For Sale – Track Ready Hayabusa-Powered Birkin S3
With great regret, I am selling the Hayabusa-powered Birkin S3 I purchased in May of 2016. Not to go into too much detail, but I had a total hip replacement on my right hip in November and am not having the outcome I had expected. I am finding that braking with my right foot in autocross is causing me enough problems that I know I would be unable to attend a track day with the Birkin for the foreseeable future.
I’m not trying to make this a pity party, I intend to purchase a VW Golf R with a dual clutch transmission and teach myself to left foot brake. I will be back to the track! But I want to make it clear that the Birkin is not the fault for the short ownership, it’s just that my circumstances have changed dramatically and it makes no sense to own a vehicle that I can no longer drive. Alas.
Enough about me, now to the car that I absolutely fell head over heals with a little over a year ago…
PICTURES:
I’ve created a youtube video with pictures here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCfy4hxGN8M.
THE BIRKIN:
I purchased the vehicle from Dick Brink, who had originally sold the kit in the early 2000’s to a gentleman in San Antonio. This gentleman raced it successfully for a number of years before retiring from racing sometime around 2008. Last year, he commissioned Dick to get it running and sell it.
The engineering work that he put into the car is unbelievable. My understanding is that he is a mechanical engineer that owned a machine shop—this is not the work of a shade tree mechanic or a weekend warrior. Rather, this car is the work of a professional as a present to himself toward the end of a long career. Included with the sale is a banker’s box full of meticulously detailed files covering every aspect of the build by system.
The car is currently set up for me at 5’9” and around 150 lbs. But my understanding is the previous owner was 6’4” and I think around 230 lbs. With some pillows behind her, my daughter has autocrossed it and she is 5’2”. It’s got a quick release steering wheel that aids entry and exit, although I have no issues getting in and out with the steering wheel in place (even with my bad hip).
I weighed the car this winter at 1100 lbs. without driver. I was told by the previous owner that the engine should be making around 197 horsepower, although I have not verified that. I will say that in either first or second gear with hot 35-compound Hoosiers on concrete and pointed in a straight line, the car produces wheelspin at full throttle in second gear. And that’s with the tall gearset. It has a quick change gearset and I have shorter gears, but I just don’t see the need. What’s interesting is that even while spinning the rear wheels, the car was controllable—there was no real attempt by the car to swap ends. I don’t know if this is a function of a solid rear axle (I know nothing about drag racing, but I know they favor solid rear axles over independent rear suspensions).
I have not driven another 7 will IRS to compare but you would never know that this car has a solid rear axle just from driving it. It’s certainly nothing like a Mustang with a solid rear axle where every bump around a corner causes the rear end to skip. I’ve been told that it is a much bigger deal to have the wide front end on these 7’s (which this car does) than an IRS. And at least as far as I can tell, there may even be some advantage to the solid axle.
I did have issues last year with fuel starvation in the first autocross, and in turn 4 at Virginia International Raceway. The car has a 5 gallon main tank as well as a swirl tank. I replaced the rear fuel pump and rerouted and replaced all the rubber fuel lines and did not have problems when I subsequently autocrossed it (although I have not returned to VIR due to my hip). It’s my belief that the old rubber fuel lines were kinking and reducing fuel flow, hence the new fuel lines fixed the issue. I've also not had success using the paddle shifters, but manually operating the sequential transmission has been delightful. The reversing mechanism is trouble free (although sometimes the car has to roll forward/backward an inch or two to engage it).
The installed harnesses are 6-pt Schroth ASR, and are street legal and can be used as 4-pt as well. They are out of date, so for HPDE’s they are fine (check your group’s rules), but would need to be re-webbed for racing. The fire bottle is just below the green zone on pressure.
The condition of the vehicle is “track ready”. In other words, it’s no garage queen. I’ve tried to do the best I could in the pictures to point out any flaws. There are chips in all of the fenders, and a cone caused a three inch split in the middle of the right rear fender. The aluminum panels are scratched in numerous places. Like I said, “track ready”.
STARTUP / DRIVE / WALKAROUND:
Here is a video of me starting it up yesterday cold after it had been sitting for about 6 weeks and taking it for a spin (note that the car is not titled so I should not be driving it on public roads. I do have a Manufacturers Certificate of Origin and it was my intent to put headlights and turn signals on it and get it titled). It normally fires up immediately on the first crank, but I think the battery was a little flat from having sat so long, so it took an extra fraction of a second to catch. (I know I should have it on a trickle charger, but I never intended to be going so long between drives): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUuzANPGXYc.
ASKING PRICE:
$22,000 or best offer. I also have an open trailer with brand new tires, bearings, and electrical connector that I could throw in for another $1000. Please PM me if interested and make an offer.
MORE VIDEOS:
VIR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COoYHszMAt0&t=11s.
Autocross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt4dX6NtTDQ.
For Sale: Track Ready Hayabusa-Powered Birkin S3 (Lotus 7 clone)
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