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Chassis Choice
pthoma27 - 28/10/02 at 01:16 PM

Crunch time!

Ihave got to commit to a chassis in the next two weeks.

What experience have you got of the Stuart Taylor chassi Vs the Luego racing chassis?


JohnFol - 30/10/02 at 11:26 AM

I am building my own so can't comment directly having not done a liek for like comparison. What I have found is most cars within the formula seem to go for Stuart Taylor. This could be due to sponsorship, but could be due to being a superior chassis . . . .

Sorry this doesn't help much .. .


Fozzie - 30/10/02 at 04:42 PM

Haven't seen a 'Stuart Taylor' myself, I was going to build my own, but after doing the costings opted for a MK Engineering chassis. Couldn't be happier, there are welders in the family (very picky ones they are too!!!!) and they are oohing and aaaring over it, not one critisim out of 'em. (a first). Check out the 'main site' and read up (not the racing section).

Cheers, Fozzie


scott dear - 31/10/02 at 06:41 PM

Hi to you all

I do not post as a rule but luago (Locost LTD) never sent me £500 worth of bits I had paid cash for. So I would give them misssss I have a Stuart Taylor chassis which is ok. I was looking at the 2 Procomp chassis at Mallory If I had my time again I would buy one from them

All the best

Scotty


Steve Bird - 31/10/02 at 07:54 PM

Please explain something.
When people are talking about the best chassis what are they judging it on?
Surely they have to be the same, all built according to the book. So are you talking about quality of welds?
Or maybe I am missing something here. Perhaps they are not built to the exact book spec. In a separate post I questioned the legality of using square tubing instead of round for diagonal bracing, if these small deviations are legal then who decides what can and can't be changed?


scott dear - 31/10/02 at 09:57 PM

Don’t get me wrong I do not claim to be an expert and as I said I am happy enough with my STM chassis. But when I looked at both the Procomp chassis’, they just looked right. All the welding was better than mine and the roll cage was really well made. It looked strong and looked nice to the eye too. The front suspension was very well made and had different bushes to mine. I asked the guy who owned the car why the front suspension was different and he just said ‘so it moves’, which is more than most of the competition’s does. Both the cars I looked at where very tidy cars, all the bits looked like they fitted well. Mind you I don’t know what one costs. Probably too much for me, but you get what you pay for I guess. I heard a couple of people talking to someone else, looking at one of them. And he said that car is just brimming with good ideas and it was. Anyway, as I said be a bit careful with Luego as they are Locost Ltd by another name. So don’t part with your cash until you get your bits.

Scotty

BTW I am building a Locost for hill climbing with a 1700 ford puma engine


D Beddows - 1/11/02 at 02:11 AM

I/we have one of the two Procomp chassis and to be honest (although I'm very biased!) knowing how much care and attention Ivan and Matt put into welding one together no other comercialy produced Locost chassis comes close in my opinion - everything fits properly 1st time eg everything suspensionwise moves up and down just as it should, everything is perfectly square - and the roll cage is a work of art.......but obviously quality comes at a price and as they are so good at what they do they are very busy - perhaps worth a call though.
Advert over! Our first car had a Stuart Taylor chassis, nothing at all wrong with it for the price but it did require a fair amount of work to get the suspension to work properly but I know people who say very good things about the MK chassis as well though. In my opinion there are a couple of things to consider
1. how long has the company been trading? - if you're racing odds are you're going to bend at least a front wishbone at some time or another and they aren't always interchangable between chassis so if the company you bought the chassis from has gone out of business again.........

2. What do they actualy know about racing? - if they haven't been involved in building or driving a championship winning kit type car they may know even less than you do but yet still convince you that you need impressive sounding expensive crap........

No problems on either front with the companies I've mentioned but it's always buyer beware and believe me there are so many 'motorsport suppliers' out there that'll sell you utter cack and tell you that you're a muppet for fitting it wrong when you phone up to complain it's not true! (a special hello to Burtonpower and TAS is due about now )

Dave


Rick - 1/11/02 at 07:40 PM

Hi all, I have to agree with Dave I was at Mallory that Last Sunny Sunday
Just to compare chassis and the only one that looked developed was the Pro Com Chassis.
I did wonder though since the regs say "as book" if it had any change that would make it Illegal, but would imagine that it is fine.
As for what we are looking for in the difference in chassis when they are all supposed to be the same is difficult.

But I can say that when we were Karting all the chassis were supposed to be the same and looked identical but certain makes won a lot more often than others!

And all with regulation engines/ tyres ect.

I certainly didn't notice big differences but PC just looked more set up to race.

Rick


Steve Bird - 2/11/02 at 07:34 AM

So in what areas do these chassis differ from the book in terms of design?

Do you think that someone building a quality chassis to the exact book dimensions is at a disadvantage?


darryl beckwith - 2/11/02 at 04:03 PM

Hello, I am new to posting on this site and you will not hear much from me, but I cannot rest posting when someone mentions the ‘P word’. I have the sister car to Dave (hi Mr Beddows). As Dave said no-one commercially could build a chassis for Locost that would come near the quality of Procomp’s. The reason being that Ivan and Matt are not in it to sell parts and make money. They love motor racing and their main aim is to see their cars winning. In fact I doubt they would sell you one for the road. It is not their thing. They have been involved in racing Westfields for more years than they can remember. They have won 3 kit car championships with Westfields and one with there own car (LA GOLD), and helped me winning last year’s Locost championship. On top of that they have won the Westfield championship as well. But more importantly they are two of the most honest people I have ever met in racing. If you speak to anyone that they have worked for, you will hear the same story. As Dave said advert over.

As for building a car to book you may find a few problems as Ron only copied a Westfield and made the wheel base longer and track narrower. If he had made the track wider and wheel base shorter it would have been a better car. The Procomp chassis is a bit different but well within the rules. When the car first came out it was closely looked at by the scrutineers and deemed to be legible for the series. In fact it probably had too much looking at, which meant some other cars which should have been looked at, never got looked at . With only 2 Procomp chassis in this years championship they won 33% of the races and finished 3rd in the championship. Both my car and Dave’s car did not have the straight line speed of the main competition. If we had, then it could well have been 1st and 2nd (sorry I am back on the advert thing again!) Anyway I hope you all get your cars done for next year. I am one of the Driver Rep’s, so if I can be of any help you can get my phone number from the club or mail me off list. Should you get my answer phone, then please leave a message and I will call you back.



Darryl Beckwith


Steve Bird - 4/11/02 at 05:41 PM

quote:
Originally posted by darryl beckwith
The Procomp chassis is a bit different but well within the rules.


Thanks for the reply Darryl but having never seen the chassis could someone please tell me what is different about it?


darryl beckwith - 4/11/02 at 06:43 PM

Hi Steve

as has already been said, the main difference is the bushing in the suspension and the fact that the chassis is straight from side to side. It was welded together with time and care and not just done in the shortest possible time for the most profit. The main area of contention at the beginning of the year was that you could adjust the camber without disconnecting the top wish bone. If you want more details I would suggest you phone Procomp 0121 350 3258 (between 9/5). www.procomp.co.uk this year all eyes where on cars next year it will be engines

hope this helps

as I said if I can be of any help you can get my number from the club

all the best
Darryl


Visco - 4/11/02 at 06:50 PM

Darryl
When would be best time to call you as I'm seriouly tempted to buy a Pro Comp for joining the series next year. I've been told that the boot is to high also if that makes any sense ??
Regards
Gregg


darryl beckwith - 4/11/02 at 06:53 PM

any time you like you have my number

all the best

Darryl