Hi all,

I am so excited, at the weekend I am going to get the locost out for the very first time! It's almost a rolling chassis, not had a lot of time recently, been busy with my MSc and playing with my new Lotus Elise.

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I will update at the weekend.

Can't wait to see what it looks like on the ground!

Rob

[Edited on 9/12/13 by b14wrc]

good work. how are you gonna package all that as a middy? doesnt look much room!

Nice work !

What are you doing bodywork wise ?

Body is going to be 'naked' carbon, will be making moulds and I'm going to be basing the rear end on my elise for styling, probably take a lift off the back end, a splash mould and then build that around the locost to make a plug to make a Clam shell, and the front will look similar to a normal 7. Some vents in the Bonnet to cool the radiator in the nose. I'll be making side scoops in front of both rear wheels for both the intercooler and engine oil cooler. I will be integrating the fiat coupe rear lights into the rear bumper to show the cars origin which I think is cool. It will have large open sections to let the heat out also.

Chassis will be powdercoated white I think which will contrast with the carbon I reckon. Black pro race 1.2's. Should be good.

The engine goes in.... Just. I am having a headache surrounding the alternator mind! At the moment it doesn't really fit.

Rob

I would really question your inboard upper rear A arm mountings. The rear point appears to be a bolt in cantilever/single sheer relying on only the tube sidewall for load bearing and your forward mount goes to the middle of a long tube rather than to a node. Severe deflection and failure are certain.

Powder coat orange chassis looks good against carbon...

Hi,

Neither of those parts are finished yet umgrybab.

1. The forward mount, the photo is not very clear, but the mount does attach on a 3mm steel plate which is fully welded to two 25mm box section tubes. I am going to fit another couple of tubes in that area, it will integrate with engine mounts which are not installed yet.
2. The rear mount is simply a hole drilled in the tube – not yet in the correct place, note it is only tacked. I will be revising this, probably turn the rose joint through 90 and weld a proper bracket on, think it needs to move outboard by about 5mm on both sides to get my camber settings sorted.

The excitement in getting it down off the table and to simply check the initial positions are 'about right', each arm has some adjustment, but before I weld it all together properly I want to verify it all works roughly the way I think it will.

Surprised you didn't mention the rose joints on the out board end of the lower arm being the wrong way around too. LOL…. I have re-designed the lower attachment, just haven't made the hub brackets yet, but it will allow the outboard end to be turned through 90 degrees.

Once I have had a good test to check my dynamic suspension set up and ride heights to see if they are what I expect they are, and have checked both sides are the same, I'll do the remaining welding and bracing. Getting the engine fitted will be one of the next major jobs.

Rob

[Edited on 10/12/13 by b14wrc]

The orange does look good.

How hard did you find sticking the carbon panel to the inside of the tunnel?

I was thinking i might leave the sides open and just putting a panel on the top.....

http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l603/b14wrc/null-43.jpg

Nice work so far, to get from a wooden mock up to there is a test in itself.

Thanks, still have the wooden mock up. Not got around to breaking it up. Was very useful though to do it that way, reckon it's saved me endless hassle in the long run.

All set for the lift tomorrow.


http://s1126.photobucket.com/user/b14wrc/media/Mobile%20Uploads/4E1BE6A0-03E5-4822-BE0A-D59493BB11BC.jpg.html

http://s1126.photobucket.com/user/b14wrc/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2B8939C8-0B95-4550-844D-D9E538E7CDE3.jpg.html


Rob

Don't like the new photo bucket format!