Dream Update.

Still very little solid info to report as far as construction. Still waiting to find out if I will be awarded ownership of some 3" channel iron left from a remodeling job at the store. My boss is willing, but must get the OK from corporate. Once I have that, I can start on my frame table. One worry is there are others with their eye on this material. I can only hope their ethics are still in order. There was a time when I would probably have just made a Midnight appropriation, but now, how my actions reflect on the Glory of my Lord Jesus Christ are important to me. I will leave it in His hands. One more thing on the table. With Springtime finally here, I have some construction/repair jobs to do around the homestead. Surplus material from these should net me a top for the table.

I have recently been in contact with Keith Tanner ("How To Build A Cheap Sports Car") via e-mail. When I started this Blog, I used a picture of Keith's Seven to illustrate what I was talking about. This seemed appropriate since it was his car and story that rekindled my interest in building a Seven. It occurred to me later that this action may not have been appropriate because I had not been given permission to use someone else's intellectual property. So, with hat in hand, I fired off an e-mail to Mr. Tanner confessing my sin, begging forgiveness, and asking permission to continue use of the picture (Since I don't have anything of my own to share as yet). Keith was most gracious in his reply, stating that he was pleased and honored that his car helped to inspire me in my build. Permission was granted for continued use. Thank you, Keith!

I have been spending time researching the build. The Locost web groups have been invaluable. One thing that has bothered me is the use of a rod end bearing in place of a proper ball joint on the upper front A-arms. Maybe this is a non-issue with such a light car, but I don't like rod ends in single shear mounting in a hyper critical area like the front suspension. It seems that the upper ball joint in the Miata is non-replaceable. If you wear one out, you replace the whole control arm. Seemed a little odd to me, but it meant that a stock Miata ball joint wasn't the answer. It seems that this very question bothered others before me. I found my answer in the forums of LocostUSA.com. I can recommend this group (as well as the "Yahoo" locost groups) to anyone contemplating a sports car build, be it Locost or not.

Another source of frustration has recently surfaced. While I am not yet ready financially to go Miata shopping (you know, those homestead projects as well as buying my better half a new, much deserved dish washer), I have been "window" shopping just to see what's out there. Much to my chagrin, I found a couple cars that would work beautifully. One of the sellers even dropped his price to where I couldn't say "No" IF I had any money to spend. I really hate to let this one go so I'll start beating the bushes to see if I can beg, borrow or... No, wait, that's just beg or borrow the cash. What makes it more frustrating is that the price is low enough that I'm certain I can sell the surplus Miata parts for as much or more than the price of the donor car. Oh well I'll pray about it. If God wants it to happen, he'll make a way! In the meantime, I'll keep looking for ideas.

Well, that's it for now. I'll keep you posted.

An Old Dream; The Plan Mk II

It just occurred to me that there are probably more than a few of you that don't have the slightest idea what a Lotus/Caterham/Locost 7 is. Basically, it is a small, front engine sports roadster built with an emphasis on performance through light weight. It has a multi-tubular space frame constructed primarily of 1" tubing. The bare frame weighs little more than 100 lbs. The body is best described as minimal. There are a few fiberglass pieces such as the fenders, scuttle (cowling for us Yanks) and nose cone. The rest is simply aluminum sheet metal pop riveted to the frame. A complete, road ready 7 will weigh in at about 1200-1500 lbs. depending on running gear and extras. Colin Chapman, the designer of the original Lotus 7, had such an obsession with light weight that there was a running gag among Lotus fans about it. The gag went something to the effect that Chapman would build a new car and then proceed to lighten it by removing one tube at a time from the frame until the frame collapsed of it's own weight. Then he would put one tube back. All joking aside, light weight was (is?) sort of a Lotus trademark.

Sevens have been built with all manner of drive trains. The Lotus used running gear from English Ford and BMC as well as others. Locosts have been built with every imaginable power plant known to man. I have seen everything from 2-cylinder Citroens to LS-1 Chevys. Jack McCornack of Kinetic Vehicles in Cave Junction, Oregon, built one with a Kubota diesel tractor engine. Last I heard, MAX (Jack's name for his Kubota 7) was getting better than 75 mpg and Jack is still refining the design in an attempt to achieve 100 mpg+! The current crop of Japanese engines seem to offer the best features for my project. The only problem is, they're almost all front wheel drive. Now, this is not an insurmountable problem, but it's more than I care to tackle right now. The best source for front engine, rear wheel drive is either sports cars, SUV's or trucks. I have decided to select my donor from the sports car realm as I want my 7 to have independent rear suspension and 4-wheel disc brakes, so the Miata is my first choice. You could also get these features from a Honda S-2000, a Mazda RX-7 or some of the older Japanese sport sedans.

So now I spend a lot of my time window shopping E-Bay & Craigslist for old, worn out Miatas. I'm also still scrounging materials for my chassis table, but things are slowly coming together. I have found a local source of steel tubing that has decent prices, and since it's local, shipping will be no problem. So that's good news!

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by. More to come.

An Old Dream; The Plan

So here's my plan.

I'm very close to having my shop ready to begin work. I have, or have access to, most of the equipment that I need. The next thing that I do need to get done is constructing a frame table so I can actually start assembling my frame. I was fortunate enough to acquire some sturdy channel iron from the scrap pile at work when they replaced some of their big walk-in freezers. This material will make for a rigid frame for the table that I plan to top off with some heavy plywood. I realize that a metal top would probably be preferable, but the plywood should be adequate for the construction of a couple of frames. Yes, I said "couple". Back in '07, "Grassroots Motorsports Magazine" did an article on Locosts and in a subsequent letter-to-the-editor, someone suggested building two frames since you would already have your jigs and "sure as the world", once you got your car built, your next door neighbor (or somebody) would want one just like it. You could sell him that extra frame that you built, and help pay for yours. Well, this train of thought made sense to me so that's what I'll do. Even if we don't sell the extra, we do plan on racing our car, and since accidents DO happen, it won't hurt to have a spare frame on hand.

As soon as I get a little more channel, I will start on the table. In the meantime,I'm working on my drawings of the chassis. While I have been inspired by Keith Tanner and Jim McSorley, I do have some ideas of my own as far as the design of my Locost. Like I said in my last post, "MY car, MY way".

In addition to the channel iron that I got from work, while they were remodeling the store, they replaced the shopping cart corral. The new corral was made of 1.5" pipe, The old corral was tossed in the scrap bin. It was made of 16 ga., 1" square steel tubing! I gladly gave it a new home. Now, I know that I still need more tube, especially if I'm going to build two frames, but this will allow me to get started as soon as the table is ready.

Whenever you attempt a project like this on a shoestring, you are always looking for ways to offset your expenditures. Selling an extra frame is one way. In his book "How to Build a Cheap Sports Car", Keith Tanner talks about selling off parts from his Miata donor that were not needed for the Seven. This is one of the reasons that I will probably go with a Miata as My donor car, too. Now, I realize that this will work (to some extent) with just about any donor, but the miata is so popular that parts for it are easy to sell. It 's conceivable that you could buy a running Miata with a reasonably straight body, strip the parts needed for your Locost, and sell the remains for a profit. Makes financial sense to me.


More to come.

An Old Dream; About Kits

In my first post, I mentioned that I considered going with a "Kit Car" to satisfy my sports car cravings. The fact that I decided to "roll my own " should not be construed as a slam at kit cars in general. In fact, I love kits. They offer a lot of options that you can't get with some "real" cars, and they do it for a lot less money. If I wanted a '54 or '55 Vette (Let's face it, the prices for '53's are astronomical), a real one would run somewhere in the neighborhood of $60-70K. Then, once I had it, I would have a 55 year old car that was built on 60+ year old technology, and if the car was a '54, you would be stuck with an old "Stovebolt" 6 with a cast iron Powerglide. If it was a '55, you could have a V-8 (265 cid) with a 3-spd manual box. And, have you looked underneath a '55 Vette. You'll find better glass work on almost any kit car currently produced. Now, I'm one of those people that believes that any car can be improved, but if you "improve" a classic Vette you'll suffer a big penalty in resale value. With all this considered, you would be much better off to go with a Lone Star Classics "Route 66 Roadster" body kit, an Art Morrison chassis, a crate motor and trans. You'd be into this for about the same price (probably, a lot less), and you would have a classic look with totally modern performance. The same can be said for sports cars of the serpentine reptilian persuasion. Ol' Shel hates for kits to be called Cobras! Fair enough. A lot of modern kits are actually much better cars than the Cobras ever were. True, the Cobras were about the hottest thing on the road in their day, but their day was almost 50 years ago (Good heavens, am I that old?). A modern replica, such as the Factory Five Racing MkIV roadster has a completely modern Chassis, and the drive train is up to you , the builder.

No, I have nothing against kit cars. I simply decided to roll my own as a matter of financial expedience. With something as simple as a Locost/Se7en, anyone with a smattering of fabrication skills can construct one. One of the beauties of the Locost is there are so many options that almost anyone can find a route to ownership that suits them. I know how to weld, so building my own frame is not a daunting task. For those not so trained there are sources of pre-built frames. There are some fiberglass body pieces (nose cone, scuttle, and fenders) that I may buy from existing sources as a time saving move, but for those with glass working experience, these parts wouldn't be hard to make for yourself. If your fabrication expertise is limited , but you're a pretty fair mechanic, try a full-on kit such as a Westfield or a Stalker.

No, I have nothing against kit cars, they suit my desires very well. Some people have to have an original "whatever" with matching #'s and factory perfect restoration. Not me, I'd rather have MY car, MY way.

More to come.