Board logo

MGF as a donor for a Locost
voucht - 29/1/24 at 06:19 PM

Hello everyone,

What do you guys think of an MGF as a donor for a Locost (Ron Champion) front end: front uprights, steering rack, steering column, and why not brake discs and calipers.

Plenty of cheap parts or scrap cars available here.

All thoughts and comments are welcome.

Thank you.

Ugg10 - 29/1/24 at 08:20 PM

The Locost is a longitudinal front mid engine with rear wheel drive, the mgf is transverse mid engine and rear wheel drive.

If you search for the Jeremy Philips J15 car he made an mgf single donor kit car quite a while ago that looked a bit like the Fury/Stylus/Phoenix design cars.

[Edited on 29/1/24 by Ugg10]

voucht - 29/1/24 at 09:04 PM

Thank you for your reply.

quote:
Originally posted by Ugg10
The Locost is a longitudinal front mid engine with rear wheel drive, the mgr is transverse mid engine and rear wheel drive.


Yes, I know that. That is the reason why I was just talking about the front end parts only (again: front uprights, steering rack, steering column).

My question was more: are the size, dimensions, etc. of these parts from the MGF a good match for the Locost (Cortina and Escort MK1/2 parts are just impossible to find now here).

Thanks.

[Edited on 29/1/24 by voucht]

Mr Whippy - 30/1/24 at 07:39 AM

I'd have thought parts availability in the future would be not as good as using an MX5 due to far less of them being produced. Ideally you want a one donor car for long term ownership rather than a mix'n'match car.

Although I have never bought one due the bad rust problems, I'd have thought an MX5 would be the ideal sports car to own, before it dissolves like an Alka-Seltzer.

JC - 30/1/24 at 07:43 AM

When I built my mid-engined kit, I originally planned on Metro (same as MGF) uprights etc.
You will need a tapered bush to mate with the top ball joint - at the time I got some from the people that made wishbones for the GTM Libra. The MGF upright also has the stub of the driveshaft in the upright as it is the same upright as the rear.
The MGF has an odd PCD too 95.7 or something similar so matching a rear axle with the same PCD will be tricky, or you will need adapters - more unstrung weight!

I would either build a mid engined car based entirely on MGF, or use MX5/miata parts - just as cheap and plentiful and come as a complete package of parts that suit a Locost!