 1299cc, 178bhp, 102lb/ft, 11,000 rpm redline, 6 speed gearbox.

if you want the detailed spec, then you can look here:

http://www.suzuki-bikes.com/2007-Hayabusa-1300.php

With collection day on the 8th we thought it was about time to give the garage a quick clearout as we were not quite sure just how much room there would be around the chassis to work. We wanted to get rid of some junk, get the dust and leaves out and give the floor a quick wash. First thing was first, we got the cars out and moved everything from 'our' (formerly my dad's) side of the garage to the other.

Then we gave our side a quick dry sweep and then began to put water and washing up liquid down to just clean the floor a little.

Then we moved everything out of the otherside to outside of the garage completely and repeated the same process...

Let it dry briefly and then put what we wanted back into the garage, but moved a few bits around to leave the finished product as:

Much more space.....all ready for Saturday now!

Its arrived, our first day of Westfield ownership, and with a 160 mile trip each way ahead of us we are up at 6, aiming to leave for 6:30. By the time we set off it is just before 7 which isn't bad, with westfield opening at 9 we shouldn't be too far off of that. The weather was great locally but as soon as we got on the motorway heading North, cloud gathered and the rain started to fall pretty hard, and there were even a couple of crashes right infront of us on the way. The wind also blowed the light rear of the Luton Van around a fair bit too....not the greatest we have ever felt in a vehicle but it was the only way to get the car back to home.

Anyway, we made good time and arrived at Westfield around about 9.30 a.m, and we popped in to say hello and have a quick nose about. Looking through to the warehouse we spot a bright green shell with a huge trolley of parts under it...."That must be ours!" "Yep!" Steve replied. The colur looked so impressive under the lights in the factory.

Laurence backed the van into the warehouse and the staff were not wasting any time in loading up. As things were loaded onto the van we were just briefly taken through everything that was in each box, it is fascinating looking at everything. A few bits were missing, such as reverse box, LSD and then much more minor parts, but nothing that would hold the build up. Two of the parts missing were black harnesses and the dash and dials. They were out of stock of black harnesses, but did have red and blue, so we opted for red as it would stand out against the black seats, unlike the black harnesses. Going for lime green bodywork, we obviously were not too worried about parts of the car standing out. Another thing missing was the dials, but this didn't bother us, asking about the stack dials which most cars in the factory seemed to have, they reminded us of the Digi Dash which is only just out (we were planning on upgrading to this at a later date anyway) but as we didn't have our dials we brought it there and then...it looks fantastic and comes with a carbon fibre dash as part of the package too.

Whilst the loading continued, we went to have another look at the already built Megabusa sitting in the Reception room. Chris from Westfield just called us into a room to apologise that some of the parts had not arrived in time, and assured us that as soon as they arrive in they will be couriered to us next day. As already stated it has not really bothered us as nothing on the list will really hault the build progress. There is probably no more than 15 parts still to come, which is not too bad out of a whole car so we were far from annoyed.

Once the van was packed up fully we said our thankyou's and our goodbye's and were on our way.

We got home not too long before dark, and had to unload and get the van back to Gatwick. When unloading you realise just how well the staff had packed everything, they really knew what they were doing and there was no damage. The Westfield Chassis stands were set up, the chassis went on them and then the boxes were stashed around the garage. We had room for everything and then went to drop the van back, and prepared for a whole first day of building early in the morning tomorrow.

Brilliant day.

We had lots of trouble searching for all the relevant information regarding wheel sizes....this required numerous phone calls to Westfield, and many searches on owners forums, search engines. Eventually we found all we needed and got the wheels of choice ordered and have decided to list all the details here so other owners can find the information with greater ease.

Originally I wanted 13 inch Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2's in Black. I have loved these wheels ever since I first laid eyes on them and had seen them fairly commonly on kit cars and just assumed that they would come in 13 inch sizes. However, they do not, they come in 14 inch sizes minimum but Westfield assured us the car performs leaps and bounds better on 13 inch wheels.

The search continued, but eventually we laid eyes on Compomotive CXR's. They dom come in black as wanted, and they are 4.8kg per wheel. SOLD!

Tyres we only had one set in mind....Toyo R888 semi slick (but road-legal) tyres.

Westfield had told us 205 profile all-round was what they recommended but after talking to another owner he recommended 185's at the front and i quote "unless you like oversteering into lamposts"! We decided to try 185's a go.

Anyway, here is the required spec for wheels and tyres for a Megabusa:

 WHEELS: 7 x 13 inch, et24 offset, Ford 108 PCD (4 stud pattern)

TYRES: 185/60/13 at front, 205/60/13 at rear.

We are really happy with the look of the wheels, they should set the lime green bodywork a treat, and the light blue RAYS lightweight wheel nuts look great too.

Hope this info helps...