I'll about to order a carbon fibre nose cone from Fluke Motorsport. They have never sold any nose cone to a Locost so they couldn't tell me if I should go with the Caterham nose or the Westfield nose.

Anyone here know if the Caterham or Westifield nose will fit? I want to buy it before I start making the front suspension and so on because if there are slightly differences I can adjust during the build process.

[Edited on 24/1/05 by Protrim]

In my (v. limited) experience, the Caterham nose is too small for a Locost - the Westfield should be a near-perfect fit, due to the remarkable similarity in the chassis (ahem...).

David

So with the Westfield nose I will be able to use it with small mods? I don't want to buy it if it's not for sure that I can fit it.

I think the pre lit west front will fit without any problems, because the locost chassis is basically a pre lit as DJ has already almost said!)

The later nosecone is a bit more complicated....
Rescued attachment Westy Front2.jpg

I had to make secondary frames to carry the nose which also made the ally sides very interesting to make and fit
Rescued attachment WestyAdapt.jpg

If a pre lit fits then surely a cateringvan should fit as the pre lit is a pre lit because it was before the litigation that was brought about because of the similarities.

A bit of a simplistic view but, just musing

My 2nd hand caterham nosecone fitted my locost book chassis just fine! Nothing major needed doing to fit it.

Ah, now I'm worried. Someone says Caterham will not fit, someone says

Is there any way I can measure if either of the types will fit my Locost?

I might be missing the point, but here's what I think...

Get a fiberglass locost nosecone. It will definately fit and you save a few hundred quid at the cost of a few hundred grams. The body looks better all painted anyway imho.

Liam

I will have it in carbon fibre. I'm aiming at 480kg with XE engine and more than 250hp. This will not be any ordinary Locost. I won't quit before the Caterham R500 must eat the dust. So therefore weight is important and carbon fibre is needed.

Sorry - forgot to actually be of any help.

I dont think a caterham nosecone will fit without a bit of fettling. The flange that would sit on the top chassis rails is curved on the caterham nosecone. You might have to cut away some of the inwards facing flange on the nose to allow the sides of the nosecone to pass over the chassis rails. Hope that makes sense.

The westy nose is also likely to have various bits of flange and holes/bulges where you might not want them. But both I think will be the correct width and be able to be fitted with a little work. But do you want to take a jigsaw to your £350 nosecone!

Liam

I guess I might get the Westfield nose cone without any holes. And yes, I'll use a jig saw in my £350 nose cone This is a high cost project anyway The crank cost me £1250 alone...

quote:

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Originally posted by Protrim
I will have it in carbon fibre. I'm aiming at 480kg with XE engine and more than 250hp. This will not be any ordinary Locost. I won't quit before the Caterham R500 must eat the dust. So therefore weight is important and carbon fibre is needed.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Protrim
I guess I might get the Westfield nose cone without any holes. And yes, I'll use a jig saw in my £350 nose cone This is a high cost project anyway The crank cost me £1250 alone...

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What does the fiberglass nose cone for Locost weigh?

I'm 65kg myself The crank will be 13kg when I'm finished. Rear axle has alloy housing, gearbox has alloy housing and dogbox kit, AP Racing brakes where all components weight as low as possible, light weight battery, alloy radiator, light alternator and on and on. Yes, I've thought weight almost every place you can think about weight.

Hmm good question...

2.3 kg give or take a little bit according to my kitchen scales. That's for a Luego locost nosecone. 500g heavier than a fluke motorsport carbon cone at 1.8 kg according to their website.

You could machine that off your key or something But then you could do that AND have a carbon nosecone! They do look nice it has to be said. Go for it if it's worth it to you!

Just out of curiosity, if you're targetting an R500, what made you choose to put loads of work/money into an iron block engine? Oh well. Good luck anyway.

Liam

Because I will use the best engine suited which are a Vauxhall XE. I can get alloy block, but for £2500 I choose to use that money on other weight saving parts. Even with an XE I'll try my best to go below 500kg.

Huh, .5kg was little for £200 extra

In my car one of the heaviest items is the nut holding the wheel...

David

I don't know if others get the same feeling reading this thread but your contradicting yourself!

quote:

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Originally posted by ProtrimI won't quit before the Caterham R500 must eat the dust. So therefore weight is important

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quote:

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Originally posted by Protrim
This is a high cost project anyway The crank cost me £1250 alone...

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quote:

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Originally posted by Protrim
I can get alloy block, but for £2500 I choose to use that money on other weight saving parts

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quote:

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All the best in building your R500 beater but i'm sure that there might of been some engine options better suited from the start to get your bhp per tonne figure if your keen on weight saving!

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A friend of mine was running an XE just above 250bhp in a calibra, then into an Astra mk2.

The collets gave way in the end, apparently the cams put too much stress on them, and them gave up.

Just something to think about when getting this sort of power out of them. Dont leave anything standard lol

The head will be totally renweed with solid cam followers, solid cams, bigger valves with smaller stem diameter, bronze valve steerings and on and on.It won't be many standard parts left in the engine

Yep, thats what he was running... SBD didn't think there would be a problem with the collets. SO it was never brought to anyones attention that they would weaken... Can you actually get upgraded collets ?? Make them out of titanium

They ripped out of the valve grooves

hmmm , crank cost £1250 - did you got to QED ? for a price .

Ill say this again for £1600 , i can have internals for 2.5 and capability for 500 + bhp in my engine .

as long as your happy with what youre doing .

Re: bodywork , if all you interetsted in is getting the weight down , use one layer of gel coat , 1oz CSM / 1 oz woven roving , you will not detect the difference between carbon and GRP .

And dont put any creature comforts in either !!

The crank is a Swindon crank from an ex-rally car. Since I run a tuning shop in Norway I have good prices on most of the things I buy.

Comfort will be zero to none I guess

I'm not accusing you of being a dreamer don't worry!

I'm not sure if what you were trying to say got lost in the translation somewhere.

If keeping the weight down really is the ultimate goal then even the weight saving of making the chassis tubular over box section will have a factor in the performance.

You don't have to win me over to the potential of the xe - I helped billy put together his xe powered luego and have a coscast low milage engine in my workshop ready to be dropped into something

If you want to be really keen then you could do what Swindon did and swap over the inlet and exhaust manifolds like the touring car engines

It will be good to see it developing so keep the pictures of the build up!


Cheers

G

So are you going drag racing? I think the thing that makes a car quick is the whole package...love it when I see a well set up car running rings round over powered ones that are a real pain to drive.

A lot of weight could be saved by plastic surgery.

get your fat wallet out and start using alot of titainium like cateringvan you need to be carefull that you dont spend 20k on a locost that will sell for 6k, no name you see

The car will be used for several purposes. One is to get publisity with the car and therefore
our company will also get publisity. It has also been a dream for a long time to build something
unique, something for my self and something extreme without costing several 10.000s of pounds.

It will also be used for drag racing, but it will be built for circle track use. I could maybe get better
drag times by building it for drag use, but that's not the primary use so I'll sacrifice some good times on
the drag racing to get better circle track handling.

So, I build it mostly for use on open track days, but of course, I will drive the car itself till and from
the tracks. So it will also be a street car to use on meetings and tracks and on nice sunny summerdays.
I'm really looking forward to drive faster with my £30.000 Locost than others do with their £60.000 Supra or what ever.

Plastic surgery? I'm only 65kg my self so I don't think I should lose more weight

My wallet aren't so fat that I can use titanium for everything. My exhaust system will though be in inconel, that
is an extremely expensive steel.

Anyway, I think with £30.000 my car is ready to run. And then the engine has £10.000 alone

Sell it for £6? I won't sell this car for any price below building-price before the option is to live on the street

The reason that I choose to afford this is because I still live at home (in age of 22). I have my full time job pluss some other income. I choose to use as near as all I got on my cars (also building Vectra Cavalier 4x4 with 550hp) than spending them elsewhere. It's only a question of priority. Someone travels the world, I build my cars.

I am building an XE powered seven, and already race an XE powered autograss car. Ben Copeland was dead right in that you have to be careful with things as simple as the collets (he knew you were changing the rest, but collets can be a problem!)

Also, if you want to save that much weight, and want plenty of power, just stick a powertec V8 in it!!! yes, it's £22,000, but it's lighter than an alloy block XE and makes nearly 400hp!!!

If that's a bit pricey, then speak to TTS (Towcester Tuning Services) in the UK about building a 1600cc Suzuki Hyabusa engine. It WILL be cheaper than the XE and will produce 250hp for 1/2 the weight when the gearbox is included!

I am using an XE because it generates 200hp for very little financial input. There are much cheaper ways to a lighter 250hp!!

Yes, I know there might be other engines that would be better suited, but XE has always been the engine for my Locost. I'm a Vauxhall fan myself and therefore I will build it with XE. Sadly enough, I'll be using a rear axle and gearbox housing based out of a stock Volvo