Couple of Locost 7 craigslist ads...
 

Just stumbled on these.

442 Locost 7

442 Locost 7 - $700 (Thousand oaks)




Locost Lotus 7 Kit Car project, Mazda Miata drivetrain

Locost Lotus 7 Kit Car project, Mazda Miata drivetrain - $2750 (Camillus)

building a kit car is ALOT of work. Trust me I know... I bailed on a project two years in.

But the results are very fun. less than 5 lbs per hp in some cases........

The Camillus one has been in there a while. Lots of promises, but no proof of claims. For instance, he says the motor is "low miles", but can provide nothing to back it up. He's also had it in there for 6-8 months, and no change in price.

Is the frame supposed to look all rusted?

It IS rusted. Not a problem for locost builds, and they're usually painted with POR15, and you need some surface rust for it to convert and bond to.

Interesting, how far are you from that one? You say it has been for sale for a long while. I wonder if it will still be available in the spring. At that price I might want to pick it up and attempt to finish it.

A locost 7 has always been something that I have wanted to build.

It's outside of Syracuse. About 1 to 1.5 hours depending on where.

So far it's been for sale at least since early summer. No change in price, pics or description in all that time.

Why have I never heard of this mystical "book" that you can build one of these from?

$700 seems very reasonable to me. There's got to be $700 worth of tubing in it.

pron for car guys.

Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250 and Race It!,2nd Ed.: Ron Champion: 9781859606360: Amazon.com: Books



Building a locost lotus 7 replica in the USA

Building a Sevenesque Roadster - plans

see you in a few weeks. :brain:

locosts are made from 1 inch square 16ga tube. Last time I got some it was like 20 bucks for 20 foot lengths.

The book that golftdibrad linked to is extremely well-known within the locost community. It's sort of the Bible, and if I understand correctly was the basis for Keith's early locost build as well.

The first book costs over $100 for a used copy, FML. I have Keith's book and have read through it a few times. I will check out the last 2 links and start reading.

If only it was affordable.

Wow- I didn't realize that the Champion book had gotten that pricey.

I ehem, know a guy that knows a guy, that might have a copy that was scanned to PDF.....

You have a pm.

If that was the one in Camillus, I'd have gotten it by now.

BTW, I've got the book and read it many times. Lots of pics, and quite outdated. My copy says 17.99 on the back cover. I doubt my brother (who bought it for me) paid much over 20 bucks, if even that much. I got it for Christmas about 10 years ago. It may have gone out of print since then, but the plans for the frame are available online. Search McSorley Locost.

Hell, here's the link: http://www.sevenesque.com/

I wish I had that link during a slow time at work. I will definitely be spending some time reading it all.

Also you have a pm.

Thousand oaks is about 4hr 30min for me... Hummmmm

The Gibbs version of the book is basically a newer version of the Champion book.

I ordered the Gibbs one today. Some of the reviews on amazon said it was not as good as the original.

The frame in the Gibbs book is a bit larger in length (2"), width (2") and height (1") to accomodate more modern engines and more modern larger people. The frame in Ron Champion's book is closer in size to the original S3 Lotus 7's dimensions.

yes. most built a "442" frame, which IIRC is 4 inches longer, 4 inches wider, and 2 inches taller.

Yes, the Gibbs frame is a compromise. Book frame isn't long or wide enough, so many went the 442 route. Only to find they wished they'd gone smaller. Makes it look a lot leaner the narrower you go, but you have to have the front frame width for modern intakes.

I hate you all. I now really want to build a locost 7. I just need a garage that I can fit a car inside and a welder.

I have both. Relocate to Rochester, and I'll provide the space.

They are sweet.

BUT. before you start.. realistically see how much time you can devote to it. Its probably 200-400 hours of work. there are 8760 hours a year, and 5840 of those are spent working and sleeping. There are kits that can give you a big head start. Some places even sell turn key cars for the price of a VW GTI, but you need cash up front. Its all about how much your time is worth to you, and how much you'd rather be driving vs. building.

And a turbo, of course. ;)

Yeah, devoting time to a project like this is the challenge. It's been almost 2.5 years since I bought a donor and the Locost is still more dreaming than reality!

Wouldn't be a Miata Locost build if you didn't turbo it. I'm 4 years into my build and I can attest to the time/money/effort it takes to bring one of these cars to fruition. But if you enjoy the fabrication side of building cars it doesn't get any better than this.

LocostUSA.com • View topic - JAF's +221-Haynes/Custom-Miata

Don't you get a lot of snow up there, and isn't it always cold? That does not sound like a good environment for having a 7.

I am not in any hurry of getting started. I have wanted to do a Westfield 7 ever since FM has started selling them. Unfortunately I am not that keen on spending 18k or whatever they are up to now for the kit. So I have been looking heavily into the MOV Exocet because it is around 6k for the kit. I have the spare miata ready and waiting to be taken apart for use in whatever I decide to build.

Truthfully the lack of fabrication skills is the biggest hold back for building my own. Maybe in the future that will change. For now I will spend time enjoying the books, and if in the spring things change and that car up in NY is still for sale I might go for it.

Yes, and the garage is unheated. You wanna build a man's car, you have to cowboy up and take a little discomfort.

Or you could just get a salamander type heater.

Question.

The 442 Frame from Sevenesque like the Champion frame is setup for a live axle. The Gibbs book outlines a frame for IRS.

Has anyone combined the two?

The easiest route is to integrate the entire Miata rear subframe.

Others have designed their own rear control arms and modified the "Book" frame as necessary to locate the pick-up brackets and differential mounting points.

There are also plans for modifying the Haynes chassis for Miata uprights. http://www.ntsengineering.co.uk/asse...Guide-rev3.pdf

I moved the thread to the Insert BS section since this has become more of a discussion.

I really want a 7 now.

You know what I really want? A 356 or 550 style roadster that doesn't rely on a 60s vintage VW swingaxle rear suspension and torsion-bar front suspension.

[/threadjack]

Or aircooled VW powerplant...

I've wanted a Locost for years and have ridden in one on a large autocross course before. Do want.

To be honest, the ACVW engine doesn't bother me. It's extremely compact, extremely lightweight, and can, if properly built and cared for, be made to produce respectable amounts of power (admittedly, at the cost of respectable amounts of money.) Even though the T4 (aka Porsche 914) engine is the choice of serious hot-rodders today, the T1 (Beetle / Ghia) engines are still quite capable and well-supported in the aftermarket- you can even buy brand new all-aluminum cases and mega-port heads for them, along with pre-fabbed turbo headers, injector-ready throttle bodies, dry-sump systems etc.

All in all, it's a good engine for a car like that. If Subaru could shave 150 lbs and about 12" of width off of an EJ20, and eliminate the need for a radiator, then it would be an excellent choice as well. Of course, it would also be a VW engine at that point.

It's the suspension that kills those cars. I remember once reading a review of either the Beck or Thunder Ranch 550, and one thing the said in particular stuck with me (emphasis is mine):That kind of sucks, especially for something so beautiful and with such an awesome power:weight ratio.

It bothers me. And that thing is heavy, no way an ej20, full of water, and a radiator is heavier than that.

Are you kidding me? I can pick up a type 1 longblock (sans alternator / fan / manifolds) by myself. If a fully-dressed EJ20, with radiator and coolant, doesn't weigh twice as much as a fully dressed T1 with fan, I will eat my own hat.

There's more to it than weight, of course. Placing a radiator in a vehicle body not originally designed to accommodate one is rarely done in a manner which is both effective and aesthetically pleasing.

I cant speak to the type1, but my t4 with the 103's.... it was out of the question to pick up alone even with the heads and fan housing off. that thing has got to be pushing 300 lbs as a full longblock.

There is some data on the build thread of the car... let me see if i can find it.

edit: http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewto...p?f=19&t=97449

looks like ~60 based off officially avaiable numbers, maybe a few more for an alternator and radiator, 4 gallons MAX of water (~16lbs)
For DOUBLE the HP. No brainer question.

If you can design and build the front suspension and independant rear suspension is a piece of cake. Mazda already did all of the work, just change the upper pick-up point geometry to lower the roll center relative to the front and mount the transplated Miata diff.

While alot of people have used the Miata Rear subframe is makes for a heavy car. I know I've run across a thread where someone was using the Miata front subframe as well. I'll have to find it.

This guy in Okinawa, Japan who built an Exo in a shipping container?

LocostUSA.com • View topic - My Tube Frame Miata Subframes build.

What does this mean? I feel dumb cause I know nothing about suspension.

Hmm.

(looks at hat.)

I must admit that looking at some of these links, especially the one where the fellow had some pieces of round steel tubing pre-bent into a nice atom-like radius by a local shop for virtually nothing, are starting to tempt me. The more I think about it, the more practical a stretched-and-widened Formula-Vee car is starting to seem.

are you thinking making a street legal single seater or what?

So I read the book from Gibbs last night. While it has a ton of good info in it, building the car from scratch is definitely above my head. I will probably stick with going with some sort of kit to get started when I finally get to building something.

That would be my dream car, yes. Single-seater, mid-engine, a bit of a storage compartment (for groceries, etc) between the driver and the engine.

Basically, just take a Formula Vee, stretch it by about 18 inches, and widen the driver's compartment by about six inches. And replace the bloody VW front beam and swingaxle rear with A-arms on all corners, using the '68 and later IRS-style transaxle.

Basically, something I'm not qualified to build.

honestly, its not that hard. It just takes a crap load of time and dedication.

Like I told the FSAE guys the other day, don't get caught up in the details. If the suspension picks ups or off a tad, if the frame is not a torsionaly rigid as you predicted, if the engine makes a few less HP.... it will still be the fastest thing most of you will every drive, save for a shifter kart.

And the ability to weld.

I can tack a couple of pieces of tubing together to form something which, with sufficient grinding, can plausibly be called an intake pipe. That's about the limit of my fabrication skills in this regard. The thought of driving around in a chassis that I built myself terrifies me.

Buying a chassis isn't that expensive in the grand scheme. By the time you figure in materials, a welder, and a means to cut the materials, it is about a wash. Sure, if you want something completely custom it'll cost you, but there are a lot of options. Plenty of builders who make Atom knockoffs, book/caterham frames for reasonable money.

Of course your best bet is to find an unfinished project and go from there.

I though you had an Atom knockoff in the works a while back. What happened to that one?

I kind of lost interest.

The guy I was dealing with (the same fellow who built the chassis that golftdibrad has now) got hooked up with some other dude in a business arrangement that seemed a bit smarmy to me- they wanted to turn it into some kind of standard build, and he kept adding on little features and ratcheting the price up.


Around that same time the reality of trying to register a Subaru-powered kitcar with no MSO kind of came down on me.

That's actually one of the biggest appeals to me about the ACVW design- so long as you start with an engine built before 1966, you don't need to worry about the SB100 process. The vehicle will be automatically exempt. (Whether you elect to swap out said engine afterwards with something newer and turbocharged is entirely up to you.)

I'm just dreaming right now. Doubtful I'll be pulling the trigger on anything wild and exotic in the near future. If I *really* get bored, I might just buy an actual Formula Vee car (the older ones are insanely cheap) and just cut it in half and lengthen in.

sold it, lost my ass on it. Live and learn, etc, etc. But I still have the green car :D

Wait- which car did you sell?

I was pretty deep into an MEV rocket.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1348852064

I like how this thread has gone from potential purchases, to dreams of future projects, to the harsh reality of lost money and incomplete builds.

Huh- I totally missed that.

Glad to hear that the Green Goblin is still with you. :D

Well I am to a large degree of success keeping a kit car on the road and having a ball with it. ;)