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The £17k was for a whole new engine, as the one mentioned went pop in a big way (holes in lots of bits!). A rebuild is between £6k and £12k depending on who does it, which engine and what's required. Some can be done at home, others have to be sent to the engine builder. Most engines seem to be rated between 2500km and 4000km, but the long life Toyota engines are around 10000km. To put that into perspective, a meeting is roughly 220km, with a further 200km if you did Friday testing. So that's 10-20 meetings depending on engine/testing, which is 1.5 to 2 seasons.
Spares and parts for the cars are relatively easy to come by, as lots can be bought directly from Dallara (at Dallara prices), but more and more people are making pattern parts like wishbones and wings.
The later cars with cockpit surround padding have loads of room, so a 5'10" 70kg driver will easily fit, even with long legs. We struggled with a 6'6" 100kg ex-bodybuilder though.
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