LocostUSA.com

Here's what I've wound up with in my quest to get into building my own car. It's a Ginetta G20 ex race car from the UK that was driven by Stuart Pearson in the Ginetta racing series. It's definitely a basket case and the body needs some significant fiberglass repair, but I've got my first "kit car" project.



I originally wanted to build my own Locost frame from scratch and install a Chrysler Slant 6 "Leaning Tower of Power" in it with the intent of setting some Slant 6 Drag Racing records and having some fun on the autocross. That will eventually happen, but I should probably learn to weld first...

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The Ginetta racing series all had to use the same sealed Ford 1.8 Zetec engines backed by a Type 9 transmission. Some people have installed V6's, but there is no way a Slant 6 will fit.

Back in April my son Michael and I took the ferry from Rotterdam to Hull to go pick up a small car trailer and the Ginetta. The guy I bought the trailer from (Jon Ison) had a sweet Locost he had built many years earlier powered by a wicked Hyabusa engine. It was my first time seeing a Locost up close. Sitting in it and hearing the engine rev up to its 8,000 RPM redline made me question my decision to go with the much milder and heavier Ginetta, but I had already paid for it and was on my way, so I reluctantly left Skegness on the way to Huddersfield to get the car. This is the trailer and the Locost with the Hyabusa engine.




Our trip went pretty smoothly, but there were a couple moments of mild panic along the way.

For those of you not familiar with the wonderful German Autobahn, it is a great highway system with certain areas that, in fact, do not have a speed limit... The other term you may not be familiar with in regards to the Autobahn is "Stau"!! That's German for "You ain't goin' nowhere fast for a really, really long time traffic jam". Knowing that ahead of time we left ourselves about 2 hours of wiggle room to get to Rotterdam... We used every single minute of it and then some in various Staus along the way. Those No Speed Limit zones between staus saved my bacon, because we were the very last car on the ferry as they were getting ready to close the gate! I have now tested the top speed of a Honda CRV if anyone is interested. LOL

The other little hiccup had to do with the difference between American automotive lighting and the rest of the world... In the US vehicle brake and turn lights are the same bulb with two filaments. We are the only country in the world that does this... Anyway, long story short, I wasn't comfortable trying to hack into my wife's CRV wiring, so I bit the bullet and took it to a German garage to have them figure out how to make my US vehicle trailer wiring mate up to the European system. All good so far,... Until I went to hook up the trailer to the CRV:

Trailer standard 7 pin:


New CRV standard 13 pin :


CRV 4 flat I had installed before we left the US :


A little American Ingenuity and a couple wiring diagrams:


And,... I wound up doing the same thing I was trying to avoid in the first place:


It wasn't perfect, but we had brake, turn and running lights. They just weren't exactly to European standards...

When we got back I checked back in with the garage that installed the wiring... They had just forgotten to give me the 13 to 7 pin adaptor...
I'll re-wire the trailer back to the standard 7 pin and see if it works...

The next series of photos show the mess I've gotten myself into with this project. It came with the chassis, roll cage, bonnet (hood) and tub (body) along with most of the suspension pieces to make it a roller. I just need to figure out how it all goes back together and buy about 1,527,639 little parts along the way.

The good thing is that these cars have been around and competing in the Ginetta racing series since about 2001 and the chassis and cage are FIA approved.

The body had some pretty bad repairs done and there is a major crack at the cowl, so Stuart gave me several pieces of other former race cars to use in my efforts to repair it. We looked like Sanford & Son (Google it ) on the way home, but we made it.

















Tucked into its new storage unit:


Last weekend we got up the nerve to drag the chassis out of storage and bring it home to start the arduous reassembly process. It came with an assembly manual... We'll see how it goes.

This is my son Chase home from college for the summer. He will probably be working on it more than I will.



MTF (More To Follow)...

Rob

I hope that doesn't give you "the big one" (another Sanford & Son reference) as you try to figure out how to put slot B in to Tab C.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

What a great head start.

I wonder if the sva allows dot headlamps instead of e codes, so you won't need to swap to dot when it gets here. They are 2nd gen miata headlights in case you didn't know.

Do you any suspension and drivetrain? If not you might consider making fully miata single donor for future spares over here.
I don't see it getting through for road registration here if it is bec. There are ways, but I'd avoid as much hassle as possible.

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

I'm coming, Elizabeth!

I won't bother to get this registered over here. My intent is to just use it as a track car, at least for the foreseeable future. Heck, I may not even get this thing together before we PCS back CONUS.

I don't have any drivetrain to speak of. Stuart gave me a 1.8 shortblock and a header for it, but that's about it. No diff or tranny or anything.

A friend here in Germany said he has a good Miata engine and tranny he'll give me when I'm ready. I realize that would be the best long term plan since I plan to bring it back with me eventually. Lots of Miatas in the US, but not a lot of Ford Sierras...

The first drivetrain piece I need is the Ford Sierra diff so I can get it onto all fours. I can fiddle with swapping over to the Miata full drivetrain after I've got it sorted out and had some fun with it.

Congrats on the big start . I would give a nickel for some detailed photos of that chassis.

Not a problem. I can post some pics once I dig in.

I knew this was a hoakie way of doing things, but I want to start work on this thing... And I'm a pretty hoakie kinda guy anyway...

I don't think this is going to work well after all... LOL

I bought a 3.62 LSD for it. Another forum member on Locostbuilders.uk is kind enough to bring it to Germany from the UK at the end of July.

Only another 1,527,638 pieces to go...

those are very pretty cars. Good luck with your project. Seems appropriate for the upcoming fathers day.

I don't recall ever seeing a Gurney bubble on a roll bar before, however. Seems to me that if you needed the top point extended that high, the sides should be as well.

This thing is my Father's Day, birthday, wedding anniversary, Christmas...

The roll cage side bars do extend out for more width.

I have made absolutely no progress on it yet other than putting the diff in the shed.

I did pull out the assembly manual and make a list of the nuts and bolts I will need.

There are a lot of Ford Sierra pieces along with some MGB, Saab... I can see some creative adaptation being required...

Settled back in yet? Is Spring '20 the year of Mopar Locost?

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12