LocostUSA.com

It's a split-vertically nose with 4" inserts to widen a TTL nose up to 4", I don't have anything to make noses taller. Is there sufficient call to make a TTTTL (Taller Than Taller Than Lotus) kit? I was thinking of making a nose with a combination license mount and air dam that could be adjusted (by sawing and glassing it back together) for height. If there's interest, I'll try to get my fiberglassers back to the negotiating table and back to work, but they want higher wages and shorter hours so...wait for it...they're strikin'.

(I made up that joke all by myself)

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

Oops... lol I misspoke... I meant width...

I ran across a web site a good while back for a 7 built in Australia, a company building them,I don't know if any were sold or if they just build a prototype. It was based off a corvette drive train. bie L1 engine and the rear end and everything.The thing was the size of a Corvette too. (Way big.) Upper parts of the engine were cut through the hood/bonnet. Looked pretty cool but was really large. But hay, who's to say, right?
Mine's a "plus 2" basically and I like the size and my little quad 4. It's scary fast with about 200 HP. 400 or so would just be over kill IMHO.
wayne

on the subject of modular fords, why not design the hood to show the valve covers in cut outs,

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

I have wanted a Seven of some sort since I was a teenager. When I finally got to drive one, I found it was built with a smaller man than myself in mind. I'm 6'2" and the top of the windshield frame was right in my line of sight, my left knee hit the dash with every gearchange and I felt like I was sitting on it rather than in it .

I looked at all the Locost plans I could find and designed a chassis around the mechanicals I wanted to use, expanding everything to suit. The engine is a Lexus V8, the front suspension is Toyota Supra and the rear suspension is Lexus IS200. In some ways it's a long way from the original Seven idea, but there are plenty of simialrities.

I sit right down low in this car and the rear bodywork (which has been trimmed to fit since these photos) is above my shoulders....and I can operate the pedals with ordinary shoes! I will have to make my own nosecone.

I've made a few mistakes along the way and come up against a few problems, but part of the fun with a project like this is figuring out solutions.

Matthew

So you're running an automatic in yours?

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mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

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

No, I'm using the Supra 5-speed (W58) with a custom flywheel and an aftermarket clutch for a Toyota pickup.

looks interesting,

tellus more about it, you can say as much as you like, because sometimes the smallest details will help another builder who is stuck on how to do something,

the body section at the rear, is the whole car like that?

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

hey Jack, workers of the world unite.

_________________
this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

What bell housing?

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mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

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

It's inspired by a one-off that was built in the states in the late 1950's called the Troy (see pic of green car).

I've used 1.25" box section for the main chassis tubes, and 1" for the truangulations. Originially, I used Toyota Supra rear suspension as well, but had to modify it to suit. It go to a point where I had amde so many compromises to use the Supra suspension that I chopped it off and mounted a whole Lexus IS rear subframe. It wasn't an elegant solution, but it solves a lot of problems. The track and stud-patterns etc were all the same. The donor IS also had a torsen LSD, which is a bonus.

The wheels a 16" American racing jobs with tires from a "soft-roader" for the period tall-tired look.

The Lexus V8 motor (1UZ-FE) is a pretty tight fit, but it's light, strong and cheap. A friend is a Lexus V8 guru and he has wired it up to run on the factory computer. It makes a good racket as I haven't made the exhaust system yet!
http://youtu.be/dj8kzcpIALw
The bell housing is an aftermarket item made here in New Zealand.

The rear body section is a fiberglass piece out of molds that the friendly local fiberglass guy had for a 1950's style sportscar. It's supposed to extend out over the wheels, but I chopped those bits off and am about to make sides meet the chassis, so it looks like the Troy.

That would be the X7. The company only built one (I think) although there were one or two unfinished chassis plus various jigs and moulds on eBay about 2 years ago. There's an article about the car here http://autospeed.com.au/cms/title_The-X7-Road-Rocket/A_111102/article.html.

Oh, and while was an LS1 crate motor most of the rest of the running gear came from various Australian GM Holden cars, not Corvette.

Personally, I think it was a big, stupid, lead-tipped arrow, with the potential to be useless for little other than straight-line squirts. The whole point of the Seven is light weight and agility not raw-power. Big V8's are for Hot Rods JMNSHO

Dominic

I thought you'd discovered some secret that no one else knew about to be able to mate the Lexus engine to a manual tranny.

I hadn't realized you were from NZ.

I knew about that bell housing, and apparently it's the only one in the world but stupid expensive over here.

Sigh

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

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

There are a few people who make these bellhousings around the world. Mine came with a donor car (someone's unfinshed Toyota Supra racecar project), but was originally from here: http://a1turbos.co.nz/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=A&Category_Code=1QT

If I was starting from scratch, I would get one of the excellent (and reasonably priced) adaptor plates from a NZ guy called Phil Bradshaw, who is very well-respected in 1UZ circles. It allows you to mate the W55/W57/W58 to the standard 1UZ bellhousing. People hear about them on forums like this one and "Lextreme" and he ships them around the world.

Conversion kit with bellhousing is about $500 in Australia, look up "The Rod Shop" in Castlemaine.



"Wet weight is 870kg, with exactly 470kg on the front axle and 400 on the rear. With a 70kg driver the weight distribution is 50:50.."

At $60,000 are we surprised he only built one and a bit .....