NEW PROJECT – 20vt Locost
Hi All,
I would just like to start my new thread on what I have been planning over the last year, and recently (4months) started building.
I have always wanted to build a Caterham / Westfield style kit car. And for many years I have owned and read the “build a sports car for £250” book. The two major biggest problems with this book in my opinion for the design of this car are that:
1) It uses an engine layout which is now harder to find and would require steering towards more expensive donor options (BMW for example).
2) I feel performance wise I can get more “power” for my money using a FWD car for the donor.
What I started doing last winter, when the nights were cold and dark, was to come up with the line drawings for a Mid engined 7 style car, a locost. From the drawings I have made a mock up in wood, this is 25mm square the same as the mild steel box section I will be using on the real car. The idea of the mock up was to test the sizes and make sure the engine fitted….
The opportunity came up at work to buy a 97’ coupe 20valve Turbo from a mate who was going to trade it in, the only problem with the car was the clutch was slightly slipping – but still drivable!
This I snapped up and since then have been breaking it and selling off some of the parts.
The next stage of the build is to get my garage done out, it currently is not boarded out and is very cold and some times damp.
I appreciate any comments, this has been a long time dream to build a kit car. I reluctantly recently sold my Celica GTfour ST205 in order to buy a Toyota Auris. This is a nice – fairly ordinary car for every day driving. The Locost is designed to be used for filling that gap and I am hoping that it will be a “lot” more fun that the GTfour.
Cheers, Rob