Benefits and drawbacks of a BEC

[Frosty]

There is no doubt that a CEC is better for road use. If you are intending the car to be used as a fun car for the road most of them time then the CEC is a much better choice. They are easier to drive, more refined, and will "cruise".

For me, the BEC was the only way to go since track work was the main priority for the car. Sure, it's driven on the road, so I put up with the clonks from the gear changes, and the reverse box which works, but is also a bit clunky to use. The worst part is motorway cruising though. 70mph is around 6,500rpm which is hardly relaxing.

I do love the BEC though, and once on the track it's just awesome!

[tex]

i really dont think they are that bad when you wear a helmet - but the only big pain i have noticed is it takes longer to get in - set up - suit on - helmet - when theres no doors or screen etc - you cant go out without really - unless you want sandblasting

[JeffC]

Ive had 4 years of becs and a year of cec"s. busas have quite good road manners and if they have the quaife or better still reverse box removed they are as good as a cec (other than the revs you are pulling at cruising speed). my 1st busa had a standard motor and got ragged to death on track I would guess it did thick end of 5,000 track miles driven absolutley flat out and never missed a beat, regular oil changes and maintainence they are spot on , for track use I would get a busa everytime  , a cec will need over 220bhp to stay with a standard busa

busa motors now are out there for £1500. that gets you 180bhp and a 6 speed sequencial gearbox.try and get equivelent performance from a cec for that  

[STAINLESS STEVE]

My 2001 Busa had 21000 on the clock when I bought it and I've just done a season of racing with it. Carl and Matt from on here have both gone from Bec to Cec's this season, Duratec and Red top. I know Carl has spent as much on his gearbox as I have on a complete refresh, gearbox rebuild,gas flow and cam reprofile.

We're all racing together this year again so I'm hoping I will not regret sticking with the bike lump.

I had quite a lot of grief at the end of the season with electrical component failures but put that down to them just reaching their sell by dates. Everything has been changed now so fingers crossed.

I'm going to Track and Road in Essex  next thurs for dyno setup and hope to see a nice healthy output.

[mr_fibuli]

I've had my Megablade 2 months now, my first kit car.

I did struggle to make my mind up whether to go bike, zetec or RV8 engine, each appealed to me and had pros and cons. Usage was mainly for weekend blats around North Wales with the odd trackday.

I went out for a ride in a friend’s zetec Tiger Supercat, which left me a bit underwhelmed. Tigers in particular are heavy old things so the performance wasn’t much better than my Mondeo. The sound was not that exciting to me either, just boggo 4 pot with loud exhaust.

The windscreen was pointless and you couldn’t breathe above 70 – left me thinking aeroscreen + helmet would be much more comfortable. The interior, while immaculately trimmed, wasn’t hiding the fact that you were sat in a rattly plastic box – I thought a stripped out bare bones interior made more sense.

I figured that if I was going to get an impractical weekend fun car, I might as well go the whole hog rather than messing around with carpets and roofs. As most RV8s seem to be set up as tourers this pointed me back towards BECs.

Some more pros and cons:

-Most expensive bill for engine or gear box going pop is about £1k for a whole new unit, so not too worried about reliability.

-Sounds awesome, on full chat best described as “angry”

-I actually like all the whining and clonking from the gear box – ads to the race car feel for me.

-Was surprised how well it pulls from low revs considering all the comments about lack of torque. By “low revs” I mean about 4000, but that barely feels like tickover. The result is that if you are feeling a bit lazy you can leave it in say 4th on a twisty road and you still have good power over a wide range of speeds and revs.  

-Downside is definitely cruising, if you need to use a motorway to get to some good driving roads then this may soon get on your nerves.

Saying all that though I've wouldn't mind a similar spec CEC to what I have now, though for the same performance I'd probably be looking at twice what I paid for mine.