LocostUSA.com

Hey everyone,

I've been on this site a while now and for whatever reason never decided to put all of my info into a builders log. I've been updating a build log on another forum I've been on a number of years ( Link: http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178435 ) but have decided to include this wonderful forum as well now that quite a lot of things with the build have started to come together. I'll just be putting up the updates going forward, so any backstory feel free to ask or check the ls1gto.com site. I'm "City Goat" over there. Reading all of the pages rewards you with a very interesting Coveland story somewhere in there

A very brief history of the project and where it got the name:
Project 217 started with the idea me and a buddy had to build a 7 (2 guys, 1 Seven = 217) as our track whore to take the place of risking our daily drivers in track shenanigans anymore than we'd been doing.

I purchased a Coveland Kit directly from Jim who, in the begining, was fantastic. It has an integrated roll cage around the car, as well as one of the only round tube kits I've seen. Also purchased was a pretty lovely 1996 Mazda Miata that was quickly hacked up and used for all of the needed donor parts.

That was 2 and a half years ago.

In the following couple of years a good amount of progress was made from time to time, a number of headaches were run into from the Coveland supplied kit and a few months ago I ended up taking over sole ownership of the project.

The good news is that I'm more excited than ever to have the car wrapped up and ready for some fun track days and hillclimbs. The bad news is that with me taking over full ownership of the car means that I lost our cherry spot at a local mechanic shop to do all the work. However, a great friend at Rocksand Racing who has built more than his share of Factory Five Cobras will be completing the project while I lend whatever hand I can.

Reasoning behind having a shop finish the project? Well, I've taken it as far as my skills will allow and quite honestly not being able to race for another season would have been a major, major hit in the happiness department. This is the safest and in my opinion best way to get the car on the road in the time desired.

Currently, the car is up at Rocksand Racing waiting next in line to get tackled. I've been busy researching and ordering some much needed parts (tires, rotors, fenders, little bits here and there) to help complete the car. A good amount left to go...wiring, body panels, steering, brake lines, fuel system...but banking on having the car track ready for it's debut day out at New Jersey Motorsports Park on March 29th.

Also, wanted to extend the most unbelievable thanks to mcfandango...another Coveland kit/Miata builder who has helped me out so much by sending some much needed parts to help fix some Coveland kit issues. Thanks man, I owe you quite a few beers whenever you make it to NYC.

Thanks for listening everybody! Hope to keep everyone entertained and informed with updates in the days/weeks/months to come.

-Ryan

PS - Included are some random pictures of the car in various stages from earliest to most recent.

The Donor 96 Miata about 2 hours into ownership:


Frame being mocked up at Coveland


Bringing it home


Engine/Trans/Me in on the first day of having the frame


Mocking up the suspension - My old C5Z in the background


Radiator from an early 90s Hyundai Excel and QA1s all around


Floor mounted Wilwood pedals with remote MCs


Light of day




It's most recent pic

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Project 217 - Started 8/4/07 Build Thread Here!

Best of luck. Let me know if you need any more parts.

I'm getting professional help on mine too. Just have to figure out what I am doing this coming year for autox. It will be a toss up between a trailer for race 90 miata or getting the front suspension fixed.

I'm glad your updating! Take a look at http://comscc.org/ for a New England club with a couple of NY events and we have at least one Locost already running in the club.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Thanks so much man! I might have some more questions for you as work kicks up in the next couple of weeks. Regardless, thanks again for all of your help. Don't get discouraged. I can't tell ya how much of a downer it was not getting on track at all last season...but the reward once this project is done will be all worth the blood/sweat/tears. Let me know if I can do anything to help ya out!



Thanks for the link! I'd love to hit up Mont Tremblant with you guys in August if time and car permit


On a side note, ordered some remaining parts I've needed. Feels good to be ordering some of these items with the hopes of being able to use them in the next decade lol

- 4 195/60/14 Falken RT-615s are on their way from Discounttire.com right now... with the 80 dollar rebate they have it works out to 184 shipped for all 4. I was going to go with some 205/55/14 Nitto NT-01s but ya can't bet the price on the 615s right now.

- Eventually will be getting some of those awesome rear fenders and Britax lights from Jack at Kinetic

- Emailed Wilwood on their opinion on some parts. Going to be ordering a *EDIT* remote brake bias adjuster from them to make adjustments easier, but also wanted their opinion on wether or not to get residual pressure valves (especially on the clutch?) to go with the current system I have in there (basically the exact same setup as Mr. Tanner)

- Also snagged some cheapy rotors from Rockauto.

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Project 217 - Started 8/4/07 Build Thread Here!

Cool! I'm 99% sure that the drivers side fender on my miata shares a common ancestry with you drivetrain.

YOU TWO are part of what got me into this, lol. viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6705

good luck! post more pics.

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If it has tits or tires it will cost you money.

I know people use these, but I think they are better avoided. I don't think I have them on my FF, and those masters are only about 3" above the road. Maybe I'm missing something...

Sorry I don't remember your details, are you using 2 brake masters? I would skip the valve then too.. Otherwise consider those brake balance bar setups. If you think your car will be a fun on going project and you might be changing brake setups - having the balance bar makes changing masters easy. Then you can decide how hard/easy you want the pedal effort etc.

I'll try to make Mt. Tremblont but things are up in the air right now, I *really* enjoyed it last time a few years ago.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Hey! I think I remember sending some parts way back when down to Louisiana. Sorry for getting you involved in this madness



Yeah I've been asking around for some solid answers on the RPVs....part of me is just wondering if at 20 bucks a pop it's just good insurance to maintain pressure in the system.

For the brakes I have a 3/4'' master cylinder for the front and a 7/8'' master for the rear...mounted parallel to the floor mount pedals with a bias bar for each master. For the clutch there is a remote mounted (due to space constraints) resevoir slightly above the 3/4'' master, as seen in the pic above. None of which will be the high point in the system though, the resevoirs will all be parallel if not slightly lower than the calipers (I don't have the car near me, can't measure right now so not 100% sure) hence my concern for RPVs. Hmmmm.

Side note - Pending all goes well with getting the car ready I'd definitely love to hit up Mont Treblont, I've heard great things and August would be a good time to go up and check out the city as well.

-Ryan

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Project 217 - Started 8/4/07 Build Thread Here!

Why not go with remote reservoirs for the brake MCs and mount all three together and higher than the slave cylinders? Skip the RPVs and save the $ and the connections.

That's a good point.

They actually all are remote mount resevoirs, ordered them just incase I needed to move things around on the build. However they are gonna stay in line with the master for now until the steering is finalized. Any higher and it will start getting too close for comfort for the steering shaft.

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Project 217 - Started 8/4/07 Build Thread Here!

What club are you tracking with at NJMP?

It's a track rental through this suspension company Pedder (big in the GTO market) and shophemi.com. They are keeping it to 60 cars total which is nice.

Hopefully, it'll be my teenie tiny car out there too ...even if it's next to 4000lb beasts.

http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336834

This would be a great outing to successfully get the car around the track under it's own power...we'll see.


edit: For HPDE events I usually go through NASA or TrackDaze

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Project 217 - Started 8/4/07 Build Thread Here!

Not sure why you'd need a proportioning valve if you've got a balance bar.

-dave

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...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Thanks for the heads up on the track event. Be sure to keep your eyes open for CARTCT.com (in the past we've done open track, all day with some cool people), and EMRA (emraracing.org). I won't be able to make it out to play in March (I'll still be breaking in the engine and working out the bugs in the MR2 SC....)

Good luck getting it completed in time, I hope to see ya on track.

Hey Dave,

Sorry, I'm getting my terminology mixed up here. I meant remote bias adjuster NOT proportioning valve.

-Ryan



Thanks Andy! Same to you!

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Project 217 - Started 8/4/07 Build Thread Here!

Have you run with NEHA in the past by chance? I'm a long time SCCV member.