LocostUSA.com

I'm retired and live in Markham Ontario ; a suburb of Toronto ; and my Locost was finished and licenced in the summer of 2002. I have about 12000 miles on it as of this date and its used daily ; weather permitting ; and has proven to be as reliable as a hammer ! Ron Champions book was mentioned in an article in the local newspaper in the late 90's and I picked up a copy and I was hooked ! I had a well equipped basement workshop that included an Arc welder and Mig welder and a good working relationship with a local steel supplier so I got right into it . I didn't buy a complete donnor car and in fact had the chassis pretty well completed before I picked up a Toyota 4age with a T50 transmission from a local jobber . I picked up the other bits and pieces from a variety of places whenever I found something that would do the job .
I was fortunate in one respect if your going to build one of these things in Canada ; my basement workshop has direct access to the back yard and was large enough to allow me to build the whole car right in the basement so I could work year around . Once it was complete I just tore it apart on last time and moved it to the garage for paint and final assembly. It sounds easy but it took me 4 years !
Now a little about the build . The chassis is as per the " book " with just a couple changes . I added 4" in length to the cockpit area because I thought one of my two sons might want to get their hands on it but I shouldn't have bothered because neither one can work the pedals because of their big feet ! The scuttle is about 2" lower than the book design just because I thought it looked better. I didn't like the way the external coil overs worked even while it sat in the basement so I designed the push
rod / rocker are arrangement where the Spax coil overs are mounted vertically in the centre of the car. I'm using Isuzu Impulse
front uprights and a MGB steering rack. Most of the body panels are aluminium all though I molded a number of pieces out of Fiberglas such as the hood , seats , gas tank and " boot " liner . The only Locost parts on the car are the rear fenders and the nose cone which I had to modify quite a bit to get them to fit the way I wanted. Everything else on the car I built myself .
I spent about four hours looking at the 4age wiring harness and ECU then chucked the whole mess in the garbage and ordered up the SDS ( Simple Digital System ) engine management system . It was the wisest decision I made on the whole build because
when it came time to get the old 4age running it fired up instantly and has been completely reliable for four years and running !
I run up about 3500 miles in the first year on the road with the 16 valve 4age but I just couldn't resist the 4 throttle bodies on
the J spec. 20 valve 4age so I picked one up off of E bay. I had to do a bunch of mods. on those 4 throttle bodies to convert them from the stock air flow meter to the MAP system used by the SDS system but it works like a treat ; starts instantly hot or cold , idles at 700 rpm and revs through the 8400 rpm red line without hesitation. The switch to the SDS MAP system also allows me to run straight ram tubes on the throttle bodies which just look the part !!! The total build cost a little over $8000
but that includes the two grand for the SDS engine management system .
The car is a blast to drive and I just couldn't see putting it up on blocks through our long cold winters so for the last two years I've been towing it south with me to our winter home in Florida .
It's safe to say I had almost as much fun building this thing as I do driving it so it's time to build another one and I've been collecting various bits and pieces ; including a brand new " crate " Ford Duratec 2.3 engine ; over the last few months and should be able to start cutting tube and welding in the spring .
If your just getting started or struggling through the inevitable problems you'll encounter while building one of these things ; I encourage you to stick with it ; it's well worth the effort.

Bob MacLeod

I'd give my right arm to drive the At-om !

Graham - I've been very pleased with both the 16 and 20 valve engines;
smooth , reliable and bullit proof so far. The 20 valve revs higher faster and does make more power but not as much as you might expect. I found the 20 valve more tractable than the 16 valve which is supprising when you consider that each of those 400cc cylinders is fed by it's own
47mm ( 1 7/8" ) throttle body . You can putter around town at 2000rpm all day then just put you foot into it revs cleanly to red line . Not a ton of power at the lower revs but you had better be hanging on and pointed in the direction you want to go once the 20 valve heads into the 5000 to 8000 rpm range !
Bob MacLeod