My latest project - 30 odd years in the making...

[Wynand N]

For the last 30 odd years I wanted to build myself a sports car - in particular a replica Lotus 7.
Now that I am officially retired from boatbuilding and as such distancing myself from boats, except for fishing on my stinkpot, I now have the time on hand to realize this dream. And that with the blessing of the old lady

My project is a "Locost" of which I have plans for which will be build with a tubular space frame, all suspension parts - upper and lower wishbones front and rear will be self made with ChromeMolly tubing and the body will be part aluminum and GRP.

She will have an adjustable IRS (independent rear suspension) and power will be by the best Toyota engine ever made namely the 4AGE 20 valve motor (black head) , especially made as a performance engine and all aluminum, hence very light. In standard form this motors produces 123Kw for only a 1600cc motor. Yours truly will go a little bit further by blueprinting the motor, hot cams and proper "banana" branch exhaust system and some remapping of the ECU and she should the pop about 145Kw.
She should be like a bat out of hell, since the car weight LESS than 500kg's.

With the engine in standard form the power to weight ratio of this demon is quite in access of the latest 3.8 litre 911 S Porsche Carrera!! and will run the pants off it up to 160kph, before aerodynamics start taking its toll.

As I go along I will post some photos of this project from time to time and hope to have it finished in about 3 - 4 months. The best racetrack in the country is only 5km from my home and I look forward to some club racing in the Locost.

Here are some pics of other Locosts...

[wardd]

bigger tires and it might float

All my best Mate!

Richard

[WestVanHan]

I bought an uncompleted rolling 7 kit ~7 years ago,with no driveline.
Installed a tweaked Mazda 13B twin turbo/400 hp....drove it 6 times & feared for my life so sold it for at a break even price.
And being 187 cm it wasn't a great fit for me anyways.

Good luck,and please resist the temptation to power up too much....

BTW the odd shaped lot with the pool in the large backyard??

[Landlubber]

Sounds like fun mate, enjoy the trip. Personally, I find enough thrills with two wheels, so not many 4 wheelers are as exciting.

All the best.

[tinhorn]

Fun stuff! My kit car experience is a little lower-tech, but old stylin' draped over modern mechanicals with only two seats and a ragtop is fun at 30 mph or 100 mph.

[mydauphin]

Kool... Why did you buy a kit... It looks simple enough for a boat builder to make from scratch.

[tinhorn]

Originally Posted by mydauphin

Kool... Why did you buy a kit... It looks simple enough for a boat builder to make from scratch.

I bought mine because somebody smarter than me had done all the engineering. Plus I didn't have to build all those molds.

[Wynand N]

Originally Posted by mydauphin

Kool... Why did you buy a kit... It looks simple enough for a boat builder to make from scratch.

I did not bought a kit...I have all the plans and will build a custom replica except for the IRS improvement.

The whole contraption will be build by myself; space frame, suspension parts, body etc.
The reason I do not want to go the kit route is job satisfaction and simply put, I would not trust the welds and workmanship of life and limb parts like suspension and space frame chassis.

Remember, Im a qualified boilermaker and once held a ticket as a coded welder and have all the toys like cut off machine, MIG, TIG and plasma cutter etc at my disposal at home to ensure a perfect job I can trust my life upon.
Currently I ran a small GRP manufacturing concern and the body parts will be made by myself with vacuum resin infusion method to keep it light.

[rugludallur]

I'm a big fan of Lotus 7 style cars myself, it has something to do with having only what's needed and none of those luxury extras that just weigh the car down.

Personally I would rather use the 2.3L MZR Duratec powerplant, using a motor from a Mazdaspeed or a CX7 would give almost 300 ponies and weight about the same as the 4AGE and it has a remarkably flat torque curve.

If I had more cash than I knew what to do with I might go for the Cosworth built one or build one myself using a Mazda MZR and Cosworth parts.

Make sure you upload pictures as you go, also if you need CAD drawings for the frame I think I have them somewhere.

Jarl
http://dallur.com