LocostUSA.com

After long time of being a lurker of this site...( forgive me ) hehe
This will be my first post...

Anyways, I'm Aris, from the Philippines

Just some history why I found myself into this kind of project

The dream all started when I visited my friend... about 5 months ago...
When I saw his scale model of Lotus Seven Series 3 and a bunch of books about it.
Ive asked him little things about it like where it was made, what company etc etc, in the middle of our conversation, he asked me if i wanted to see his build in full scale. I was surprised that he was actually building one.



We rushed to the ground floor of his office and showed me his build, and actually according to him, it is the prototype 2 already, his prototype one was under the process of painting.


So ive spent maybe about an hour srcutinizing how it was built, the attachments of the parts like the engine, differential, suspensions, etc etc. I was amazed to the installations made.

While driving home, I'm still on the state of being amazed, thinking of my friend's project.
When I arrived home.. I browsed the net right away a search information about that car. gone many sites, forums etc and even youtube. That's why I stumbled into this site and the other one www.locostbuilders.co.uk, I found members of these forums are serious about building it, read some technical info about the chassis, rigidity, toughness, even materials to be used. Reading from the first upto the last page of each and every thread on those sites are worthy. This and the other site provide different experiences, styles, procedures, tips and techniques and tons of information that can be useful if you are into this kind of project.

Honestly, Dropping on these sites fueled my willingness to do my own build. and yes.. I'll start mine...

My Objective:
To build my version of Lotus Seven, hence calling it a replica, the Locost ( Low-Cost ) Style.
Making it road legal. For as much as possible my target budget for this project is below 100k Php or approx. 2000 usd. Doing it at my own phase/timeline. Most of which are DIY ( Do It Yourself ). It will not be easy.. I am aware of that... but surely it will be fun.

The Situation here in the Philippines regarding finding a decent donor car, IHMO is not that feasible, though finding a right one is possible, but a bit pricey. well thats only my opinion.

What I did was, I bought parts individually instead of looking for a whole donor car. Engine, transmission, differential, spindles and others.

My build will have a Toyota 4K Engine Twindown ( cost: 40 usd ), K series 5 Speed Transmission ( 70 usd ), Front spindles from Corona RT100 ( 70 usd ) and a 4.2 differential from a 83 Mitsubishi GSR Lancer Boxtype (70 usd ). Well those are the parts what I already have right now, Im planning of getting a new set of rack and pinion from Kia Pride ( Ford Festiva to US ), it is cheap and readily available.



Having a blueprint in hand, thanks to Sir Ron McSorley for providing, I decided to purchase my tubular bars and 16ga BI Sheet for my build. costs me around 80usd.



anyways

an offer i cant refuse came...

my friend offered me a completed chassis with complete set of control arms and trailing arms, that will be built according to my needs... how great is that??? for a price of approx. 500 USD.

But I thought of it carefully, but in any way looking at it. It was more advantageous for me.. and so i've grabbed it... it will save me time, energy and burnt skin.. hahaha... because im planning to weld it myself at first.

And so my original plan was slightly changed, the whole chassis will be built on his shop including the mock up brackets, fittings, mock ups) and will be brought up to my place after powder coating.

This incomplete chassis has been sitting around for a while in his place, and initially its the prototype 3, its been tack welded as of the moment so that modifications can be a lot easier, in that case for me, hehehe









Never mind the rusts. hehehe for after all weldings and all the fabrication are done, the entire chassis will be soaked in a tub filled with rust converter and later on will be powder coated...




Mocking those sample runs of nose cone and bonnet lying around his shop.


This will be my louvers for the bonnet.

Having my friend's 2nd build project around, Ive been able to crack down maybe some points of improvement for my built, since his build and my build has the same engine, tranny and differential, Now I have a full picture of how my build will look like...

For example:



The engine support...


battery relocation




the support bar that is hindering the twindown intake manifold, those will be removed and will be relocated to have enough room for the intakes... well i guess problem solved regarding that. good for me.





the steering shaft and rack and pinion installation.

I hope you guys could give me some points to ponder for my build.

Many thanks and more revving power LocostUSA.

nice to meet you . your farther along than i am my engine and trans are still in the truck.

Welcome to the forurm.

You did really well on the purchase of the running gear. I bought my parts, bit by bit, and it ended up costing me much more. I've said that if I was to do it over again I'd go with a single donor car rather than chasing parts in different locations. But that method worked for you.

You have a couple of big pluses. One, the chassis is only tacked so you can make any changes you want easily and two, having another builder close by and to be able to look at his car really is a bonus.

Ron

@mitch5386: got an offer that's why i got a little speed up with my build.

@ sir ron: thanks for the welcome, i am a fan also of your site, very informative and will help also others with their build.

No updates as of now with my build, but been busy helping out my friend with the oldschool reunion event here in philippines

for his production.

here are some of the picture of the event ( aug 21, 2010 )






back to the eighties era

that would be a neat car show to go to.

Nice car show. I'm glad your working on those front wishbones, I was going to mention it but figured you would get to it.

You probably have many more good parts choices, here in the USA things tend to be too heavy.

Beautiful country...

Agreed about the beautiful country. Here in California, there's one week of green, followed by 51 weeks of brown. Then there's little water... Enjoy what you have, as you're in a great country to drive a Seven!

Love the build! Phillipines looks a lot like Trinidad (so do the cars).

Thanks for the compliments sirs. Actually that event was an Oldschool Grand Reunion, and most of the cars are daily driven cars,

Anyways, nothing much updates on my build, rather my friend's build has a lot of progress. Ill be posting his build pics here since, we will have almost the same build, same engine, tranny, rear axles etc etc.

August 27, 2010

Here are the updates of my friend's build, hence we are calling it the "Rapid 7 Technologies Prototype 2"

Installed some Aluminum Sheets ( 16Ga ) on the cockpit area are on the flooring.







As well as with the Front Suspension System




We've used an old Gemini Front Spindles



A closer look on the Front Upper Control Arm


Dimesions and Specifications are based on Sir Ron Champion Book

A closer look with the Front Lower Control Arm

As you can see we provided a set of bracket for adjustable height.
And also, instead of using the usual bushings idea ( as per the book ) we opted to use rose joints for more adjustability.

The Rear Trailing Arms

We are using 83 MItsubishi Lancer GSR Differential

Trailing Arms and Control Arms are products of Rapid 7 Technologies here in the Philippines.

And the Fiberglass parts ready anytime to be installed
( Nose Cone, Scuttle, Hood, Set of Fenders )
Also products of Rapid 7 Technologies



Part of the idea...
For we are developing now the bonnet



We will put ring on top and will be riveted. What do you think guys?

I think the front wishbones will need some development. It will be worth time to search around and read up their design a bit.

On the bottom wishbone the shock bracket and the ball joint bracket are 2 pieces and the arm will want to fold there. The large reinforcement gusset made from plate will not add to the strength of the part for vertical loads from the coilover. You can drive it for awhile and see how it seems to work. If your going to sell the parts it's more of a concern because you never know how crazy your customers are.

You shouldn't need the large gussets on those wishbones. It's all tradeoffs, you will want to decide how to build the parts economically and easily if you are making parts for more then one or two cars. It's up to you and the experience you get making these...

Thanks for the heads up regarding the lower wishbones.
Actually, I opted to use that design for some reason, one is my build will be lighter for sure, since I'm going to use lighter engine, compared to the larger and heavier engine others are using. Second, aesthetically, i love the design (call me crazy ) , for me they look sexy. Third, simplicity of the design.

Regarding the gussets, I think they add to the stiffness of the design, But because of the notes you've mentioned (I'm very thankful for that), I'm thinking of instead welding them between the tubes, maybe it will be more stiffer if they are welded on top of the tubes.

For as of now, I'm decided to stick with the design, use it, do some crazy driving if possible , and let's see how will my lower wishbone would react... if they worked, good for me, if they fail, ill take it constructively. And then again design and build another.

Gussets add strength, not stiffness - at least not on a properly built chassis. However, AFAIK the SCCA rule book doesn't require them. A properly-built chassis should be strong enough on its own, but a little reserve doesn't hurt.

oh that's what i'm trying to say.. sorry my bad, wrong choice of word... strength not stiffness

Hi. I know its been a while since my last update, unfortunately, my camera messed up, pictures from my camera messed up, leaving nothing.







The car was sold, and planning another project, this time a Book-sized Miata build.

Thanks

Onwards and upwards! I hear many people do their second build much quicker and better too. It is a big benefit to have done it already and to know your way thru.

Please send us photos of your new build. Were you happy with the old one? What are you planning to do different. Do you have many Miatas in PH?