LocostUSA.com

If I remember correctly, the original Series 1 with the Austin 950cc drivetrain and smaller wheels/tires weighed in at about 950lbs! It tended to beat everything on the track in its class. Yes, it lost to others on top speed, but, with only 54hp, it out cornered everything else.

About a year ago I was at a British car show in Boston. A fellow there had a Bug Eyed Sprite with a built 1100cc motor and a supercharger. He drove it on the street and raced it. He thinks he was getting about 90hp with his combo.

With that drivetrain in a Locost, that would come out to about a 1000lb car- with 100hp (supercharged 1275). Hang on tight!

So, your original thought to use a 1275 powertrain should be even more a kick in the pants!

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Thom

To keep it simple your original post is the way to go and you already have most parts.
If a Morris Minor rear axle is too hard to find an MGB axle will work and would be unbreakable with a Sprite engine.

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If I must be a one-man PC free zone, so be it!

If you're interested in the Spridget 1275cc A-series engine and running gear, take a look at the Westfield XI.

This car uses the Spridget as its donor and of course the car it is based on (the Lotus Eleven) formed the basis of the Lotus Seven that is in turn the inspiration for the Locost. And yes, you heard that right: the Lotus Eleven came first, the Lotus Seven came later, and was basically an Eleven chassis without the expensive-at-the-time (hand-rolled aluminium) bodywork.

As such, the Westfield Eleven is basically a Spridget-based Locost with streamlined bodywork (in fact, Westfield went on to build Spridget-based Seven replicas of its own, in the early days, though you'll struggle to find one now - they pretty quickly switched over to Ford donor parts)..

The Westfield XI drives really nice (I've driven several) and the only difference would be that the top-end performance of a 'Seven' version would suffer because it wouldn't benefit from the XI's better aerodynamics.

The Westfield XI has its own dedicated forum where you'd find all the answers you need: http://westfield-eleven.org/forum/index.php

There's a very pretty supercharged A-series based Seven replica for sale here in the UK at the moment: https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1454080

Over here in the UK there is a decent market for tuning parts for the A-series (the same engine was used in the Mini), so even without supercharging/turbocharging you can go to 1,430cc and 140+bhp with that engine, if you really want to (though it gets expensive at the upper end of the horsepower range).

@Sam_68

I looked at that listing. That is a sharp looking vehicle. It was listed at 18,750 Euros today, which I Google-converted to US Dollars. That resulting figure was ~ $20,627, which is a bargain for such a vehicle here is the US.

I don't know how much it would take to get the car to North America, but it might be worth it for someone to do it.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

Yeah, if it's as nice as it looks, it is a bargain for such a vehicle here in the UK too... albeit the market for 'slow', traditional but non-original Sevens is quite narrow. It's been on sale a while, too, which surprises me. I've been tempted to go look at it myself, but I have one too many impractical sports cars already!

If anyone on here is tempted, let me know - I'd be happy to go look at it and provide better photos and a condition report.