ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

Looks like yours was the most interesting car present!
Also interesting to see so many folks not starting at a phone.

[ccrunner]

Steve (dude on the left in the picture) is the wonderful owner of this car, and we've stayed in touch since he bought it some while ago.. he's a good guy, an outstanding steward to his car, and he's become a friend.

He sent me an email a few weeks ago about an artist rendering of the Honda, and it didn't make much sense until I opened the picture.. So cool! You can do this with your car too if you want to reach out to the artist- his name is Jose Soares in Portugal. Sorry I don't have a direct link- he's on Facebook and I'm not, but Steve said he's easy to find there. I imagine there are others that do this sort of thing too, but I haven't researched it at all...

Even though I don't own this car anymore, I told Steve that I'd like to buy a t-shirt/ picture/ something if he goes to get prints.. Just a few days later a t-shirt shows up, and Steve being Steve, he doesn't want payment; says it's a gift . I love my new cartoon N600 shirt..

I wanted to put this here because this artist did a really nice job, and if two dorks like me and Steve can get this excited over some goofy JDM caricature, maybe you would want to submit pics to Jose and see what he comes up with for your ride

--ccrunner

[benny_toe]

Dean,

I think i have seen his name on FB. He does excellent work! Nice shirts! And photos.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

[ccrunner]

9-2-21

Hey guys.. I'm posting up here in the event that you follow my builds and would find this of interest. I've listed my 63 Volvo 1800 on Bring a Trailer as of this morning (9-2-21).. link: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1963-volvo-p1800-7/

I don't have social media.. no twitter, no facebook, nothing.. If you do in fact have social media and you think you know someone who would like to know that the Volvo is up for sale, could you link it/ help spread the word? I don't sell my stuff very often, so I appreciate your help in getting the word out.

*The auction ends Thursday, September 9th, 2021, at 11:10 AM Pacific Time

Thanks guys-

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

A break from cars for a moment: A goal for charity..

Our oldest daughter Sierra is doing a cool thing.. On April 28th (2024), she's running in the Big Sur International Marathon (Big Sur, CA).. She's bitten off quite a chunk here, as she's new to running, and a full marathon is 26.2 miles.

To help her train, be held accountable, and meet her marathon goal, she's teamed up with an outfit called "Team in Training" (TNT). This is a very cool organization that helps people train and accomplish their goal of running a full marathon while raising money to help fight Leukemia & Lymphoma.. My wife Lisa (Sierra's mom) did this with TNT back in 2005 shortly after losing her mother to cancer (The pic below shows Lisa holding her mom's picture in her left hand at the finish line).. Cancer sucks, but programs like this are making a difference.

Sierra's all-in: For the last many months she's been training and fundraising, which requires her to raise at least $2500.00 for the charity. She's a broke kid, but we've assured her that the donations will come.. the support will come.. the success will come; to borrow a phrase; Just do it!

She's down to the last few weeks; the running is going well, but she is in an absolute panic that she's not going to make the minimum donations required. As of today (4-15), she's $700 short.. I told her I'd give this a bump on our car building site to help her get to her fundraising finish line.. (I'm posting it to all of my build logs)..

If you're able and would like to support her, be it sending good vibes or a monetary donation, she would be most grateful. To be clear, all of the money she raises will go to TNT. Below is a link to her fundraising page..

https://sierrasllsfundraiser.weebly.com/ (be sure to click on the "My Why" link at the top right)

Thank you

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

Thank you MangPong, and Tony, and Eric for the nice words, and for checking in..

I've been fighting the pivot that I'm about to take, but it's been a long time coming..

-----------------------------

An open letter to anyone who has followed and/or contributed to my builds here at locostusa-

First; THANK YOU for your support and guidance over these last 13 years and 3 builds. Your talent, experience, and willingness to help this fellow builder has made all of the difference in my growth with this hobby, and your generosity has been key to my ability to finish my builds, particularly when I fabbed myself into a corner. This group has saved my arse- several times.. Again, sincerely, thank you

You know where this is going... I'm doing something I'm loath to do, leave a task before completion: I'm proactively not going to finish documenting my current build, my 1959 Berkeley- at least not at the level that I've done in the past. Over the last several years, this website has atrophied and become a shadow of what it once was; I now find the effort to document the build as simply too frustrating to continue. I'm not lazy, but damn, I've come to ask myself why I'm still contributing to a site that makes it SO DAMN HARD for someone to follow a project. I've become resentful of the effort it takes to post up here, all the while knowing that there are several roadblocks in the way of anyone successfully following along.

In an effort to improve this flagging site, I've offered to donate money, and I've volunteered to become a moderator (this was met with access to do the job, but no directions or help on HOW to do the job- WTF?!).. I love(d) this site.. Loved contributing and learning.. but alas, in my mind, it's become a fool's errand. The final straw came as I recently ran into a stranger at a car event who recognized my Berkeley.. He was so excited to see the car and what had been done to it. I told him where to find my build log (locostusa); He chuffed and said that he previously did follow my Berk build for awhile, but was put off by the extra steps involved in joining/ logging in each visit/ and still not getting update pompts. I don't blame him.. Following a build needs to be a seamless and easy process- add too many clicks and steps, and you lose users VERY quickly (see MangPong's frustrations posted above).

Despite the obvious tone, I'm not bitter- that's not my style. I'm just choosing to voice my displeasure and take my time and energy for this hobby somewhere else. If this site takes steps to improve, then I'll likely come back. As it stands, I plan to very occasionally update the Berkeley here until that car is done, but my effort to do so will be minimal.

In closing, my next build is a 1960 MGA Coupe restomod, which can be found here: https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mga-forum.2 ... d.4748126/ ... Thank you locost friends.. I'll see you on other build sites

--ccrunner

[horchoha]

Hey Dean.

I hear you loud and clear, it appears some of the spark is gone. Some long time posters are gone, build activity has slowed down, and some struggle with site access.

As with all groups there will be slow times and then things pick up, then slow down again, that's just what it is I guess.

Anyhoo, I really enjoyed all your build posts, even took away some ideas

Will always look forward to any updates you may post here from time to time.

As long as we keep building, that's what counts.

[KB58]

Dean, though we traveled different paths, we've arrived at the same point. I'm not intending to pile on, but rather, to give some insight how it happened in my case. I designed and built two cars, Kimini and Midlana - do a search here, Google, or check out midlana.com. They were an adventure and challenge to build that I wouldn't trade for anything, leaning all sorts of new things and meeting many interesting people. Anyway, my reasons for no longer posting are a combination of things:

1. When I start a new project, I go in at 110%. When it's done, I start losing interest - I've always been this way. After finishing Kimini, I was already thinking about a mid-engine "Seven", to the point that I lost interest in Kimini, and needed both the money and space, so it was sold, and after Midlana was done, interest waned again for the same reason, but also, others.
2. Local traffic. I built my cars to be driven on the street, not to spend 99% of their life parked on a trailer. Unfortunately, that meant dealing with our Southern California traffic, which of course has become worse over time. Idling from one stoplight to the next felt silly, sitting in a 1,700 lb car with 500 hp, using the clutch a million times.
3. Painting myself into a corner. I wanted the car just the way I wanted it and spent the money to get there. Once finished and on the track, I came to the realization that I was afraid of it, partly for its performance, but mostly for fear of breaking it. There was so much money in it that the worry outweighed the fun I should have been having.
4. Changing car scene. Back when I got into cars, nearly everyone worked on their own cars, which were almost always used to begin with. Track days were fun because anything and everything showed up, from 40 yr old sedans to practically the newest models. Now, it seems like it's only the latter. The last track event I attended had Corvettes, Porsches, Nissans, Subarus, etc, but all were practically new. Additionally, it seemed like the social aspects of the events had shifted. Previously, everyone walked around and talked with others, but now it seems like it's just subgroups of people interested in only their model of car and having no interest in anything else.
5. Tracks are vanishing - or at least they are in SoCal. Autocross is where Locosts excel, yet the venues are vanishing, due to liability and increasing property values. The only recourse is to drive the Locost on the street or track, which leads to #6.
6. OEM performance. It is now easy to buy a mid-priced used performance car that will mop the floor with a Locost, and it doesn't take 10 years to build it, which leads to #7.
7. The tracks around here are fast. if you can't quickly get to >130 mph, you're going to be holding up people. There are not enough tight corners to make up for the terrible aero of Locosts and the fairly low power. The primary advantage of Locost is their weight, but on most tracks, OEM cars solve that with a lot of power and sticky tires.
8. Peoples' shifting interests. The harsh reality is that fewer and fewer people seem interested in building a car from scratch. It a combination of the above, being able to buy something faster, having no track nearby, being more interested in social media, and leads to #9.
9. The canary in the coal mine: kit car shows. Attendance at these, both in the US and UK, is way down. I suspect a combination of all the above is conspiring to make contemplation of a 10-yr project that takes up the garage less and less likely.
10. People - in general - seem less and less mechanically minded. The concept of building a car just doesn't compute.
11. This site: For me, this site hasn't affected any of my decisions - though I did set up my own site to not worry about stuff vanishing. That said, I will admit a feeling that this site doesn't seem to be a priority. It'll go down for days, come back up, people offer to help support the site, and nothing is heard. I get it, everyone's busy with their own lives and website maintenance isn't always at the top of the to-do list. The domain owner is free to run the site as desired, but the lack of interaction does seem to parallel the growing disinterest in the hobby.

[B85]

After reading about this it makes me sad. We all post to get some ataboys and interact with others during the build process. I would ask ALL to keep giving input to help others . For me its about learning and building . I have been apart of this starting with CMC. Think they started the Locost page ? I found the Book in 2002. At the time I was going to build a FFR Cobra and had a 1989 Mustang GT for parts. But after the book I went a different way.

Stay strong and don't let the changing times get to you. (I will not let the OLD MAN in ! )

[KB58]

It makes me sad as well, but count myself fortunate to have both been here during the heyday, and to contribute to many other builds. I realize that this sounds like the hobby is a done deal but it can be retained, but only if people on the sidelines get involved.