hi all, i am in the middle of planning a locost and have loads of questions lol found a nice fella thats given me loads of ideas about my chassis but the engine i ely cant decide on was going to go down the route of a zetec till someone said about a bike engine as i am tight for build space and being bike crazy it defo sounds good.
whats the most common engine to use, i was thinking a early r1 as its on carbs and cheep but then i keep tinking about zx12 or bussa just for the simple fact i wanna race the car and u can NEVER have to much power lol. how do i go about the running gear issue axel and prop, and wtf about reverse lol? i am new to car building so if i ask stupid questions i am sorry

depends on your preferences

I'm running a carb R1
3.38 ford diff and quaife reverse.

Purely for race and not road i guess you could have whatever you wanted but nfor road you need IVA and a reverse.

3.14 diff will give more top end speed i'm told.

zx12 i've found to be expensive as not been around as long as R1

busa seems to be 2nd choice for most but the folks will advise more

If you want to race, then surely you need to decide which class/championship you want to race in, which will then determine your engine choices. No point sticking a turbo 'busa in there if there isn't a matching class.

if i do race it will be in the motoersport news champ as i got a few mates that r in it and there is a class and race for pretty much anything from a mini to a jade lol

As above.

Have a good look into what class(es) you want to compete in...

for eg. RGB has three classes (A, B & C) and it gets costlier the faster you want to go...

ATB

As gingerprince says if you want to race the car you need to decide which race series you wish to enter. Then look up the regs on the relevant website.
Many aspects of you design will be dictated by what is allowed or disallowed.
RGB require MOT compliance IIRC. Others do not.
Wheel and tyre sizes are often fixed.
Too much to go into really.......
If it's just for trackdays then it's entirely up to you.
Look back in the BEC forum. This subject has been covered a thousand times.
Go to a few race meetings and talk to the drivers. They're mostly helpful.
Geoff.

Better still get yourself to Stoneleigh Bank holiday weekend answers to all your questions there.
Which bike engine you WILL decide on depends on your budget.
Start at £500 for a Fireblade kit, £5000 Turbo/Busa

[Edited on 19/4/09 by ReMan]

Have a read of our build and rebuild diary. Should give you some idea of how it all goes together and also have a look at some of the videos in the Miscellaneous section.

Phil