The Cardinal is the entry-level car, and it's pretty much a race car, based on performance and its bare-bones comfort features. It uses a space frame with a fiberglass body inspired by '60s sports cars. It houses the engine up front. It has fully independent pull-rod suspension at all four corners with adjustable coilover shocks. They can be optioned as single or double-adjustable units. FIA-certified racing seats and harnesses are available. It's astoundingly light, too. Although It's not far off the size of a Miata, at about 2 inches longer and also 2 inches lower, the Cardinal weighs just 1,800 pounds fully fueled but without the driver. That's around 500 pounds less than the Miata. And that's with the suggested powertrain of a 300-horsepower turbocharged 2.3-liter Ford four-cylinder with a Tremec T56 six-speed manual and a Ford 8.8-inch limited-slip rear differential. That's going to be a riot. And those parts are all readily available and easy to obtain without costing too much.
But that's not necessarily the engine you have to use. Fields sells its cars as rolling chassis, and you supply the engine. This way, if you want to register the car for the street, you should be able to via kit car rules. And Fields suggests that you could use a V8, or anything else you can fit inside. If you're just going to use the car as a track car, Fields can work with you to have a powertrain installed by the company.
The basic Cardinal chassis starts at $49,999, but the price goes up with various options including paint colors, comfort features (air conditioning and power steering), and other more advanced performance features such as adjustable anti-rollbars, ABS and automatic throttle blipping for downshifts. And of course, this doesn't include the cost of adding your engine.
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