LocostUSA.com

Greetings!

Long-time lurker, now a CMC kit owner and member of this message board.

VIN: CMC7US01005, Year: 2002

The kit was originally sold to a guy here in Phoenix, then bought by a Triumph TR-3 wizard named Bill Close, and I bought it in late October from Bill a couple months ago. Here's what it came with:

* 1994 Mazda Miata 1800cc motor and transmission with 54K original miles
* Mazda RX-7 front and rear suspensions (disc brakes on front, drums on back)
* Another Mazda RX-7 rear suspension with positraction limited slip differential and disc brakes
* Rear shocks
* All fiberglass panels except front fenders
* Miata seats
* Miata wiring harness
* New radiator
* VW steering rack (from a Golf maybe?)
* Ron Champion book (2nd ed) and Keith Tanner's book
* Lots of bolts and other Miata parts
* Roll bar
* Adjustable panhard rod
* Headlights

The Locost community seems to be fairly transparent regarding costs, so I won't have any issues telling you that I bought everything for $3500. CMC, Bill, and (presumably) the original owner had already done a fair amount of work on the kit, including:

* Building motor mounts
* Installing the transmission and engine
* Installing rear suspension (sans shocks)
* Tack welding most of front suspension into place
* Riveting aluminum panels to chassis
* Painting frame bright yellow
* Painting fiberglass parts some form of British racing green

I am a full-time IT dude with a wife, toddler, and another boy due in April, so the time I have to work on the car is relegated to Monday nights for a couple hours at a time. I'm thinking it's going to take me a long time to build the car, but since I'm in my mid-20s, I should be able to find the time over the next few years to get the car moving.

Adding to the distance between me and the car is the fact that it's being stored in my friend's garage about 15 miles from my house. My friend's name is Bill and he's a car buff with all the tools and expertise I should need to complete the mission. Luckily, Bill Close is only a few miles away from the car and he's such a friendly guy that he's willing to help when he's available.

Since I used to be a full-time web developer, I'm assuming I can figure out how to attach images to my post. I'll give it a go here...

Please please please, by all and any means, feel free to give me advice, suggestions, criticisms, pointers, jokes, whatever. I've got pretty thick skin, so if you want to give me a hard time, I'll have a good time with it. NOTE: I am NOT a car nut, I am just nuts about the Lotus Super 7. Ever since seeing it on The Prisoner as a child, I've wanted one. I don't know a whole lot about cars, but I'm somewhat mechanically savvy and I'm ready and willing to learn.

Thanks for checking out my build!

EDIT: I have NO intention of racing this car. Since I'm not a huge car buff, this car is just to have fun driving on the open road. I'm sure it'll be plenty fast, but my goal is to make it fun to drive and enjoyable for my wife as well. This will mean making interior heating vents and a canvas top for the car.

Since half the fun of building your own car is customizing it, I plan on using as little of the wiring harness as necessary and utilizing an invention of my friend's for all the electronic stuff in the car (lights, gadgets, etc.). He's using micro-controllers and custom logic boards to create a controller-area network to control everything. Pretty cool! It'll only need four or five wires straight off the battery and all of the components will sit on these wires for communication and power.

If you want to know more about it, please ask me in a year or two when I'm ready to even be thinking about the electronics in this car.

Who doesn't like posts with lots of pictures??

I should note that Bill Close really wasn't comfortable with using the RX-7 suspension parts on this car, but I don't have the money to swap it all out for Miata gear. Furthermore, the 1800cc motor is slightly big for the fiberglass and barely fits. Bill suggested that I replace it with a 1600cc motor, but again, I don't have the money to swap it all out. My wife made me promise that this car wouldn't cost a whole lot more than the initial cost (for now).

Speaking of my wife, I have to note how incredibly supportive and gracious she is regarding me working on this car. She's a fantastic person who understands how this silly dream of mine is actually important enough to sink money into. She's also excited about taking it for road trips in a few years (though I don't think she understands how little luggage one can fit in the "boot."

For all you Lotus geeks out there, Bill Close also owns what's known as the Broadspeed Lotus Elan. Apparently, there's some history to this car and Colin Chapman himself used to drive it. Again, I'm not a car nut by any means, but Bill says this car's been in hardcover books and the Broadspeed engine alone in it is worth something like $40-50K.

If any of you live in Mesa, AZ or nearby, I would love to meet you. I would ESPECIALLY love to see your working Lotus/Locost to help inspire me to get to work!

Did I mention that I'm also trying to finish my master's degree in the meantime?

Oh, and I don't know how to weld (YET!!). Haha. My friend is letting me borrow his MIG welder for an extended period of time--after all, borrowing does keep costs down--and I assure you that I will learn to weld before letting the thing near a car.

Anthony,
Congratulation on your purchase and build. You've got a lot of parts to work with there. One thing to remember is that, if you have something that you aren't going to need, sell it! You can generate quite a bit of funds by doing that. I have done this to purhase my frame, donor car and front suspension. I have just at $2000 in all these parts and none of it directly out of my pockets. Just something to think about. Someone may need those RX-7 bits.

That cut in the frame where the transmission is located is somewhat worrysome. You'll need to strengthen and brace that area. But you already knew that. It looks like the engine fits in the engine compartment just fine. The bonnet goes on just fine. Is there going to be a clearance problem with something else there?

I think you're got a great foundation to start with. Keep us posted and Welcome to the site!

SamM

Heck, that doesn't look like a kit...looks like a CAR to me!

Throw some wires on it, buy some wheels and go for a drive!

Welcome...I look forward to watching your build!

-dave

Thanks for the feedback. I have to say, I'm quite happy with the fact that the engine and transmission were put in place before I got to it. That saves me a lot of time and energy.

I wrote the original owner and got the following information:

* Miata parts from a wrecked, drive-able '94 Miata
* Front fenders were supplied at sale, I'll have to track them down
* Frame and body parts were painted by CMC, John Deere colors (yikes!)
* Steering rack from VW Golf

Working on the car tonight. Will try to get more comprehensive info/photos.

Welcome aboard Anthony!
I am also a new comer with a CMC based project. Looks like you are way ahead in the process, I hope you have a blast.
JEB

Yeah the only thing that scared me about the car was where he ground out the frame to make it fit, the hole tunnel or at the very most the front of the tunnel should be widened so you can fit a piece in there without grinding.

Logan

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I will likely be expanding the entry to the transmission tunnel to fix the grinding issue, but I'm happy that he got the engine and tranny in place because that's probably more work than modifying one piece of the chassis.

Last night, I re-assembled the front suspension parts and familiarized myself with what's going on and how it all works together. The suspension is a magically simple interworking of parts. What's funny to me about the Locost is that it's really just an engine in a chassis with some wheels and a steering wheel attached. It's wonderfully simple and I can see the car really coming together with a small amount of work.

Anyway, Bill Close took the VM Golf steering rack and cut off the stock mounting bracket. He did a beautiful job and I could barely see where he made the cut. So, I picked up the part and placed it in the car. The arms of the rack are a little long, so they'll need to be shortened (unless I WANT way too much toe--haha). I also partially mounted the steering column/wheel assembly and put together a couple of the universal joints just to get an idea of how the car steering linkage works. Very simple and very cool.

The lower A arms in front are nearly identical and they're probably close enough so I won't notice anything while driving. The upper arms are as close to identical as I could imagine. Very well made pieces. You can see in the pictures.

Since I'm keeping the car at my friend Bill G.'s house, I'm helping him remodel every other week in exchange for garage space. Next week, I'll be working on his house, but the following week I'll be on the car. Since I'm on vacation for two weeks starting this weekend, I might get more time with the car.

Let me know your ideas on shortening the steering rack arms and getting the steering joints together.

Thanks!!

More pictures.

BY THE WAY, the steering rack is held in place by gravity. The original mount that was cut off the rack has been placed ON the chassis so I don't lose it. It's there just in case I need it.

I hope you guys don't mind the pictures

Is that a pink shop crane?

-dave "tres bling!" hempy

This kit is now for sale: http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/2119409932.html

Life got too hectic since I last worked on the car, which has to be more than a year ago.

- Finished a master's degree
- Mother-in-law got cancer
- Wife got pregnant
- Selling our house
- Blah blah blah

My wife ok'd the idea of buying one when the kids get older, so it's all good.

Let me know if you're interested. Call/text Anthony @ four eight zero two eight six eight zero four seven.

I've seen this kit in person and I met the original owner and Bill Close. Shame you can't get the kit finished considering it's been through three owners now. You're probably better off getting your money back, CMC were not known for shipping kits that actually worked. I got burned myself on a kit that was a shambles, as were they.

-Steve

Sold.