LocostUSA.com

Hello, I'm Mike.

I'm 18 and go to a community college. I grew up on Legos but my parents forbade me to play with them by the time I was in 5th grade (legos are amazing, don't judge me) because my room was never clean. I moved on to computers because I like building things and because they were, intellectually, a challenge. I'm pretty satisfied that I can fix any computer now so I need to move on to more challenging pursuits.

A car, why not? It would be rewarding and time consuming. I go to community college so I have oodles of spare time and I like cars! What a perfect combination.

In terms of anything involving cash, I love spending as little of it as possible and still end up with "adequate." My current Locost choices reflect that. I have a free engine from a power boat (3.7 liter inline 4) and free rims from a C4 corvette (19 inches!!?) donated to me even if they're completely impractical. If it doesn't need to be purchased, it will be used over something that does.

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New build log- take a look!

Hey Mike welcome. What do you want to study? If you like Legos, and sorry about that thing with your parents, this place is for you and maybe a career in engineering or computers.

You can learn programming and build things inside computers forever...

People have given you some free things, but they may be buying you a lot of time, effort and money too. I don't think we're starting is likely to work. Not impossible, but price some tires for those wheels. For that kind of money, I think you could buy an entire car that would be a more suitable donor. You have the time to strip it and sell the parts. Also the time to look for the donor for awhile. Your campus parking lot may be a good place to start and your professors and the people they know.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

It's probably just me, but this thread always sounds like the beginning of a AA meeting?

"Hi, I'm Ditzo Bonzo and I'm a Locoster. I've tried, but I just can't quit.

My wife has left me, I have no money left to pay for my house, my kids don't know who I am and I have no social life.

I have been dry for 12 minutes and 13 seconds so far. But I think that's cause I stopped to eat dinner and go to the pot."

Hello all, I have been on here for quite awhile and did not see this so here goes.
I live in ST Thomas Ontario, Canada
Male 44 years old going on 12. Happily married since 93 with 2 boys 13 and 10.
I worked at the local ford plant doing I.T. and taking care of anything that was hooked up to the network and involved in the automation. I now work for a plastic and metal marking company out of Toronto which also makes and maintains mass mailing, creditcard makers ect. So I have been doing alot of traveling to do so.
I am 5 years into my build and would have been done probably 2 years ago if I could ever make up my mind of what it should look like when I am done.

I also just noticed this...right..about me..

Name is Mark, I am 30 years old and I live in lakeland florida, basicly in center of the state.
I am into mazdas mostly these days, i have a 1990 miata that i drive daily and a 1985 RX7 with alot more power than required that i get to drive for short periods in between breaking it
I have worked on a variety of project cars, with odd swaps, like 1974 Porsche 911 with turbocharged 13b rotary, around 600 horsies on that one, made alot of parts for my friends mercruiser powered drag car(also the owner of the porsche) that was around 800 horse when the project was um...cancelled.. done a ton of work for the local rotary engine population, also did machine prep on Indio Racings 7 sec 13b powered drag car before i stopped doing outside work.
Im currently installing a new 60-1 tubonetics turbo along with the new tec3r electromotive unit i bought into the rx7 to replace the inferior SDS unit that keeps killing me engine
I do machine work for a living, I work in a shop where we make alot of things for the theme parks around here as well as aerospace work, so we get a variety of challenges come through the shop.
that tends to make me a bit lazy on projects though...since i work with metal daily it doesnt have much thrill to me, i just wanna drive the dam thing hehe
I have always loved the sevens but just cant seem to get started on one, im working to change that...step 1 is finish rx7...then figure out step 2 hehe

i really enjoy reading the info on this site, by the time i got done reading dhempy's build log i was nearly in tears

feel free to ask ?s

Yes, I've made a few April pilgrimages to Lakeland! Any chance you know Steve Bensinger in South Lakeland? He mentioned meeting a local Locost builder.


Please accept my most sincere apologies.

-dave "no dogs were harmed in the filming of this blog. much." hempy

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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]

no i havent met him, and im not building a locost yet so it wouldnt be me, however i have seen a blue and yellow seven running around a few times but have never gotten the chance to meet the owner.

I am Mark, a 27 year old Electrical Engineer from North Dallas.

Recently, during the ice storm we had in Dallas at the beginning of February I hit some ice with my Miata, slid out, and hit a phone pole. We will be using the insurance money as a home down payment instead of a new car for me. We will simply have to share my Wife's Honda, and occasionally use my Kawasaki Ninja 250R whenever we can't share. We are going for the home because we are expecting a child in late October/early November. This is all relevant to me being here because I have decided to go for broke and build a Locost for my next car.

My plans for the car are right now extremely nebulous. I was originally thinking of buying a Coveland bare frame with no body panels. However, browsing the forums have convinced me that it may not be the best idea to do business with them. However, full kits from the likes of Westfield, Leitch, or Bruton are more than I am willing to spend. So the only option that leaves me is to build my own frame. The problem there is I have never so much as touched a welder before. I suspect then that my only hope is to buy a decent welder, band saw, some square metal pipe, and have at it. Start off small with just welding two pieces of metal together and having a friend inspect, and work up from there one step at a time.

More long term, the overall philosophy of this is: "It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to work". To that end, I won't be doing anything fancy at all. For the engine, I am thinking Mazda rotary. That would be the only "odd" thing about it, and from what I have read it is not too unusual. I definitely think going with a live axle rear end would be in keeping with the simple approach. For the rest, right now I have no clue. I just know that I don't want my keep it simple approach to lead me to make a Locost strictly by the book.

Until we get our house and a garage, I really can't do anything. So I think I will start in the CAD section here. I guess that is longer than the normal introduction. Don't be surprised if I pop in a thread now and ask a question or two.

Welcome, Mark! Sounds like you've got a good plan. I agree with all your assessments/assumptions.

The only thing I would suggest is skip the CAD work if you're doing a pretty traditional build. There's no need for it...you've got hundreds of examples to copy, and all the problems have already been solved by someone else. The fine details often won't reveal themselves in CAD, anyway.

If you're a pro CAD jock, this may not apply so much, but even then I'd still send you to the garage before the keyboard to get your build done sooner.

Hop to it,
-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]

Well, it's just that without a garage until August what else will I do? I downloaded the McSorley +442 plans to my hard drive. I guess I could stare at them for the next 5 months, which isn't such a bad idea I suppose.

Until then, study the plans until I know them by heart, read through the forums, and poke around with CAD.

Oh yeah, and move from the Apartment to House (when we move wife will be about 6 months along, I think I will be doing all the work), get the financial stuff taken care of for the house, and get ready for the new arrival. Maybe I won't get much time to poke around CAD afterall.

My name is Ross and I went to school at UW-Madison for Mechanical Engineering. I have been infatuated with all things mechanical for as long as I can remember and since high school/college I started getting into cars. My dad had a big influence in me becoming an engineer. He always had different mud trucks and snowmobiles and bikes, but never any fun cars though. I guess that’s why I am looking at cars now. I’ve owned a couple of fun cars (Mk1 MR2 supercharged, ’91 Jetta GLI, and now my twin turbo, 6sp Audi A6.) I’ve only done minor wrenching and have never really built anything ‘by hand’ yet, except for summer help jobs in manufacturing. I’ve been on the forum for a couple years now and I apologize for all of it, since most the time that I am on the forum is when its slow at work and I’ve probably been drinking way to much coffee... I don’t mean to offend.

I don’t have any competitive automotive experience and I’m hoping to get my feet wet sometime soon... autox maybe? I’ve been tossing around the idea of getting a miata for a fair weather car and then as a donor. I only have a single car garage and with the current economy I don’t know if I want to take the plunge and start building an additional garage. I am single so I probably should try to get some of this out of the way before “life gets in the way”.

It’s good to know that I have two locosters’ builds literally a couple houses away and hopefully get a chance to meet them in person soon. Most of my local friends look at me funny when I mention miatas so it’ll be nice to meet people with a closer view point to my own of what a fun car is supposed to be.

Hello all, my name is Dan, I'm 34 years old and live in Morgantown, PA. I'm married with 2 kids (a 4 yr old and a 5 month old). I have a piece of paper that says I'm a Mechanical Engineer but I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. I'm currently a lab manager of a engine stand dyno lab where we age catalytic converters for the purpose of performance evaluations either in our lab or on a vehicle in the chassis dyno lab next door.

I couldn't bring myself to buy another motorcycle after I had kids and got fed up with the cost of most of the "fun" cars that I could actually fit in (6'9" and all legs). So I decided to put my money where my mouth is and design/build my own "cheap" source of fun. I poured over a lot of different ideas and layouts (lotus 7, mid-engined scratch design, 3-wheeler, etc.) finally locked into a 3-wheeler since it was closer to my ideal which were my days on 2 wheels. We'll see if I made the right choice...

Between work and kids I don't have a lot of time in the garage so I've been doing as much work as I can over lunch in our machine shop at work. I'm always amazed at the pace at which some people are able to build things on this site but I'm just resigning myself that mine will be done when it's done. Thank you to everyone for the vast amount of information and encouragement this site provides.

Dan

Hello,
my name is Vincent, I am 19 years old and I am French.

I am nowadays in second year of bts industrialization of the mechanical products.
I fell on this forum incidentally, but it has agreeable air.

I am soon going to launch in thanks for as quickly as possible more quickly chassis, but to pour it instant me has it the research of plan of any type to serve me of example.

I want to make a tubular chassis for MINI Austin with a big motor and the whole in propulsion.
(if you possedez plans and which you like to help me, you can send them to me by private message)

I thank everything beforehand those who will help me.

Warmly Vincent

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bientôt un kart a moteur de moto

Welcome Vincent. Have you read Kurt's book?
http://www.lulu.com/content/784994

It chronicles the execution of a plan much like your own.

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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.

Well I suppose I should say hello

I'm a 20 year old college student in Denver, I've always wanted a big car project like this, and hey, why not? (The answer to most of lifes questions).

I hope to use a X4STI or Thunderbird Turbocoupe, not sure of what frame, I imagine the book frame will work since that's the donor car that's recommended for it (I don't have 'the book' yet, on order w/ Amazon). But I hope to have a 4 cylinder turbocharged 7 with full disc brakes, independent rear suspension, and a pushrod suspension. Of course I say that now, if I even ever start building it, I'm sure I"ll change my mind 5 times over haha.

Anyways, thanks for the great site, I plan on lurking for quite a while!

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Build Log (not much there yet): http://lotus.reddeth.com
442e frame, 3.4l Camaro donor