Hi,
Finally (after two years planning/thinking) I am getting started on my Locost, although I'm in South Africa being a Lancashire lad up until 9 years ago I hope I'm welcome here...
Out here in SA the Pinto 1600 never really made it so we have a lot of old Sierra's fitted with the 1600 crossflow, which seems a nice donor option, having read lots about Live/DeDion/IRS I have decided to go for the IRS option, does anyone know where to obtained dimension information for the Sierra IRS parts, diff, shafts etc.
I've seen quite a few drawings for an IRS Locost, but I want to feed some of these into Autocad and see how the bits fit.

Thanks in advance

Brad

Strange old world. I lived in Glenvista 11 +- years ago. Still got family there (good place for em) Worked for XPANDA Burglar bars URGH!! did a roaring trade trying to keep the havenots from redistribution of wealth.
Hope we can help you out particlary since I have built on both sides of the world.
Kent is good cheap as chips in SA.
Live axles very available and plentyful in Africa
Cortina Bakkie would be good for front susy uprights.

Strange as it may be I found it easier to get engineering stuff in JHB than in Scotland. Maggie saw to the fact that everything is 3 days mister. The net makes it easy for SA builders to order stuff. Birkin are taking the p8888ss considering the rand pound exchange rate. When the first sold here the car cost fully built up five thousand pounds+- less engine and spax. Now they ask catervan prices. A pal in Durbs tells me that they dont even sell to the local market unless you pay in dollars.
So as they say welcome to mad house.

Now down to benrose to get the steel!!!

Yep small world with this internet, my Bro lives in Alberton, not too far from GlenVista, I'm 'up north' in Randburg.
Yes to your first two points although the Cortina uprights are becoming difficult to obtain, with No MOT here cortinas tend to carry on running until they simply sink in some mud at the side of the road...
The Birken kit here in SA is priced at 115,000 rand for a rolling chassis, works out at about 9,600 UK pounds...
Caterham and Westfield are now represented here, and their prices are even more.
The GTS from Darren looks pretty good, I've been conversing with him recently, however I do feel a need for an IRS, despite all the discussions the DeDion does seem a more practical option, the IRS seems to have an attraction to me..
The Sierra donor is sat in the drive, just got a couple of 'house' jobs to finish off and then it's all systems go...

Cheers

Hi Brad,

Since browsing thro the CapeAds I'm also thinking of using a Sierra or Cortina as a donor car. Pleeze keep us up to date on your progress as I definitely would learn a lot from your experience.

Regards.

Well "cassidym" the Sierra's awaiting it's demise, or should that be resurrection, and after reading loads of stuff on the Internet I've decided the De Dion is the way to go, just got the garage to clear and away we go....
I'm decided on the GTS but not too sure yet whether to go for the full kit (higher bonnet to take the OHC) or the 'book' locost but with Darrens DeDion install, although either way I want to stretch the width as much as possible to make things a little more comfortable.

PS I've created a Yahoo Group Locost_SA, hopefully us SA guys can join this and learn from each other, although I still think this site is better, I will use both

Much better traffic and response on this site. There are a couple of guys, 1 here in Cape Town and 2 in Oudtshoorn who are also currently building, but it seems here in SA the guys are not communicating much.

Pass as much info as you can - very keen to learn from you - thanx.