LocostUSA.com

A heck of an entertaining competition is coming up, click http://escapefromberkeley.com for info. It's a science fiction themed time/distance rally for alternate fuel vehicles (",,,the year is 2020, petroleum is a controlled substance...") from Berkeley to Las Vegas. I'll be converting KAR 12K (my latest Kubota Locost) to straight veggie oil next week. Meanwhile, this week, we're painting it up in green and yellow a la Patric McGoohan's Lotus Seven in The Prisoner. Now all I have to do is find a black blazer with white piping, and I'm good to go.

It ought to be fun. If you're local, you should at least come to the sendoff party Saturday night.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and owner/operator of http://www.kineticvehicles.com

Sounds like a hoot Jack. Post plenty of pics! What is this KAR you speak of? How does it differ from Max. (other than running on SVO) *edit*-Gotcha, I found the other post.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Excellent! Wish I was there... and good luck!

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My Mazda BP-powered Triumph Spitfire project: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1976-triumph-spitfire-50-v8-miata-18/54640/page1/

Entirely too cool, Jack!

-dave

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...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

And we're off--leaving numerous unfilled obligations, such as. my 2007 income tax filing. But we're rolling toward Bekeley.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and owner/operator of http://www.kineticvehicles.com

whip em!!!

Way to go Jack!

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Thanks Chet. Yeah, woohoo! We won it. And came home with a check for five grand. Who would have thought that racing these things would be more lucrative than building parts for them. When I do get around to my income tax, I can list my profession as Race Car Driver.

It was a rally, of course, since the highway departments of both states forbid racing--or even speeding--in organized events on public roads, and this event was surprisingly high profile. My cell phone messages have a plethora of interview requests (one's a guy from the BBC, the rest are North America). We were told the target speed formula just before they dropped the flag: the speed limilt plus 10% for scavenging (that is, if the speed limit was 60 any the distance to the next checpoint was 60 miles, a perfect arrival time would be 1:06; an hour for the drive and 6 minutes for finding fuel. So in practice, yeah, this was a race. There was a truck there that could (and did) go 90 mph on the steep downhill straights and a Mercedes sedan that moved out all right, but there were a bunch of twisty mountain roads and man (he said humbly), we smoked the competition in the twisties.

I'm not home yet and I'll tell you more when I get back and get a chance. For now, I think the best coverage was the New York Times, which has a couple stories and a nice slide show on their web site. Here's some links.

This is their story today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/us/15 ... ref=slogin

This is the one that came out Sunday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/13eco.html

And here are a couple of photos. The latter link is in a slide show of all the competitors (those that started, at least). It starts in the beginning since only a couple shots have locost content, but it's worth clicking through. A street legal flaming snail may be off topic, but hey, how often do you see them out here in the sticks:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/ ... ready.html

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/1 ... ECO_8.html

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Locost builder and adventurer, and owner/operator of http://www.kineticvehicles.com

woooo

congratulations jack and team!

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Georgia Tech
Ride and Handling Engineer for a major car company
Locost finished - book frame, IRS, '84 celica GTS donor, '99 tacoma 2rz motor with a turbo, megasquirt DIYPNP. Getting rebuilt with new IRS, F20C
"the all-consuming time-sucking car, which I really enjoy working on" -KB

Congrats Jack. How about a spec sheet, R&T style, with gearing, curb weight, accel, mpg, driving impressions, etc? Were you guys limited to no less than 4 wheels?

You ROCK, Jack!

-dave

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...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Very Awesome

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70 mpg, man, imagine how good it could be in something streamlined!

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Midlana book: Build this mid-engine Locost!, http://midlana.com/stuff/book/
Kimini book: Designing mid-engine cars using FWD drivetrains, http://www.kimini.com/book_info/

I love Jack's quote from the Sunday NY Times:

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Awesome - congrats on the win.