MK has made more than 4000 of its two-seaters, and every time we’ve tried an Indy, we’ve fallen for it. There are myriad options, from a single-donor Mazda MX-5 car to build yourself through to fully assembled and track-ready cars.
The Suzuki GSX-1300R Hayabusa bike-engined Indy RR is towards the latter end of the spectrum. As with many cars you can self-build, there’s a bunch of bespoke components (the chassis, body and so on) and a donor for some mechanicals. Traditionally that was Ford Sierra, but parts tend to be Ford-like and supplied new now.
You can buy the whole thing from £18,877 (plus engine) to build or from £23,617 (plus engine, so call it £25,000) for a fully built car. There are options around windscreens, roll cages and more, all viewable in a 200-plus-line spreadsheet in which it’s rather easy to immerse yourself.
Our RR came in a fetching yellow (the body panels are glassfibre, not part-aluminium as on a Caterham) with 13in wheels (my favoured size on such cars, usally) and a pretty racy sparse trim. A Caterham likely looks better finished, but the RR is very functional and stands up to scrutiny.
The GSX-1300R Hayabusa gearbox is retained, so behind the wheel there’s a single, centre-hinged paddle that you shift like on a bike: push for first, then pull for upshifts, with neutral between first and second.
