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Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
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PostPosted: March 18, 2018, 4:48 pm 
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Location: Oregon, usually
RichardSIA wrote:
Single seat street cars are legal in Nevada so long as they are light enough. :)
I don't know anywhere where the DMV mandates two or more seats for a street car.
RichardSIA wrote:
There is a local guy driving a bright yellow Sprint Car as a daily commuter when the weather is decent. :shock:
Wow. I'll bet he gets more attention with that than us guys get with our Locosts.
RichardSIA wrote:
I hope to catch up with him...
Good luck with that. Some of those Sprint Cars are pretty fast. Even the yellow ones.

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PostPosted: March 18, 2018, 5:09 pm 
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Looks like a fun project. I think the build begs for a high revving bike engine with sequential box.

Jack: Have you ever seen a slow Sprint car (that wasn't broken)? :mrgreen: Maybe 20yrs ago I saw a wingless Sprint car driving down the road in SoCal. Had plates and some lights, and non-staggered tires.

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PostPosted: March 18, 2018, 5:21 pm 
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A friend was looking at the body and thinks that a Subaru WRX engine/transaxle would be cool since it’s a “flat” motor like the original. If the body is a 2/3 copy, why shouldn’t the engine be as well. Not bad thinking, but doubtful the packaging of the motor/trans will fit even with all of the ancillary and unnecessary “stuff” stripped off of it. It does deserve a look regardless.

I need to figure out front and rear spindles/hubs. Anybody have a racing derived set laying around? Something like older formula car stuff?

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PostPosted: March 18, 2018, 5:36 pm 
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Yeah, flat engine would be neat too. Maybe a Goldwing motor?

Cheers.

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PostPosted: March 19, 2018, 3:56 am 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
C10CoryM wrote:
Yeah, flat engine would be neat too. Maybe a Goldwing motor?

Cheers.

Say, now THAT'S a great idea!! GW motors are light, torquey as heck, essentially bulletproof, available in 1000, 1100, 1200, 1500, and 1800 cc (the latter are 6-cylinder Boxer motors) variants, are liquid cooled, have inline shaft-drive & sequential 5-speed transmissions already. Most of the 6-cylinder motors (GL1500 and GL1800) even have reverse!!

I have a GL1500 and trust me, it has serious grunt. With the two of us on it, and the bike fully loaded for travel, it's around 1100-1200 lbs., and it's still plenty fast. In bone-stock form, it has 100 bhp & 110 lbs/ft of torque (the GL1800 has 118 bhp & 123 lbs/ft of torque). The GL1500's are carbureted, so will run without an ECU, right out of the box. They're very compact motors, and very short top-to-bottom, which would be a boon in a small car like that.

Just as an example, here's a link to a complete GL1500 engine, once of the most expensive ones I found, for $1095, with just under 60K miles (bear in mind these engines normally go 1/2 a million miles without anything more than minor service), dyno-tested & guaranteed. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1993-2000-Hond ... SwmeRZ6BfK

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PostPosted: March 19, 2018, 7:14 am 
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[quote="w650gb500"]

That is what I call an exciting project. I envy you.
Which power plant (other than a 1000cc bike engine and chain) are you contemplating for this thing?


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PostPosted: March 19, 2018, 11:23 am 
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I just dropped the body off at the shop, put the 3 pieces together and took some rough measurements.

Overall length w/o the wing 129”.
Overall width 55”.
Wheelbase 80-81”.
Height 33.5”.
Bulkhead to rear axle centerline 34”.

I believe that the measurement from where the rear bulkhead/firewall will be to the rear axle centerline is going to be my biggest issue. More than likely the only way to get an engine and drive in there is going to be a short chain from the 4-cylinder bike motor to a chain drive differential. I don’t think the Goldwing motor will work as there just isn’t enough space to put the motor, then a driveshaft and a differential.

I’m headed out for a few weeks on business, so it will just be sitting in the shop, but I will look forward to continuing to hear all of your thoughts and ideas on the different directions where this build could be headed.

Thanks for you input so far and keep it coming............

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PostPosted: March 19, 2018, 11:47 am 
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So how big are the three-cylinder Suzuki car engines/trans?
There was even a turbo version.

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PostPosted: March 19, 2018, 1:26 pm 
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I forgot these. The rear wing and mount that was included with the body extends 16-18” beyond the back edge of the tail section. This makes the overall length of the body with the wing 144” or 12’ long for those who don’t want to do the math!


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PostPosted: March 19, 2018, 1:33 pm 
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Sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight and after enduring the TSA bull$hit, I did some comparing.

The original 962 was 188” in length, 109” wheelbase and 78” wide. If you compare those measurements to mine, 188/144, 109/80 and 70/55 and do the math, my body is a 73.33% copy of a “real 962”. So I guess that I’ll just say it’s a 3/4 scale copy. It seems smaller than that but the numbers don’t lie(as long as my math is correct). It might eventually be called as the 721.5(3/4 of 962).

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PostPosted: March 19, 2018, 1:45 pm 
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A friend just called and told me that it’s also a copy of the Porsche 956. Well, they both look alike to me anyway. Since it’s a 3/4 scale copy, 75% of 956 is 717 which is a nice round number. I think it should be called the 717(my area code growing up too)!

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PostPosted: March 19, 2018, 10:15 pm 
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I wonder how the size compares to some of Dennis Palatov's creations over at www.dpcars.net and www.palatov.com

From his D1:

"Wheelbase: 80.5"

Length: 113"

Width: 68"

Height: 39" (top of rollbar)

Ground Clearance: 1.5"

Drivetrain: proprietary AWD system with chain drive and limited slip differentials

Chassis: chromoly tube frame with composite pilot pod, quick-change bodywork

Wheels: 13x8 Tires: 20x8-13 race slicks

Engine: Custom 3,000cc V8, 430hp @10,000 RPM, 260 lb-ft @6500 RPM

Gearbox: Hewland 5-speed sequential with reverse, paddle shift

Weight: 1,100lb

Power/weight: ~1,000 hp/metric ton (~2.2 lb/hp)"

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PostPosted: March 20, 2018, 1:28 am 
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Several years ago in the San Jose CA area I met a guy with the PERFECT engine, trans, and suspension for your body.
He had the remains of a Suzuki? two-stroke mini-car he had brought back from Japan prior to launching it off Mulholland drive.
Drivetrain was tiny but makes surprising power and revved like crazy.
Not sure if you could find something similar today due to Japans laws that force most cars to be scrapped when only a couple of years old?
I think they still make some micro cars that have a lot of potential if you remove them from Japan and toss the items limiting their top speed. :twisted:

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PostPosted: March 20, 2018, 3:41 am 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
I think those are called "Kei Cars" in Japan. They're limited to 660 cc engines, with max 60 bhp or so. There are apparently some turbo versions with waaaay more hp available, too.

Here's an article about them:

https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/jap ... tes-264689

I see there are several US importers. I expect they'd be happy to source a power plant for you.

If I recall correctly, the reason these (and other Japan home-market) used cars are so phenomenally cheap is because of their car loan system. I don't really understand it, but apparently you can buy a brand new $50,000 car for $25,000 with their loan system. As a result, many people only keep their cars a couple of years, then upgrade to the newest model. As a result, there are huge numbers of used cars (many with very low mileage & most of the warranty remaining), and prices are ridiculously cheap.

I don't know if it's true anymore, but there also used to be very high costs with re-inspecting cars after moderate-to-major body repairs, to the extent that cars were routinely scrapped with what would, here, be considered minor repairs. As a result, at least in the past, nearly-new, low mileage complete power plants were available for very little money. I actually considered a couple of Toyota DOHC engines for my Locost. They were running in the area of $300-$400 for engine, trans, and all accouterments attached. Mind you, I haven't looked for those for several years now.

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PostPosted: March 20, 2018, 3:58 am 
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As I recall the one the guy launched off Mulholland looked like a miniature SAAB Sonnet or Z car but rear engine.
Do not recall the exact displacement but I think it did better than 60 HP.
Had to be about thirty years ago so it was not any recent version and may have been larger.
I forget for certain but I think it was a three cylinder engine, similar to MC engines but with a working reverse and output to two axles.

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